Docker is not a VM, absolutely! Have you looked at Windows Subsystem for Linux if you want to stay on Windows? It’s still a VM as such, but lightweight etc. You can read more about it here: Announcing WSL 2 - Windows Command Line
WSL2 would be the version you would want to aim for and there’s a blog about it’s use combined with Docker here: https://www.docker.com/blog/developing-docker-windows-app-wsl2/
I in person have absolutely no reason to boot into windows, except to host my development VM at work…
Sadly this is how it is at work. But a VM works better for me than WSL.
You can use the smallest instance at vultr {dot} com. it gives you 512MB Memory and one CPU. At USD 2.50 a month, it is hard to beat. You have your environmente ready in no more than 10 min. I think Digital Ocean has simmilar offers.