I had my own domain name for years, and the website went through various stages:
- First, "flat" pages created using Microsoft FrontPage and uploaded by FTP.
- Then I tried various "content management systems", settling on WordPress. This required a web server with MySQL and PHP capability.
- Finally, I moved it to the wordpress.com hosted web service, which is free for basic sites. Because I took part in a beta program, they hosted my own domain name for free, otherwise it would have been $10 a year.
Something like wordpress.com is the "low maintenance" option, since they take care of the "back end", and creating web pages is as easy as filling in a form. The disadvantage is limited flexibility. You can buy the option to customise the look of the site (via "style sheets"), otherwise you are limited to the templates they provide (which are OK).