I've been running this #Mastodon instance for over a month now. Maintenance takes less than 1 hour of my time every week. Although the VPS and backups cost me about $120 per month, I might have overdone that; it's okay with minimum hardware requirements.

Benefits? I'm free from Twitter spam, no more restrictions or noise, and high-quality content.

Conclusion? Totally worth it; I'd recommend every individual or business to start running their instance.

Embrace the Fediverse for a better SNS.