So back in November of 2024 I got sort of fed up with the Mastodon instance that I was on because the performance of the server had been less than stellar lately, so I decided to take the jump and set up a Mastodon instance of my own.
I had been thinking about doing this for a while, but setting up a Mastodon instance on your own from source is not exactly for the faint of heart – it requires setting up several services for storage, database, and the server itself, all of which need to be maintained. While I certainly could do it – I am a programmer by trade, after all; deploying software from source is something I do regularly – I didn’t want to have to do it. Much like with my website, I prefer to have it hosted & maintained for me.
As a relatively new service, there aren’t a lot of companies providing turn-key Mastodon hosting, but one I’ve had my eye on for a while now is Masto.host – and this is the one I decided to go with.
I am using my own domain (starkeith.net) for this instance, so I went with the domain name social.starkeith.net.
I am running what is technically known as a “single user instance,” which isn’t quite what Mastodon was intended for, but because I was migrating an existing account (along with all of the followers I’d gotten) it actually works out all right. I could add a few additional users without it being a problem, but for now it’s just me.
Because of the way federation works, your instance needs resources based on how active its users are – and of course “activity” includes being viewed/favorited/boosted by other users. So you need to plan for enough capacity in case, say, one of your posts goes viral and suddenly gets a whole bunch of attention. But on the flip side, you don’t want to pay for capacity that you don’t normally need, or else you’re wasting money.
I ended up going for the 2nd from the smallest plan – it’s very affordable, and given that it’s just me, the price is about the same as what I was donating to my previous Mastodon instance. If my account grows significantly, I can always increase my plan.
Overall, I’ve been extraordinarily happy with the results of having my own Mastodon instance – the hosting provider I use keeps the software up-to-date, and the performance has been great. There’s virtually no administration/moderation required when it’s just me, and there have been virtually no “randos” showing up in my mentions (which was easily handled by de-federating from some known bot-filled/spammy/abusive instances, and there have been zero problems since).
In fact, my experience with having my own instance has convinced me that basically anyone with a website should have their own Mastodon instance under their domain name – it’s so easy and convenient, there’s really no excuse not to do it. You get complete control over your social media, yet you get the benefit of federation with the rest of the wider “fediverse” – it really is a win-win.
I’d love to see a world where every government organization, company, and university runs their own Mastodon instance under their domain name. For companies, it allows them to centralize and control their own social media presence. For governments, it allows them their own channel for distributing information and communicating with the public. For universities, I’d expect them to give out accounts to students in much the same way you get an email address.
If, like me, you have a domain name kicking around and can afford a few bucks a month, I’d highly recommend giving it a try.
