I want to join the Fediverse. I don’t have a computer or anything to make something like a Lemmy instance, and I found that NodeBB will easily allow you to make a forum quickly, but I have to pay to do so. Should I just pay when I can or is there a free way to make a federated instance on a software?
Best way to run an instance for cheap is on your own hardware, but I would only do that if you are experienced with self hosting since it would require port forwarding (unsecure if done wrong)