If you run your own instance of GitLab now, it will be fast. Since last year March we've grown from 9 to now 100 people, many of which dedicated to performance.

GitLab.com is slow, occasionally painfully so. We're very aware of that and are working to improve that. You're welcome to watch or contribute here [0].

[0]: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/infrastructure/issues/59