If its just pure finances - you can buy a LOT of electricity for $10 a month (unless your power cost per MW are super high).
I understand not being able to keep it on all the time for "various reasons". Some make sense, some do not. I run my PC 24/7 until it gets too hot in the summer, and then the server I host is "down due to heat" until the weather changes
What are these reasons you cant run all the time? maybe we can help you find a way around.
First of all, thank you everyone for all the responses, they have helped me greatly. The reasons I can't run the server on my desktop 24/7 and am looking for a cheap host:
1. My parents don't want me running my desktop 24/7, as according to them, the electricity bills are pretty high already, and I can't blame them. Although in a few years this won't be an issue (hopefully), right now I'm still living at my parents house (in high school).
2. My home network isn't super quality: While running the server, which involves uploading and downloading to an extent, as expected ping is generally higher, making playing some games harder-impossible. I get 7Mb/s Down but only 1Mb/s Up. Also it's just "another thing" running.
3. I'm broke (xD). With my new desktop newly finished, and a great deal on a drum set, I have no money, and in fact owe some money to my parents due to the great deal on the drum set, as they allowed me to pay them back later.
4. While 3 players are on my server, including myself, and me playing FTB, my CPU temp starts to heat up a bit due to only using the stock cooler on my AMD FX-8350, and the fact that I'm hosting the server and playing on it too. Usually with these conditions my CPU gets to around 52 degrees Celsius, which isn't too hot, but is starting to get on the edge. Also, due to the increased CPU usage, and stock cooler speeding up, my computer becomes pretty loud due to the CPU fan winding up, which gets kind of annoying after a bit. Granted I should just buy a "real" CPU cooler, but again I have no money. I could only really spare the $10 sometime in the future, as my friends would do the actual purchasing and alternate in payments every month.
This is why I am looking for a cheap host, as I don't want to have to keep hosting the server on my desktop. I know that $10/month might not get me the best quality, but unfortunately that is all my friends and I are willing to/can pay.
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