Almost $2000 a year is beyond ridiculous and would make me question the author's ability to write software on his own (but I'd get downvoted for insulting him or not realizing some kind of time savings they help with).
I spend $2/month on my VPS, write my code in HTML/CSS/Javascript with Posgresql along with other Unix (FreeBSD) tools and the standard languages and get similar things done.
Tbf if I don’t enjoy that aspect and it saves me a day or so per year that I can use for consulting instead it makes sense to do that trade. Two and a half perhaps including taxes.