We don't have an overly complex setup, just some automations along the way to make things easier the long way. Sure, it's a bit more complicated than manually installing a server, but learning how to use terraform and automating patching/backups etc isn't rocket science.

Anyone with some knowledge of Linux/Programming shouldn't struggle setting this up within a few days. And it adds knowledge to the company that's very valuable.

With Gitlab, as with most software, restarting it regularly outside of office hours is the best way to ensure a stable service. Also something SaaS can't do, as they never know when their customers need the software.

Many companies with on prem setup also don’t know when their devs need the software. Some have people in multiple timezones, some do async work, etc.

Yeah but how bad is a 5 min restart for that one dude in Australia at odd hours?

How bad is a github downtime? I guess it all depends.

Our deployment is repeatable. Pet server but managed with Ansible. If it's on fire, provision new server, rerun Ansible, restore backup. Server manually provisioned instead of Terraform, but provisioning the server isn't the hard part anyway.

If that's your setup, we also just have Pet servers. Sounds pretty professional to me.