Questions about self-hosting Friendica

Hello! I would like to self-host a personal Friendica instance (among other services). I have a couple of questions:

• In the Wiki I see that it is possible to sync ejabberd and prosody credentials with Friendica. Can this happen with an email address as well?
• I plan to host it on a remote server (from a provider), as I have no space for a computer in my home and I don't want to increase the electricity bill. What do you recommend for this? Is anything cheaper than a VPS that will do? Is there any provider you recommend?