How can I scale user generated content in web apps without spending a lot of budget?

[natashasturrock]

I am working on a web app where users can upload and share media files. As the app grows, I am worried about scaling file storage and managing bandwidth efficiently.

Do you have any tools, architectures, or hosting approaches that you can recommend?

[Maria Allen]

Don't let users upload files to your app servers.

Use signed uploads to send all media straight to object storage (like S3).

Put a CDN in front of it, and keep your backend focused on app logic.

Most user-generated content (UGC) is text-heavy, so caching does the heavy lifting for bandwidth.

Do not handle thumbnails or transcodes inline; do them asynchronously (queue + serverless).

Add lifecycle rules early on so that files that are old or not used often go to cold storage.

easy to set up, cheap to run, and it scales well without having to change the architecture later.