[quickthrower2]

Yes own domain plus self host for communities is necessary to really own it. Either but not both can leave you with an issue.

[mangoscribble]

the main issue is $$$

[creamyhorror]

It's just the cost of doing business with some control. Get a cheap domain and a low-end VPS/VM with a fixed IP (Vultr, DO, Hetzner). You can't really expect to get everything free.

[Etrnl_President]

You can host a simple forum on a RaspberryPi, you can stack a few of them together for better performance.

Just food for thought.

[mangoscribble]

need to pay $$ for static IP address

[quickthrower2]

$20/y should be enough. That is a lot for some people though. But for a business it should be no big deal.