Links to sponsor Mastodon are here:

https://joinmastodon.org/sponsors

If my sources are correct, the sponsor level on Patreon is less than what it would cost to keep my verified checkmark on the birdsite going forward.

Here is the support page on moving from one instance to another.

https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/moving/

You kan move followers and follows with you, but your posts won’t carry over.

Explore the many different instances here:
https://joinmastodon.org/servers

There are also many not listed here. Search and explore and ask if you feel comfortable.

One way of rolling your own instance is paying someone to do it for you.

This is a reliable service I can recommend and has been recommended to me many times:
https://masto.host/pricing/

If you are a group of friends paying together, the cost can become really low.

Another way of running your own instance is of course by installing Mastodon yourself on your own server.

You may or may not feel comfortable doing this. But a service that helped me gain the confidence to go down this path is this one:

https://www.cloudron.io/

It helps keeps things updated for you, too.

And if you are tech-savvy and would consider contributing to development, here is the project on Github:

https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon

For myself, I wouldn’t mind contributing to the onboarding experience. I know how overwhelming it can be.

Stay safe.