GitLab vs !Obtainium Icon Obtainium
Self-hosted for $4/mo on hetzner CAX11, versus $29-$99/user/mo on GitLab.
Side-by-side
| GitLab | !Obtainium Icon Obtainium (self-hosted) | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | $29-$99/user/mo | $4.13/mo flat (any team size) |
| Hosting | GitLab's servers | Your VPS (hetzner CAX11) |
| Data ownership | GitLab controls the data | Your disk, your encryption |
| Source code | Closed | Open (GPL-3.0) |
| Customization | API + integrations only | Full source access; modify freely |
| Maintenance burden | Zero | Backups + updates (manual) |
| Health score (ossreplace) | — | 67 / 100 |
Why teams leave GitLab
- Premium and Ultimate tiers gate basic CI/CD features
- Per-user pricing for orgs ($29-99/user/mo)
- Self-managed Community Edition lags behind cloud
- Many security/compliance features Ultimate-only
!Obtainium Icon Obtainium answers this by: Gitea Actions and Forgejo Actions give CI/CD + repo hosting at a fraction of the resource overhead.
The cost math
Assumes 5-person team using GitLab at the midpoint price ($64/user/mo).
| Period | GitLab | !Obtainium Icon Obtainium on hetzner | You save |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly | $320 | $4.13 | $315.87 |
| Yearly | $3840 | $49.56 | $3790.44 |
| 3 years | $11,520 | $149 | $11,371 |
Deploy !Obtainium Icon Obtainium now
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Common questions
Is !Obtainium Icon Obtainium a good alternative to GitLab?
!Obtainium Icon Obtainium is an open-source, self-hostable alternative to GitLab with an ossreplace health score of 67/100 — a composite of project activity, maturity, community, security, and adoption. It runs on your own hetzner VPS from $4.13/mo with full source access under the GPL-3.0 license, versus GitLab's $29–99/user/mo hosted plans.
How much cheaper is !Obtainium Icon Obtainium than GitLab?
A 5-person team pays about $320/mo on GitLab. Self-hosting !Obtainium Icon Obtainium on hetzner CAX11 costs a flat $4.13/mo regardless of team size — roughly $11,371 less over three years (99% lower).
Is !Obtainium Icon Obtainium hard to self-host?
!Obtainium Icon Obtainium self-hosts on your own VPS. You handle the install, backups, and updates yourself in exchange for full data ownership and no per-seat fees.
Do you keep control of your data with !Obtainium Icon Obtainium vs GitLab?
Yes. Because !Obtainium Icon Obtainium runs on your own server, the data lives on your disk under your encryption. With GitLab, GitLab controls the hosting, storage, and access.