I found this Minecraft hosting thing called MaximusHost and it has a pay for what you use setup. You buy credits and it charges you based on the server resources.
It is super cheap when the server is off and most of the cost is when it is running. They even say a small or moderate server that only runs on weekends can be around 2 to 5 dollars a month.
You can set schedules to start and stop the server by itself so weekend only servers are easy. It also gives you full console access and full access to your server files. You can share access with friends too.
It supports Minecraft Java and Bedrock and it can use Geyser so people can crossplay. Right now it is on one dedicated US East server but they said it can scale up as more people use it.
New users get 1000 free credits to try it. There is also a referral thing where the new person gets 1000 credits and the person who referred them gets 2000 credits.
