My go-to PCB fab is OSHpark - they're super inexpensive for the tiny boards which I tend to do often and their shipping is basically free, but there's a breakpoint around $25-30 where they're not the best choice. I've used JLCPCB several times for some fairly simple (but larger) 2L designs that would have been more expensive at OSHpark even with the free shipping. I got great results on four different PCBs done in DipTrace and fabbed by JLCPCB and would definitely use them again.

With regard to layout software: I've use the ancient Linux-based gEDA tools for many years, tried KiCAD back when it was brand new and ended up buying a personal license of DipTrace which I've been happy with for a while. I've started using KiCAD for designs that I open-source though, primarily because it's becoming a standard for Open-Source Hardware. It took a bit of getting used to, but I'm finding it more and more handy to have. The new 5.x versions are much more powerful and they come with very comprehensive libraries of schematic symbols and PCB footprints. Definitely worth checking out.

One thing that irritates me about KiCAD is that it doesn't seem to come with any horizontal SMD pin header footprints. They're not hard to make, but it's rather annoying, and I haven't been able to acquire the motivation to do so again.

At least it isn't CircuitMaker with it's community footprints that are frequently wrong, even for something as simple as a tactile pushbutton or the hole size for 2.5mm headers and no consistency at all re: hole sizes etc etc