The host of the instance owns/runs the server for any instance. There is no money to be made. The servers stay up because people donated or the instance owners paid for it.
Edit: the right way of saying it is.. the instances, at least the bigger ones, are crowd-funded.
Around ~180 euros a month for the server they were renting to run this Lemmy instance. Anybody can host though and any member of a Lemmy can see content and interconnect with other instances.
I was looking into potentially hosting my own Lemmy for my friends and I because the cost would be more manageable.
I'd imagine if people started doing that it would decentralize the costs and the administrative overhead.
Yep, I run my own instance for family and friends on my home server. It's great because it means it's fast as, and doesn't rely on another 3-rd party site staying alive. (though I guess I have to remain alive 😓)
I mean you definitely should try to remain alive as long as possible. However by the time that becomes a problem I'm sure paid Lemmy instances will be a commodity at that point.
similar to old usenet and fidonet, volunteers, there have always been people happy to help run hardware and help make the commons a thing. people were lured away from the gardens and parks by digital theme parks and shopping malls, where the users become customers.