xmpp - how to decide on a provider?

[shapezncolourz]

pretty much as the title says - ive heard more people here talk about xmpp more often, and i think id like to join in! however, theres so many options and i dont know how to choose

i want something that focuses on privacy (which seems like all of them - not a bad thing!), is free/has a free option, and allows minor commercial content as im thinking of opening commissions over the summer + attaching my account to anything commercial i do, so my 2 main choices so far (disroot.org and omg.lol) seem to be out of the question X{

any suggestions? :3

[reala]

As someone who only just made an account, I did it by following this lovely topic and decided to just take the leap and made one on tchncs.de. From what I can tell, it seems like a solid "default" provider, it's straightforward, and it's free. Easy for me as a beginner to this area of the web.

I've been floundering about using XMPP for a while now for the same reason you mention, so I just decided to do it and see how it went. I figure I can just make a new account on a different provider if this doesn't work out somehow, but it works for me so far! I really just got overwhelmed with the many many different options there were, which was stopping me for a while, but after reading that topic I picked the first recommended one...otherwise I'd never actually make a decision. ｡(*^▽^*)ゞ