For my server I bought a domain on loopia.se and pay for no other features than the domain name. On the Loopia website I then changed the DNS nameserver to Cloudflare and use a script to update the IP of my network. Cloudflare has some package you can install on Linux to update the IP but I never tried it.

If you haven’t seen it yet there is CachyOS if you want something Arch-based. I have been wanting to try it but for now I am still using vanilla Arch on my desktop and my laptop.

If you have around 100€ you can get a mini PC on eBay to start self-hosting all kinds of things. I have two at home with Proxmox installed and it’s very easy to use. Especially with the Community helper scripts to get containers installed and configured for a variety of self-hosted services.

A Lenovo Thinkcentre or HP EliteDesk Mini PC works perfectly as a home server. I use it to host game servers, Home Assistant, personal wiki, Jellyfin, Audiobookshelf, SearXNG, PiHole and more.