The self-hosting options are free, at least. The difficulty is not many people have always-on computers on which they can host their own node.
nostr:nprofile1qqsyv47lazt9h6ycp2fsw270khje5egjgsrdkrupjg27u796g7f5k0spzemhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuurjd9kkzmpwdejhgqgjwaehxw309ac82unsd3jhqct89ejhxqgnwaehxw309aex2mrp09skymr99ehhyecusqvd6 Hub really needs a cheaper option to onboard people. The full price of ~12 USD/mo is a non starter in many parts of the world.
Discussion
Yeah, and since both Umbrel and Start9 are quite expensive machines, paying monthly for the hosting service could be worth it.
You can install umbrelos on your machine.
I've found it to be incredibly difficult to keep a self-hosted node online all the time. It's always something that fails- power, internet, software updates, etc. It takes a huge amount of time and effort just to keep it going.