I got a VPS off Contabo and started using docker compose for deployments.
Learning it all took me a day (I had been using docker but compose was new) and the implementation took me one more day. Mainly setting up GH workflow for automated deploys. There's just so much freedom now!
Cost wise, I am down from about $24 to $8 with a much better performance. I can finally have a server near to the users and not be restricted to just US or Europe.