(fallen london stamps by also, for anyone interested in having their own fedi instance but don't want to do the setup and maintenance themselves, https://spacehost.one was our Akkoma instance's managed host before we moved to self-hosting. we can vouch for Akkoma being neat software that lets you make long posts and customize a lot - however, you'll have to ask Spacehost support to disable the Mangane frontend and let you use the default Pleroma-FE frontend if you want to be able to do things like hide post metrics.
I also, frankly, wouldn't recommend running your own fedi instance (even via managed hosting) unless you have an inkling of what you're getting into. there's a lot of technical knowledge required even if you're using managed hosting, with things like understanding how federation works so you can block the inevitable malicious instances (and keep blocking them, because god, they never stop coming). even if you, like us, opt for an allowlist instead, you'll pretty much be adding new instances to it forever since they pop up like mushrooms.
that being said, if you're interested in giving it a try, I'll recommend https://seirdy.one/posts/2023/05/02/fediverse-blocklists/ as a starting point for your Nazi whack-a-mole needs.