Even then, I think it'd be unlikely that the time-cost wouldn't make it worthwhile. People generally underestimate how much time gets soaked up by managing a computer service.
$35 seems to be 3x more cost than AWS's smallest tier (no further comparison of features/value beyond price), so it does seem expensive for an introductory project, considering a single $35~ Digital Ocean VPS might all some companies need their first year. On the other hand, the number of times I've seen an engineer suggest spending $500-$2000 in labor/hours (when already behind on mission critical work) as alternative to spending $5/month in some SaaS is just staggering.