Hi, thanks for the advice. I've been working at a web development company for about a year (having had very little experience beforehand). I've mainly been working on sites in php and .net, though I'd really like to learn something that will contribute to my future career options and allow me to expand my portfolio. It seems like everyone on hacker news loves python, ruby or node, so I'd like to have a go at a larger project with one of them, I'm just being indecisive with hosting (I also have about zero cash, so the cheapest hosting would be preferable).

I honestly would not touch php. (not flame bait)

Yes, host your own, it does not matter what, but make it your own. Write your own CMS, at least that way you see why its worth not doing it again. You will end up teaching yourself basic SEO, sensible deployment and backup processes.

Its well worth the effort.

With such servers you can configure php or whatever you want really easily. Then you can backup all and rollback if you screw it.