How To Create A GoToSocial Instance on FediHost

GoToSocial is probably the best way to get yourself onto the fediverse at the lowest price possible. It's an excellent choice for solo instances and enables you to migrate both to and from Mastodon.

What You Need To Start

• Access to the DNS settings for your domain
• A credit card or existing FediHost account

Steps

Login or Register

Login or Sign-Up for Fedihost using an email address and password. This email address will receive important billing and administrative emails in relation to the instance.

Choose New Service

On the left menu, navigate to the "New Service" tab and choose "GoToSocial" as the service you would like to add.

Select Plan

You can now choose which plan you would like for your GoToSocial server.

Domain Settings

Domain settings let you decide what address you would like your GoToSocial instance to appear at. You can bring a custom domain or use a FediHost domain.

Custom Domain

If you own a domain, you will need to have access to the DNS settings for the domain to point them to FediHost's servers. This is usually something you can configure in the same place that you registered the domain, but not always.

The domain cannot be at the same address as a website that already exists. If you already have a website at an address the most common solution is to use a subdomain for your GoToSocial instance.

Subdomain Example: Because discountbucketwarehouse.com already has a website at this address they used gts.discountbucketwarehouse.com as the domain for their GoToSocial instance.

Enter Domain

Enter in the domain that you would like to use into the box.

Update DNS

On your DNS provider update the records to match the table which is displayed beside it.

Record Type: CNAME vs ALIAS

If you are using a subdomain such as gts.discountbucketwarehouse.com you will need to create a CNAME record. If you are putting your website on the root domain such as discountbucketwarehouse.com you will use an ALIAS record. If you do not see a CNAME option use an Alias Instead.

TTL

The TTL should be set to a low number so that the record updates quickly. It doesn't have to be 600.

DNS Delays DNS record record can take a long time to propagate, we are working on a system that will let you skip and come back to this step for a future update

Hostname

Hostname (AKA host) is the field where you put the domain you entered. A common issue occurs here when the DNS provider automatically appends the domain to the record you pasted in. So for example instead of the CNAME record saying `gts.discountbucketwarehouse.com` it actually is saying `gts.discountbucketwarehouse.com.discountbucketwarehouse.com` which is wrong.

Target

The target (AKA Answer, Value) is the field where you enter the fedihost address provided.

Fedihost Domain

If you do not have a domain, you can always use a fedihost subdomain. These deploy instantly and require no extra expense or custom domain.

Portability Warning: Using a fedihost subdomain means if you decide to move your GoToSocial instance you won't be able to keep the same domain if you move elsewhere.

Review and Checkout

The next step lets you review your order and pay through stripe. Once you complete payment, your GoToSocial instance is ready for the final configuration step.

FediHost Configuration

On your FediHost dashboard you will see your instance is waiting on some final configuration options which need to be completed prior to provisioning your instance. Click "Configure".

Admin Account

You can set the first admin user account email and name for the GoToSocial instance.

Create Instance

Click "Create Instance" and your GoToSocial instance will provision momentarily. An email will be sent to you confirming everything.