Anyone run a matrix server in the cloud? How much does it cost you?
from zygo_histo_morpheus@programming.dev to selfhosted@lemmy.world on 25 Feb 07:54
https://programming.dev/post/25986284

Toying with the idea of setting this up for myself, maybe a few bridges, maybe a few group chats on matrix itself. What kind of cost should I expect?

#selfhosted

threaded - newest

hendrik@palaver.p3x.de on 25 Feb 08:06 next collapse

I pay 6.84€ a month for a VPS plus 4.65€ a year for the domain. That gets me a VPS with 4 cores and 8GB of RAM so in addition to Matrix, I can also fit a few Fediverse services, Nextcloud, a homepage, ...

Brumefey@sh.itjust.works on 25 Feb 15:48 collapse

Since you seem happy : Any recommendations for VPS provider ?

hendrik@palaver.p3x.de on 25 Feb 16:46 collapse

I'm with netcup.com and I've been happy. But some people complained their support isn't the best and they sometimes don't answer. I'm not sure about the details as I've never needed support. Maybe you want to ask someone else. And make sure to choose the correct server location as most of their servers are located in Europe and you don't want that latency if you're living in the USA.

liliumstar@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 25 Feb 08:10 next collapse

For something like that, you’d want a VPS with 2-4 cores, 4 GB RAM, 80 GB SSD. Any less and you’ll start to run into problems when adding bridges and stuff.

So, it’s really a matter of what deals you can find in that bracket, and if you care about the geographical region it’s hosted in. Usually lowendtalk.com is a good place to start looking at options.

Xanza@lemm.ee on 25 Feb 22:30 collapse

Love Lowend. Just grabbed this deal from massiveGRID. Never heard of them, but I took a chance;

4 Shared Intel Xeon CPU vCores
8 RAM DDR4 ECC Registered (GB)
256 Primary High Availability SSD Storage (GB)
20 TB Guaranteed Internet Traffic
1 IP Addresses

I paid $141.28 for 3 years, and replied on their forum post for Lowend and they added 1 extra year of service for free, and activated lifetime pricing. So it works out to be about $2.95/mo which is a damn great price. The only real drawbacks are the network is 1 Gbps shared** and no IPv6 (they’re adding it over the next several weeks looks like).

**speedtest;

[root@dev ~]$ speedtest --secure
Retrieving speedtest.net configuration...
Testing from Massivegrid (xx.xx.xx.xx)...
Retrieving speedtest.net server list...
Selecting best server based on ping...
Hosted by Wnet (New York, NY) [0.09 km]: 2.429 ms
Testing download speed................................................................................
Download: 1028.91 Mbit/s
Testing upload speed......................................................................................................
Upload: 997.58 Mbit/s

So not absolutely mindblowing, but you seem to get the full 1 Gbps, which is great. I contacted support and they’ll be offering VDS plans soon with access to higher than 1 Gbps speeds. Super happy so far.

[deleted] on 25 Feb 09:17 next collapse

.

m33@theprancingpony.in on 25 Feb 10:27 next collapse

@zygo_histo_morpheus If you don’t mind being powered by Oracle, the free tier OCI is pretty generous

specialseaweed@sh.itjust.works on 27 Feb 04:24 collapse

I upvoted your comment but man I wouldn’t even take a freebie from Oracle. Just an absolutely rotten company and Larry Ellison is one of the worst humans on the planet.

poVoq@slrpnk.net on 25 Feb 11:04 next collapse

Matrix servers have the problem of highly variable resource use.

Basically if you only use it for some light chatting with friends and family and some niche topic public rooms it isn’t very heavy.

But if any user of your homeserver joins any busy rooms or uses the bridges to join busy public Telegram channels or such, it will quickly outgrow the resources of a reasonably priced VPS.

Personally I would rather recommend you to set up an xmpp server, which can include a gateway to Matrix and other services, but architecturally is much more lightweight and has better mobile clients.

SidewaysHighways@lemmy.world on 25 Feb 12:30 next collapse

ooh! how do we bridge to matrix from xmpp server?

edit all i can find is how to do it from a matrix server

poVoq@slrpnk.net on 25 Feb 13:18 collapse

slidge.im

It basicallly allows you to remote control an existing Matrix account on a remote homeserver. Works quite well.

kat@orbi.camp on 25 Feb 15:00 collapse

Link doesn’t work

poVoq@slrpnk.net on 25 Feb 15:12 collapse

Works here 🤷

kat@orbi.camp on 25 Feb 20:37 collapse

Works now for me!

tofuwabohu@slrpnk.net on 25 Feb 14:27 next collapse

Better mobile clients? Have things changed this much in the least three years?

poVoq@slrpnk.net on 25 Feb 15:18 next collapse

Matrix mobile clients got worse, yes 😅

Otherwise not really. Three years ago Conversations was quite good already, although the newer forks Cheogram and Monocles added some nice convenience features.

tofuwabohu@slrpnk.net on 25 Feb 16:29 collapse

Hm, I never really liked Conversations and decided to end xmpp for good. Maybe I need to give it another try but I really like some Matrix features.

krash@lemmy.ml on 27 Feb 04:35 collapse

I found snikket to be quite decent, give it a whirl.

dontblink@feddit.it on 25 Feb 15:00 collapse

How is the user experience compared to matrix? Is it easy to gateway towards matrix or other services? Can I easily join matrix or other communities servers?

I see a lot of people are now using matrix but not so many xmpp, but yeah it hoggs resources on my server too. Also I feel like it’s still pretty buggy…

poVoq@slrpnk.net on 25 Feb 15:15 collapse

Xmpp itself works great. The slidge.im bridges are relatively new and your mileage will vary. Matrix, Discord and Telegram works ok, Signal & Facebook messenger have issues right now, WhatsApp is a bit tricky to set up properly.

Shimitar@downonthestreet.eu on 25 Feb 14:46 next collapse

Be careful. My disk usage is well over 8gb after bridging my WhatsApp and telegram chats…

In the clouds I would be worried about storage costs.

krash@lemmy.ml on 27 Feb 04:37 collapse

I think for matrix to be usable in a homelab setting, Matrix needs to enable a way to handle these huge data storage with prune or something similar.

ssdfsdf3488sd@lemmy.world on 26 Feb 01:20 collapse

12 to 40 bucks a year depebding on which racknerd vps yiu need. I spend aboit 15 a yaet on mine but it only has me and my facebookessenger slidge bridge