/ basically any git provider provides pages like codeberg / framagit / disroot git
You don't need to pay literally anything.
You could point it to your own domain.
I have seen many professional people use github pages as their blog pages.
You can use ci / cd actions to basically just write markdown push it and it would convert to html and automatically reload github pages
Comments can be used via cactus and many many others I think https://rochacbruno.github.io/marmite/enabling-comments.html
I just installed caddy on my local linux archlinux system , I love golang but I had never bothered installing caddy locally , well it seems really cool , I have currently installed marmite as well locally .
My problem though to moving to caddy is why even pay 5$ when you can get it for free. I have installed it on my pc just for learning experiences :)