SEO hosting for PBN purposes will save you a lot of headache and for example Easy Blog Network is really newbie friendly. However, it's costly and yes, it's a slight footprint.
On the other hand, with regular hostings you can get some really cheap deals from Webhostingtalk forum. However, managing hundreds of domains is a pain in the ass. Constant downtimes, deindexation, some companies simply disappear, dozens of support tickets etc. But it's much much cheaper.
It's up to you which way you want to go, there is no right or wrong way of doing it.