I want to host a podman commandbox container on the internet for a small private group project... any recommendations or just use AWS? I'd rather use something simpler if its out there.

AWS is pretty simple, but if you want easier maybe Digital Ocean; here is a referral $200 credit (yea its a referral link that I get something too: https://m.do.co/c/247a1dc9e600)

woot

I highly recommend that you take a look at AWS's LightSail. Their container system is as easy as running Docker Desktop. A lot less costly than ECS/EKS too, esp since it includes the reverse proxy and SSL cert stuff in the base.