I'm trying to gauge how much it would cost to run a basic photo album website where each user can upload a designated number of photos, say 25, for free. We'd be using R2 storage to allow for free egress. Each photo will be capped at 10MB or less. We'll also have our server handle image compression and convert photos to WebP format to save on storage space.
For the hosting setup, I'm considering using a Digital Ocean droplet for the frontend, backend, and database, although I'm not sure if we'd need one or two droplets. User authentication will be included, which means we'll also incur costs for sending emails for things like password resets.
So, what are the hosting costs looking like, especially with an anticipated user base of around 10,000? We expect that the vast majority of users will just casually view the album, so realistically, we might only see around 100 daily visitors or less.
4 Answers
You’ve laid out your services pretty clearly; you can look up their pricing online. For your Digital Ocean drops, it's likely you’d only need one for everything—frontend, backend, and database. Maybe two drops if you want the second one dedicated to processing the image compression queue.
I’m in a similar boat for my app, utilizing R2 for free egress and possibly a couple of droplets for my frontend/backend/database. I’m also contemplating using managed PostgreSQL instead. I’m aiming to keep costs under $50 a month at launch, which would include any added expenses like CDN services. If I can hit 10k users, I'm hopeful some will convert to paying, which would help cover any additional resources I'd need.
Wait, wouldn’t you have Cloudflare as a CDN if you’re already using R2?
The biggest costs will come from bandwidth and storage. I've heard that Hetzner could be a great alternative if you’re interested in setting up your own server instead of relying entirely on the cloud; you might find it's cheaper and has better bandwidth packages.
That sounds interesting! Do you think it's actually going to be more affordable than a Digital Ocean droplet with R2? I assumed I wouldn't need to worry about bandwidth since R2 has free egress.
My rough estimate for running the site is around $3.50 per month, but it really depends on your specific usage.
Yeah, I think around tree fiddy sounds about spot on!
That's a good point! We have checked, but with uncertain traffic expectations, we weren't sure what to anticipate. If we have no visitors, a basic DO droplet might suffice, but with 10k users, we might really need to think about upgrading, especially with compression involved.