To fund the project, Rochko set up a Patreon account, which is currently paying him about $1,000 a month. (Monthly hosting costs for Mastodon are currently around $100.) “I’m not doing this to get rich,” he says. “I’m doing this because I think it’s right. I only want to be able to pay my rent and insurance.”
So far, the Patreon is covering his expenses. But if the service continues to grow, that could change. In the meantime, he’s encouraging users to set up their own instances of Mastodon, which will spread the costs out among the user base.
I hope they succeed.