In order to assess the potential of low-cost radio-over-fiber (RoF) solutions, in this paper we make a thorough comparison of two full-duplex RoF systems. The first is a conventional architecture, implemented with two light sources, one at the central station and one at the remote location, both intensity-modulated. The second is a low-cost solution that uses remote modulation, with a single centralized light source used at the central station to generate a downlink wavelength that is reused at the remote location for upstream transmission. By avoiding the need for an additional light source at each remote location the cost of the solution is significantly reduced. The main conclusion is that although there is a penalty in using the low-cost system, for short to medium distances this penalty is small and the system still guarantees the required performance