Unfortunately, the answer isn’t simple. Forums can be very resource-intensive and depending on the activity level, can either be quite a bit for a host to handle or nothing at all.

Smaller forums just starting out are fine for a typical shared host. These message boards might get a few dozen posts per day and a few thousand visitors per week.

As the forum gets more popular and more posts are made, however, it will use a great deal more CPU and RAM. At this point, an upgrade to a VPS or low-end dedicated server will be necessary.

The largest forums require many servers load balanced to work together. It’s not uncommon at all for one or more of them to be devoted to just the database itself!

Photo | Flickr