To be frank, I don't have the spare resources or time to self host a server especially when I haven't had any prior experience. As stated earlier, I don't mind paying for one. I just want to find a middle ground where I get the convenience of having someone else take care of the hosting for me and also not pay exorbitant amount of monthly fees for something I am not going to utilize often. I hardly get a few hours each day to play with my friends anyways so I want to make sure the time we spend together is worth it. I want to minimize the time spent booting up the server which made me look for a paid alternative in the first place and I'm sure figuring out to host the server by myself along with fixing the related issues would essentially be a different way to consuming the same amount of time if not more.