WordPress.com is easy to set up, has custom domains, and you could theoretically move it to another host pretty easily later (unlike SquareSpace). Bret Devereaux's history blog (acoup.blog) is hosted there, and it does very well here on HN.
Right now, I am using a Notion website builder: https://super.so/ It serves my need as someone who wanted to have a personal website. More like a resume tbh. No bells and whistles. I am used to Notion so that’s another plus. And the page loads fairly quickly. However, I find that at $12/month, I could get better value elsehwere. Not to mention, I am unable to blog there.
One of the platforms that attract me is Ghost (https://ghost.org/vs/wordpress/). Open-source and I’ve found the websites there have a far more modern-look.
That is also a Notion website builder, but more geared towards blogging.
This is an example site built with Notion + Feather
Disclaimer: I am the creator of feather.so
That still leaves the question of how to handle site search and comments.