What do you even mean by vanilla wordpress?
Get a hosting service with a DB for a couple bucks a month, install wordpress, do whatever you want with it by following the wonderful documentation that is anywhere on the internet.
What else is there to talk about?
Well, if you're talking about vanilla WordPress, the article doesn't make any sense. Vanilla WordPress is completely free. There are no fees for adding different fonts or any of the other things you say you were charged for. So if it's not a managed service charging you those fees, where are they coming from?