Played a bit years ago for about 6 months in person, have never played online. Starting with a player from scratch; built one on D20 as it seemed like it would be the simplest and tried to join a few games - their d20 or discord servers have absolutely oceans of varied rules and restrictions to dig through and many want you to roll up a character for their specific game within certain rules. I’m sure their rules and restrictions are in place for a good reason, many of them I don’t even understand, but for someone just trying to get a basic character going for a basic story to get into the swing of D&D are there better places to look for us simple folks who are trying to learn/remember as much how to play and need things kept relatively simple at this point?
If you can get a local game shop they usually have Adventure league (Dnd official organized play) or a hosted game. It’s easier to join in person since it’s a set time and place and people you can talk to. That won’t always work though if there isn’t a store near you