8 hours to self hosted Sharetribe What is Sharetribe? Sharetribe is open source platform to create and run online marketplaces. There is a hosted multi-tenant version of Sharetribe that can be used at affordable prices.
Why and when you should use Sharetribe vs own marketplace
Low skilled simple setup for the hosted version. Few hours to setup self-hosted version including database migration from hosted version. Supported by the community for open source version and by the Sharetribe company for hosted version. Payments system integrated into hosted version and can be easily integrated for self-hosting. No lock-in as it is open source written in Ruby on Rails. You can customize it your way on selfhosted and migrate your data from hosted to self-hosted. Best speed to market to validate your idea and to learn onboarding your first vendors, helping to make their first sales, scaling, and other.
Get the best from two approaches with Sharetibe! Start with a hosted version to validate your market and to start fast. Learn how to run marketplace then switch to a self-hosted open source version of Sharetribe and change it the way you want as own marketplace.
Running costs for hosted Sharetribe There is an article about costs for bootstrapping marketplace based on the hosted version of Sharetribe. Here is some excerpt from the article about first-year costs that does not count your time of course:
Sharetribe Pro subscription for 12 months – $1428 Custom domain for 12 months – $10 Security certificate – included with Sharetribe Logo – $299 Stock images – free Total cost: $1737
Running costs for self-hosted Sharetribe
DigitalOcean server for 12 months – $240 Custom domain for 12 months – $10 Security certificate –10$ Logo – $299 Stock images – free Total cost: $559
2 main problems with self-hosted 1. No payments “PayPal payments are only available on marketplaces hosted at Sharetribe.com due to special permissions needed from PayPal. We hope to add support for PayPal payments to the open source version of Sharetribe in the future.” @https://github.com/sharetribe/sharetribe#payments Solution – you can hire developers to integrate payment system of your choice or you can switch off payments in the marketplace entirely.
2. No passwords after migration You have to ask for database dump of your hosted data through Sharetribe support before migration. Passwords of your users will be lost and they have to reset them. “For security reasons we can’t export (hashed) user passwords. If you want to start hosting the open source versionof Sharetribe on your own server from the backup data, your users will need to reset their passwords using the “Password forgotten” link. Users who log in via Facebook Connect are not affected by this as long as you keep using the same Facebook App.“ @Sharetribe Support Other At the time of writing the post, there are 2 more features that are present in commercial version and is not yet provided in open source self-hosted sharetribe version. These are location-based search and availability management. Both features are quite important for marketplaces. Clients want to search nearby products and services from marketplace sellers. For many service marketplaces, it is important to manage the calendar of service providers. It is promised to provide both features to the open source version of Sharetribe, but no info of when this is going to happen. Here discussion thread for location-based search.
Prepare for simple self-hosted Sharetribe
Hosting. Register at DigitalOcean and buy 20$/month server instance. Share the root password with your developer. You can use other self-managing hostings including Heroku. Domain. Bu the domain and configure to point it (or its subdomains) to the IP address of your server following instructions of your registrar. Here is sample howto from GoDaddy. SSL. Being on the hosted version you enjoyed SSL certificate for HTTPS secure access provided by https://letsencrypt.org/. Now on the open-source version, you can buy SSL from other providers or you can get from Let’s Encrypt. In either case, your developer needs the certificate to configure HTTPS access. Emailing. Register account with any transactional emails services, validate your domain and share settings with your developer. I suggest Mailgun as it has 10 000 emails and easy to setup. However please take a look at SendGrid, MailChimp, and other providers. Database. Request support to provide you with the export of your hosted Sharetribe Database if you migrate from hosted version and do not want to lose data. Google MAP API. Your Sharetribe needs to show listings on the map. This feature works with Google MAP API. You have to sign up and provide access credentials to the developer for further configurations.
What your developer does during selfhosted Sharetribe install Basically, developer follows the instructions for the open source version of the platform:
Configuring server before the installation, Installing Sharetribe, Connecting mailing system, Connecting SSL, Connecting Google MAP API, Importing your database.
Some Examples of Sharetribe based marketplaces
The Quiver – The World Is Your Quiver
Secondcry – Buy-Sell-Earn-Buy more! Marketplace for musicians Play Anywhere
Alternatives for Sharetribe Explore the complete list of the most famous and competitive Sharetribe alternatives to create your online marketplace in our article 7 Sharetribe alternatives. Additionally, you check: 1. 2. 3. 4.
Structured Domains to create your customized Marketplace or Directory Wizaplace for quick implementation and easy management of your marketplace Marketplaces Inc. is the e-commerce software for creating cloud-based marketplaces & stores WooCommerce multi-vendor marketplace powered by WordPress
Resources
Sharetribe If you want to know more about Sharetribe as a startup, please read the story at Techcrunch, the article about creating your own P2P marketplace on TheNextWeb and check out their profile at Crunchbase Setting up Sharetribe for production How to get a full backup and database export of your marketplace 16 chapters heavy content for everybody who can start a marketplace regardless if it sharetribe or some other platform or self-made – A practical guide for building an online marketplace business Follow Sharetribe Twitter and Facebook to get project news and other hints about marketplaces, marketplace business and sharing economy Order help with Sharetribe on Upwork Video Guide to walk you through at Udemy Sharetribe Academy Sharetribe community forum
UPD Sharetribe Flex was introduced on March 28.