You can get virtual server for $4/month. Installing proprietary software and registering to some service, that may "upgrade" to premium tier anytime, is pretty off-putting.
You can build a physical server for $500 once. Relying on proprietary hardware and registering to some service, that may "upgrade" to premium tier anytime, is pretty off-putting.
not trying to be difficult, but $500 seems like an odd price tier to end up in. If I was going cheap, I'd do something between a rock64/raspberry pi and an Intel Nuc. If I was going powerful, it would be north of $1,500 for sure. That decision would probably be based on what I was running on it. If it's a VPN, the rock64 would be plenty. < $50