[HolidayHuckle]

Hi - Yep, we totally get that this won't be for everyone. We're currently looking for ways to be able to increase the efficiency of these smaller servers and to be able to pass those cost reductions on to customers. We've also got some projects in the works aimed at being able to offer single account / single user "homeservers" and obviously the pricing for these would be much lower, but we're not quite there yet. More info. on this as soon as we have it.

In case it's not clear, it isn't a 5 person limit for Element Home servers, it's just that up to 5 (active) users are included in your subscription. You can add more users at any time for an additional $2/month. Also bear in mind that you're not charged for everyone registered on your homserver, just the ones that are using it :)

(I head up Element Matrix Services / EMS)

[crazypython]

What hosting provider are you using? AWS, GCP, and Azure are several times more expensive with the same performance as smaller providers, of which DigitalOcean provides the worst performance. (50% less) https://vpsbenchmarks.com

[HolidayHuckle]

Currently we're using AWS (but we're hoping to become more cloud agnostic in the future).

(I head up Element Matrix Services)

[crazypython]

> Currently we're using AWS (but we're hoping to become more cloud agnostic in the future).

If you're not using Lightsail, you're overpaying. Look at this comparison: https://www.vpsbenchmarks.com/compare/ec2_vs_vultr

AWS bandwidth through anything but Lightsail is 1000 times more expensive. AWS servers are 3-5x more expensive. AWS isn't successful because it's good, it's successful because it has good marketing.

Look at OVH and Linode.

Is Element hiring, by the way? Here's a look at my skills, if you're interested: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26305569

[HolidayHuckle]

Thanks for the info on Lightsail. We'll look in to it as one of the options for the future.

As for AWS, yep, they're certainly not cheap, but they do have good points in quite a few areas and give you a great number of tools to build with. Hopefully the trick is not to get too dependent upon their infrastructure, and we'll definitely be looking to other cloud platforms to help bring the costs down in future.

> Is Element hiring, by the way? Here's a look at my skills, if you're interested: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26305569

Yes, we are hiring (and are rapidly growing at the moment)! Thanks for the link - I'll pass it on to one of the team (not just saying that, I really will). That said, in the mean time you're probably best to have a look at the open positions (https://apply.workable.com/elementio/) and see if there's something there that particularly takes your fancy. If there is, apply, and say that Rick from EMS sent you via way of HN ;)

[crazypython]

> As for AWS, yep, they're certainly not cheap, but they do have good points in quite a few areas and give you a great number of tools to build with. Hopefully the trick is not to get too dependent upon their infrastructure, and we'll definitely be looking to other cloud platforms to help bring the costs down in future.

AWS wins because it has a fun user interface and good marketing.

> they're certainly not cheap

The cheapest component (compute) of an on-demand EC2 instance is five times more expensive than Linode, Vultr, and OVH. Bandwidth is, I'm not exaggerating at all, 1000 times more expensive. If you use reserved instance discounts and Spot Instances, it's still two times more expensive than hourly-billed Linode and Vultr.

If you're willing to bear with its worse GUI and monthly billing, OVH is a good choice. They've been in business for longer than AWS and operate more servers. Their prices are so low that they're in shortage. If you need instances that aren't in shortage, try Azure.

"AWS Cost Optimization Guru" is a mistake. The best way to optimize your AWS costs is to migrate off of AWS.

> give you a great number of tools to build with

Yes, although you could host your compute at one of the third-parties I mentioned, and still call into AWS services. It adds a little bit of latency for great cost savings. Linode and Vultr gives you DNS, Kubernetes, block storage, load balancers, and private network in addition to compute.

> Yes, we are hiring

Let me know where I could be most useful at Element, or if there's a need for a general fixer role.