After many years and experiments, another conclusion I'd like to share:

Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

@htammen I find 4-6€/year for a .eu or .de domain quite acceptable. See my price comparison I made a year ago at https://jan.wildeboer.net/2024/04/Big-Transfer/ when I decided to move my domains away from gandi.net

Eugenus Optimus 🇺🇦

@jwildeboer is there only you on this mastodon instance? How much it cost to run a server for it?

Eugenus Optimus 🇺🇦

@jwildeboer what domain registrar you using? I was on namecheap, but recently started using DynaDot, they have mobile app and clean UI without selling more stuff like GoDaddy

Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

@ujeenator It's me and my mom Due to my follower count and traffic from/to my instance, I am on the Star plan for $19/mo

Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

@ujeenator See my blog post at https://jan.wildeboer.net/2024/04/Big-Transfer/ where I explained my search for a new domain provider and how I ended up with a small company that give me special prices because the owner likes me

Eugenus Optimus 🇺🇦

@jwildeboer more than I expected, bur still affordable

Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

@ujeenator I could also run a misskey or sharkey instance as container on my server more or less for free (and I might do that at some point in the future) but for now I am very happy with a super reliable instance managed by an absolute expert

Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

@akamran @courtcan @friesen5000 Outline now at https://social.wildeboer.net/@jwildeboer/113814888300823384 Will take a few weeks to get everything posted.

lj·rk

@jwildeboer I’d recommend not necessarily using your name… as long as you’re not 100% sure it might change 0:-)

Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

@ljrk Sure. Which is why I specifically said "a recognisable but not "funny" name". I use my surname because it works for me but I also own 20+ more domain names for different purposes.

Ingo Wichmann

@jwildeboer even with your own domain name: how would you move your mastodon instance to another provider without loosing all your data?

Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

@ingo_wichmann Download the backups that masto.host provides and import them to a new instance. (Yes, I actually do that regularly with a mastodon container on my server just in case