I started an instance a couple of weeks ago on a digital ocean droplet and have been messing around with a few users. Cost is sustainable. Everything seems like a black box since I'm not familiar with the software yet. Setup had a lot of parts, but it wasn't hard and the instructions were great. I want to thank you @Gargron for putting Mastodon together, it is quite an achievement. A lot of people talk about writing good code and don't do anything. You went for it and did it!