Two Years of Running ImgURL: A Free Image Hosting Reflection
As a website owner, everyone wants their own image hosting service, and xiaoz is no exception. After trying various open-source or free image hosting services on the market without being satisfied, I decided to develop and operate my own. On December 31, 2017, imgurl.org went live. It has now been operating for over two years, and I'd like to share my experience.
imgurl.org Data Sharing
Since imgurl.org launched in December 2017, it has been operating for over two years. Currently, the cumulative number of uploaded images has exceeded 370,000 and continues to grow.
As of now, approximately 400 images are uploaded daily, and about 10,000 images are uploaded monthly. For more data, you can visit: https://imgurl.org/home/upload_num.
Currently, the daily IP count for the image hosting site (excluding images) is around 800, showing a slow upward trend.
CDN Selection
Image websites consume a significant amount of traffic, and CDN services from various providers are not cheap, often deterring small operators. As a small website owner, I simply cannot afford the traffic costs. Therefore, I decided to adopt a hybrid CDN approach combining self-built servers with free CloudFlare services to save costs. I must also praise CloudFlare for their industry-leading service.
I purchased several unlimited traffic VPS servers for Nginx reverse proxy caching. This costs approximately $20 per month. During peak months, traffic can reach 20-30 TB, which is already unsustainable. However, behind this high traffic volume lies abuse by adult websites (which I will discuss later).
Current Costs
- Image hosting server: $10/month
- FTP server: $3/month
- CDN node server: $20/month
- Human maintenance cost: Not included
Abuse by Adult Websites
Currently, all self-built CDN nodes are connected to Alibaba Cloud Monitoring. When bandwidth or connection counts exceed thresholds, automatic alerts are sent to me. After several checks and log analysis, I found that every instance of high traffic was caused by adult websites uploading advertisement images. Some of these advertisement images were uncensored GIFs, each several megabytes in size. It is undeniable that adult websites have significant traffic, consuming the majority of our bandwidth.
Although the rules clearly prohibit use for adult content, it is difficult to prevent. Even with image filtering, it is hard to stop them completely. The only solution is to regularly analyze logs and delete inappropriate content. If you are building or planning to build an image hosting service, please be aware of this issue and avoid wasting unnecessary bandwidth and traffic.
Conclusion
Although many website owners build their own image hosting services, very few achieve profitability. Many intend to operate long-term, but many also fail midway. Before choosing an image hosting service, it is recommended to select one that has been operating for more than two years, such as https://imgurl.org/ (just a bit of self-promotion).
If you are planning to build your own image hosting service for public use, please prepare for adult website protection and image auditing to avoid abuse.
If you are looking for image hosting software, you can check: ImgURL Pro Professional Edition Released, Supporting Multiple External Storage, 40% Off Promotion. If your needs are not strong and you just want to use it occasionally, you can also visit the ImgURL online service: https://imgurl.org/.