Why Self-Host GitLab?
GitHub costs from $4/seat for private repos with Actions. With 10 developers, that's $40/month. GitLab Self-Hosted? Unlimited users, unlimited CI/CD minutes, full data control – for the price of a VPS.
The biggest advantage: No seat limits. Whether 5 or 50 developers – you only pay for the server. Plus integrated CI/CD pipelines, issue tracking, wiki, and container registry – all in one application.
For GDPR-sensitive projects, self-hosting is often the only option. Your code stays on a German server, no third parties involved.
Hardware Requirements
GitLab is resource-hungry – that's the price for the feature set. Official recommendation: 4 GB RAM minimum, 8 GB for production use.
The main load is on RAM for Sidekiq (background jobs), Gitaly (Git operations), and PostgreSQL. CPU is mainly stressed during CI/CD pipelines.
| Team Size | RAM | CPU | Storage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-10 developers | 4 GB | 2 vCPU | 50 GB |
| 10-50 developers | 8 GB | 4 vCPU | 100 GB |
| 50-100+ developers | 16 GB | 8 vCPU | 200+ GB |
Our Recommendation
For small teams (1-10 developers), we recommend Hetzner CX32 with 8 GB RAM for about €8/month. That's the sweet spot for GitLab.
For medium teams with active CI/CD, Contabo Cloud VPS M offers 16 GB RAM for about €10/month – the best RAM-per-euro ratio.
For larger teams: Hetzner CCX23 with dedicated vCPU and 16 GB RAM for about €20/month.
GitLab.com vs Self-Hosted
GitLab.com Free limits to 5 users and 400 CI/CD minutes per month. Premium costs $29/user/month.
Self-Hosted: Once set up, no user limits, no CI/CD limits. With 10 developers, you save $290/month minus ~€10 server costs.
| Aspect | GitLab.com Free | GitLab Self-Hosted |
|---|---|---|
| User limit | 5 | Unlimited |
| CI/CD minutes | 400/month | Unlimited |
| Storage | 5 GB | VPS storage |
| Cost (10 users) | $290/month (Premium) | ~€10/month |
| Data location | US/EU Cloud | Your server |