Getting a file-hosting site off the ground has a few decisions that are much easier to get right early than to fix later:
- Storage costs scale fast - model them before launch. What looks cheap at a small scale can become the biggest line item once uploads pick up.
- Decide your abuse/DMCA policy before you need it, not after the first complaint arrives. Having a clear process saves a lot of stress.
- Bandwidth costs matter as much as storage. A file that gets shared widely can rack up transfer costs way faster than its storage footprint suggests.
- Plan for redundancy from day one. Losing user-uploaded files to a single point of failure is one of the fastest ways to lose trust permanently.