Just a post to say the goods of using SimpleX instead of others “private” messenger. First it doesn’t not require any id, phone number, etc… Can create how many accounts that you want! Decentralized servers, everyone can run and use own servers, and communicate with others! Big privacy side! Look at this one of the best https://privacyspreadsheet.com/messaging-apps. The only negative is the usability of the app, this is why it needs support and be democratize to gain attraits to people, and maybe one day be one the most used messenger app…
There is a cost aspect of self-hosting that one has to comtemplate. I haven’t looked at SimpleX hosting, but if it’s anything like Matrix on resources, it isn’t accessible or feasible even if it is possible.
I host a Simplex server, it is not that bad in terms of resources. My smp server is around 90 MB RAM and XFTP is 30 MB. Could be better, but still would run without problem on low-end hardware.
What about the storage & network costs?
I have not checked both, but seems like both are insignificant. From what I understand, the messages and files are only stored on the server until reception.