I've heard Aternos is alright for hosting servers, I guess they even have a free option, never used it myself though.
I've used Nitrado, but you have to pay for those and restarting servers/changing configs is prone to issues. Nitrado provides a lot of options for the server hardware itself as well as modpacks and plugins though and I didn't experience lag with their servers. I remember at the start I had issues with payments going through because the main Nitrado services are hosted in Germany so my bank kept declining it until I called them up, so keep that in mind.
Also, I believe hosting a server yourself is always better than renting. You can set up a server exactly how you want that way and if you're only hosting for a few friends who live close by the connection should be fast. Some ISPs don't support port forwarding though, so a program like ngroc can be used to create secure tunnels to the outside world. I use ngrok now and haven't had any issues at all, just make sure you turn it off when your server isn't running. I would steer clear of Hamachi, never had any luck with that program.
