Just to confirm - you donât have to upgrade from Publisher to Business - you just need to slide the slider up for number of members. (Iâve seen people make that mistake before.)
You could also consider another hosting provider - Magic Pages is probably the highest reputation/best established of the bunch, and I think Synaps is also worth a look. (And theyâre run by community members @jannis and @muratcorlu .
1- I self host, but Iâve been noodling around with Linux servers for decades, and even then, sometimes I spend a couple hours stuck and frustrated, which offsets any savings.
2- I generally think that if you want to hire out the setup, thatâs probably a sign that you should probably be looking at a less expensive managed host instead. Having your own VPS is an ongoing maintenance job, not something you hire someone for once.
3- Whatever your plan is, youâre going to want to ask your current host, which Iâm assuming is Ghost Pro (domains ending in .ghost.io) for an sql dump, which you can import into your own new hosting, or ask your new host to do so. Thatâs the least lossy way to move servers. You can also export your members and export your content, but youâll lose comments, member history, etc etc. The SQL dump is the way to go.
4- Ghost is NOT like some other platforms, where the âcloudâ/paid version is more feature rich. Self hosted is not throttled in terms of members, newsletters, etc, so in some ways itâs actually better. HOWEVER, you should be aware that youâll need to provide your own mailgun account** (if sending a newsletter), youâll need to provide SOME method of sending outbound transactional email (which can also be mailgun). Ghostâs analytics requires Tinybird in a Docker container. (You could also integrate something else, and skip the pretty Ghost dashboard.) ActivityPub (ânetworkâ tab) can be pointed at Ghostâs own instance at ap.ghost.org (with limits and unclear future migration strategy), or you can stand up your own, as long as youâre using the Docker install method. Oh, and if you want built-in image editing, youâll need a Pintura license. [Iâm personally skipping that- I can crop my images just fine before uplaoding.]
**Dig around on the forum - thereâs a âhiddenâ âflexâ option for Mailgun that is super cheap for a few thousand emails a month. Last time I looked, the trick was to sign up for a trial of their $35/month plan and then immediately cancel, at which point theyâd offer it.
From what youâve said, I think you might well be happier in managed hosting, but if you decide you want to move to a VPS, hereâs two options at Hostinger, where I have had my VPS server for the last three years:
Hostinger - Bring Your Idea Online With a Website | Hostinger - Bring Your Idea Online With a Website [First one is one year commitment, second is two. Note that they renew at a higher price after that.]
(These are affiliate links, because I can generate them to include 20% discount compared to non-affiliate links. And because hey, someoneâs got to keep the lights on around here. Tip: If you commit for two years instead of one you get an even lower price and keep it longer.)