VPS in order to go offshore due to being a political organiser/having state interest in me. If my domestic state was not interested in me I would use a home lab though; it’d wind up cheaper in the long run I reckon, better performance as it’s bare metal (though my VPS is KVM so performance hit is negligible), and better control since you both own and have physical access to the server. For most people’s purposes I’m sure an old laptop or a raspberry pi would work fine so you don’t need to splash out either. I probably wouldn’t suggest a VPS unless you have the same threat model as me (ie likely to get raided & server seized, or likely to have active monitoring of your internet activity via ISP); I don’t really think it’s worth the money long term. Or I guess if you do just have general privacy concerns you could rent a VPS in a country known for decent privacy, but just for peace of mind reasons instead of a tangible threat to you.

Edit: Also depends on what you use the server for. If you want it to not be linked to your real identity you’d probably want a VPS, otherwise every time someone emails you they find out the IP address of your home network.