I’ve been thinking about finally getting myself a proper domain for my server, but a friend told me that to get one I either need a VPS with a public ip (which just takes all the fun out of selfhosting) or purchase a static ip, which is beyond what I’m willing to spend for a hobby. Do I have any good options or should I just let it go?
Also, if this isn’t the correct community for this, I’d appreciate being pointed to the right one, thank you
Yes it’s possible. You can buy a domain name and then do literally nothing else if you want.
If it’s just for LAN use, you don’t even need to buy a domain name. You can use anything under the home.arpa, test, or internal TLDs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special-use_domain_name