We are spoil for choice when it comes to choosing our hosting stack.
The advantage of a VPS is complete control of your software with the disadvantage that its all your responsibility. Being used to the comforts of shared hosting for so long, I was not keen on getting my own server, the taught of managing was daunting if something had to go pear shaped.
I came across http://serverpilot.io , which takes the burden of managing your server. They have a free plan which does everything I need. I have been running my VPS for about a year now with no hiccups.
My VPS is from http://domains.co.za . I found they pricing and service great and server pilot works with their visualization software and most importantly its hosted in South Africa.
Here a link on how to setup free ssl for your sites
https://bjoernfranzen.com/how-to-set-up-a-letsencrypt-ssl-certificate-for-your-wordpress-website-on-a-digital-ocean-server-managed-with-a-serverpilot-free-account/
If you are using PHP , laravel framework , serverpilot does the same thing as laravel forge .
and the last tip , you could use Amazaon s3 free tier to setup backups of your server. Googling it will bring you to some tutorials.