The tutorial is super comprehensive. I had never hosted my own server either, yet here I am, running a server for a couple of friends of my PC. I'd say try your hand at setting up your own server via the tutorial before seeking an alternative. That being said, you need access to your router settings, but if you look up your router model online you can find how to port forward using that specific router. I'd say that's the only major hurdle to the server setup process, otherwise, a lot of the configuration is written in a way that is relatively easy to understand.
In the server config, you can configure the gamemode + map rotations. You file explains exactly how to do this. You can customise the default infected gamemode by going into the /admin folder and opening INF_default.dsr (I'd suggest keeping the original just in case though, so copy and rename it) and searching for the things you want to change about it. Most of the time, you'll find what you're looking for by using the search function in notepad.
That being said, infection seems to not be too configurable (at least from the .dsr file included), so some kind of script is probably available to offer that configurability you are looking for. Hope this helps.