Appreciation Post for FluentCommunity 🚀
So, I've tested many different community solutions in the past 3 weeks or so. (This account itself is a part of the test. 😛)
Overall, I found FluentCommunity to be the best solution — not just in features but also in its performance and customer support.
I tested all these solutions with my existing Namecheap shared hosting plan, and FluentCommunity still functioned smoothly. (But yeah, I'm going to set up a new hosting plan for the "real" community setup.)
So finally, I've decided to go with the paid FC plan now! 🙌
Side note: Although I've tested everything, I'm still kinda nervous to set up my community from scratch. Kindly share your best practices and suggestions, please! Like even this silly question: Should I directly install the paid plugin or install the regular one from WP and then upgrade from the admin? TIA! 💚
Fluent community needs Core and Pro, so, you will be fine installing the “regular” and then uploading the pro file 😄
About shared hosting: yeah! It does work “well” ok shared hostings (we did some test during beta with it).
But, if you want the app “to fly”, do not hesitate to go for a VPS.
It’s even, more economic than a regular shared hosting. Specially, if you go with the recommended settings for communities shared by the team 😄
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you may want to check this post from Jewel commenting the specs.
And about the recommended hosting, we tried several options from the recommended xCloud system (referral).
Even you have not managed a VPS in your life, the process with them is very straightforward. So I’ll go for a managed option (you buy it elsewhere, like in Vultr, and manage there) or XCloud provider hosting (you pay for both management and hosting directly to XCloud, and use Vultr servers managed by them).
We’ve been loving the migration so far (many super handy options!)
BUT.
Even support is super attentive, and dedicated and even you may find them quite rapidly from the chat; sometimes support is not, precisely, super fast. So, if you need live-support. Maybe, this could not be a good fit! (Depends on your needs).
That being said, for our case, even we had a learning curve with them, and faced some delays at first, the migration was so worthy and both us and our community are quite happy with the change.
We also perceived an incredible improvement on the admin. Which was, in fact, something we were looking for for ages… and managed to achieve with the change 😄
Jorge de los Reyes Wow! Thank you so much for such a detailed response, Jorge! Much appreciated! <3
I'll most likely be going for xCloud! So, your experience with xCloud is also quite helpful. 🙌
The GS On our side, we cut costs in half, doubled the specs, and added innovative features like “plug-and-play” N8n.
They’re even going to open the API to automate some hosting tasks (I just asked the team).
One thing you might wonder when setting it up -as it happened to us-is whether the team’s recommendations are always the best fit for your case. For example, once you create the account, one of the main doubts is whether to go with OpenLiteSpeed or NGINX.
The team recommends NGINX. However, since we were coming from OpenLiteSpeed servers (more common in shared hosting) and wanted to make sure we wouldn’t face compatibility issues, we went with OpenLiteSpeed. We also tested NGINX, but honestly, we didn’t notice much of a difference. Everything works great either way.
So yep, I’m sure you’ll be happy with the change 😄♥️
Jorge de los Reyes You're so kind, Jorge! 💚
I appreciate all your detailed insights. These are quite helpful!
The GS do not hesitate to reach out in case you have any doubt!
Many of us were in the same exact situation. So, I’m sure not only myself but many other users here would be able to help! 😄
Tbh, the process is so straightforward, that you will feel like: Oh, okey. That was all.
But nothing like having to “choose” among just 3 options, and not being 100% sure, of “the best”, to end in the middle of the Paradox of Choice 😂
Wish you all the success! 🙏🏼
Enjoy the process and let us know how it goes!
Jorge de los Reyes I cannot thank you enough! This has just literally made my day! 💚
I'm indeed a bit nervous as I want to start everything the best way! 🙈
Just one question: Could you please share what xCloud hosting plan you use? Since I'm just starting to build my community from scratch, I think I won't have many members in the initial couple of months. I'm just thinking if I can start with $20 plan initially.
(I'm using your referral link! 💚)
The GS sure!
We’re using Personal (XCloud Managed Server), with XCloud provider (they manage everything).
This are the spects. And it goes so smoothly :)
- $20/month
You can upgrade or downgrade very easily though!
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also, you can add Full server back ups for +$4/month during the hiring process. This is up to you (in case you need or not, not only site side backups but for all the sites on the server).
We have Remote back ups (no extra cost) that are automatically saved on our Google Drive. But, as well, you can choose full server backups too later if you want :)
Jorge de los Reyes YOU ARE THE BEST BUDDY, Jorge! 💚 One of the most amazing and kindest community members. I'm so grateful for all your help! 🙏
The GS happy to help!
Check my last message. I updated it with some extra info on how you want to manage back ups :)
Jorge de los Reyes Thanks again! Yes, I did read the additional details you shared!
So, I'm currently in chat with the xCloud team. They provided all info about "xCloud Managed Server" & "Manage Own Server" plans.
What amazed me about the "Manage Own Server" thing is that there's an offer with Vultr to get 6 months free hosting ($100 credit) and it can be setup with a free plan of xCloud.
Here's the resource they shared: https://xcloud.host/docs/how-to-get-free-hosting-with-vultr/
So, essentially, this could be free for the initial six months, as I'm understanding it. Do you think/know if there's any catch here? Any reason not to go for it? 🤔
We had a couple of LTDs offers during the last years regarding their “Dashboard”.
I mean:
They have “2 services”: the dashboard to manage any VPS of your choice (like Vultr) + proper hosting services (XCloud provider: that use Vultr servers).
The offer they share is for creating directly the account on Vultr (their service free for 6 months) + paying XCloud services for management.
So, you won’t be using Xprovider directly (their service of managed Vultr VPS).
Another example is one of the last LTDs offers: we got I think it was like a 5-10% of discount if we go for their hosting instead of directly managing the VPS by our own (eg.: Vultr).
But the price is exactly the same 😄.
The “catch” is that you get a discount or offer for using Vultrs VPS instead of other VPS providers. But you pay in any case the “dashboard” of XCloud.
Does that makes sense?
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Clarification: the VPS you will be using with their hosting are Vultr high frequency yoo :). If you go to Vultr official site you will see its exactly the same price.
So:
- You choose the offer of Vultr and get 6 months of Vultr service for free + you pay for XCloud dashboard service (you have 2 bills here: Vultr and XCloud).
- Or
- You go directly to XCloud provider and just pay your receipts to XCloud.
Jorge de los Reyes Makes sense! Thank you so much for all your responses, Jorge! You've been amazingly kind to me! 💚🙏
The GS happy to help!
At first it’s a bit confusing, I know 😅
Specially if you have never used VPS before.
But in the end, the value XCloud offers is basically the ability to non techie people to manage VPS (that’s the Dashboard service that past years was subject to LTD and now it’s from $5/month).
And on the other hand, there’s this market of VPS server providers like Vultr.
Because XCloud uses Vultr servers for their own hosting services, they can offer that partner discount. But the dashboard is not included. So, that’s the “catch”.
You will be paying from $5/month for the dashboard per server + the VPS of your choice.
But, if you go directly for their hosting, just from $12 or $20/month you have the dashboard service included.
I won’t discard that they could offer again an LTD regarding the dashboard again though!
On your case, I’ll go for the XCloud provider hosting. I see no need, for people like us coming from shared hostings, of signing up for a Vultr account when you, I guess, are not planing to have and manage multiple servers with tons of sites 😄
As for the install, both plugins need to be installed as Pro goes on top of the free plugin.
Beyond that there are so many different ways people want to organize their community, that there is no best practice for all. Perhaps if you give some more information on your situation, more precise advice can be given.
J V Thank you so much, JV, for resolving that silly question of mine! That was helpful!
And yes, I understand — every community could be organized differently based on the business case/audience. Mine is going to be a community for entrepreneurs.
But yeah, I was asking basic stuff about the initial setup, like — are there must-have plugins that should be used along with FluentCommunity? I'm new to the Fluent ecosystem. So, do I need this FluentCRM or other plugins? Things like that! 🙈
The GS
Fcrm is a must, if only to manage access to various spaces/courses.
Fsnippets for any customization you might want in css/js.
Fauth for login, magic link, redirect and so on.
Fsmtp for mail. And the list just goes on depending again on what you need. A lot already works out of the box and obviously Pro versions add to it all.
Loco Translate if you need any words changed to better suite your community.
Not complete but a good start. ;)
One note about using xCloud...be sure to enable PHP OPcache on the server in the xCloud panel. It is disabled by default (or at least it was with the last server I added). It makes a noticeable difference with performance.
Thomas Oates Absolutely true The GS 💪🏻
Thomas Oates Does it help at all if you are already running LiteSpeed?
Sean I'm not sure.
Thomas Oates Thank you so much for sharing this, Thomas! This is so valuable! I appreciate your help, buddy!
The GS Another thing you may want to take into account, that happened to us in some sites, is that you should not have "ACPu" plugin (a management plugin for ob cache).
It caused critical failures on FC sites. And once deleted, the speed and performance rocketed!
I am saying this, because on some Litespeed servers, at least on a couple of the shared ones we used to use, it was a recommended plugin for ob-cache management.
If you go for Open Litespeed server and not Nginx. You can simply installa the plugin "LiteSpeed Cache" and make sure you have everything related to ob-cache and redis enabled there :)
xCloud can help you in confirming this. As well as making sure you activated this option on the server settings.
Jorge de los Reyes One more gem of advice! 💎
I'm keeping all your points in mind! Thanks a ton for everything, Jorge! 💚