Would you say learning SQL (or relational databases in general) with mySQL is easier than starting out with PostgreSQL?
When I used MYSQL, I found its EXPLAIN counterpart much more rudimentary.
But if I were to teach somebody SQL, I would probably just use sqlite because it just uses a simple binary file as a backend and doesn't need a running process :)
I am not really OPS or DB guy, so I can't comment on meirts of the databases in production.
Seriously, what is "not easy" about Postgres? Just read the official documentation, which is actually readable and good.
About hobby hosting… there is Heroku Postgres, but no Heroku MySQL. (There are third party addons for everything, yeah). Cheap shared Apache hosting is TERRIBLE. It should NOT be used for any new projects.