(Mods - not sure where to put this thread so feel free to move)

I've been using Photobucket for years and years and years as my image hosting provider for when I need to add an image to a forum using BBCode (img tags)

Yesterday I noticed my images had a message saying I had violated their terms and conditions and needed to upgrade my account.

Turns out that yesterday Photobucket removed all direct linking/hotlinking from all tiers of accounts and created a "super duper" platinum paid tier that enables direct linking/hotlinking - for $400US a year

At that price - hell no!

So, I am now on the looking for an alternative image hosting provider that enabled hotlinking/direct linking to forums via BBCode - both Google and OneDrive do not allow this
Free is best, but paid would also be acceptable (though not a large sum of $$ a year)

However my other option would be to use my own domain and host the images on that, though I am very confused on a service provider and what tier plan I would need
(then I hope there would be some documentation on the service provider on how to upload/access those photos)