Hiring developers doesn't have to be a loss, if you just hire 1 guy and let's say he charges $5-$10 each addon & you have a good STARTUP economy for the server that you know that you will surpass by getting donations. It's a risky move however.
What im trying right now tho (which probably wont workout) is hosting it on my old pc which isn't bad and I would use Remote Desktop to set everything up. I'm just going to mess around and see where I could go with it tho. Also I did have someone a while back made me a addon that would get you XP when you finish the map or something which everyone loved but sadly I don't have it anyore