Every engineering team that reaches for a hosted CI/CD platform — GitHub Actions, CircleCI, Travis — makes a quiet bargain. You trade data sovereignty for convenience. Your source code, secrets, environment variables, and build artifacts live on someone else's servers, subject to someone else's access controls, breach history, and terms of service. For most teams, that's fine. But if you're building in regulated industries, handling sensitive data, or simply believe your infrastructure should stay yours, the bargain starts to feel like a liability.
That's where self-hosted CI/CD comes in. You run the pipeline engine on your own VPS or Kubernetes cluster. Your data never leaves your network. You control upgrades, backups, and access. And here's the good news: the best tools in this space are open-source, which means the $100/month budget goes entirely toward your infrastructure — a Hetzner VPS, a small DigitalOcean droplet, or a lightweight K8s cluster — not toward per-seat licenses.
We tested the three strongest contenders for privacy-focused teams. Here's what we found.
GitLab Self-Managed — The All-in-One Powerhouse
If you want one platform that does everything — source control, CI/CD, container registry, package registry, security scanning, and project management — GitLab Self-Managed is the obvious choice. The Community Edition is free, fully featured for CI/CD, and installs on any Linux server with Docker or a bare-metal install.1
The self-managed edition gives you complete control over your data. No pipeline logs, no runner tokens, no merge request data ever touches GitLab's cloud. You can enforce SSO, IP allowlists, and audit logging on your own terms. The trade-off is setup complexity: you'll need a capable admin to configure the Omnibus package, set up runners, and manage upgrades. But once it's running, it's remarkably stable.
For a team of 5–20 developers, a $10–$20/month VPS from Hetzner or DigitalOcean handles the GitLab application server, and you can spin up additional runners on cheap spot instances. Total cost: well under $50/month.
Best for: Teams that want a single, integrated DevOps platform with maximum privacy control and don't mind a heavier initial setup.
Argo CD — The GitOps Specialist
Argo CD is not a full CI platform — it's a continuous delivery tool built on the GitOps philosophy. You declare your desired application state in a Git repository, and Argo CD automatically syncs your Kubernetes cluster to match.2 If you're already running Kubernetes and want airtight deployment control, this is the cleanest path.
Privacy-wise, Argo CD is exceptional. It runs entirely inside your cluster, communicates only with your Git repositories (which you can self-host), and stores no state externally. There are no telemetry callbacks, no external dependencies. You pair it with a lightweight CI tool (like Tekton or a simple shell script) to build images, then let Argo CD handle the rest.
The learning curve is real — you need to understand Kubernetes, Custom Resource Definitions, and the GitOps workflow. But once your team adopts it, deployments become auditable, repeatable, and fully under your control.
Best for: Kubernetes-native teams that want declarative, Git-driven deployments with zero external dependencies.
Tekton — The Cloud-Native Framework
Tekton is a Kubernetes-native CI/CD framework that gives you building blocks rather than a turnkey solution. You define pipelines as Kubernetes CRDs — each step runs in its own container, making pipelines portable, scalable, and highly customizable.3
For privacy-focused teams, Tekton's architecture is a dream. Every pipeline execution is ephemeral, containerized, and fully contained within your cluster. No data leaves your network. You can enforce network policies, volume mounts, and security contexts at the pod level. And because it's all standard Kubernetes, your existing monitoring, logging, and alerting stack covers your pipelines too.
The downside: Tekton is a framework, not a product. You'll write YAML — a lot of it. There's no built-in UI for pipeline management (though Tekton Dashboard exists as a separate component). Teams that want a polished, out-of-the-box experience should look at GitLab first. But if you need maximum flexibility and don't mind building your own abstractions, Tekton is unmatched.
Best for: Teams that want full control over pipeline architecture and are comfortable with Kubernetes-native configuration.
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Dimension | GitLab Self-Managed | Argo CD | Tekton |
|---|
| Ease of Setup | Moderate — Omnibus package, needs admin | Steep — requires K8s expertise | Steep — pure K8s CRDs |
| Resource Overhead | Medium — 4 GB RAM recommended | Low — lightweight in-cluster | Low — ephemeral per pipeline |
| Privacy Control | Full — self-hosted, SSO, audit logs | Full — zero external dependencies | Full — containerized, network-isolated |
How to Stay Under $100/Month
The $100/month cap is realistic if you're smart about infrastructure. Here's a typical breakdown:
- VPS or K8s cluster: $10–$30/month (Hetzner CX22 or DigitalOcean Basic Droplet)
- CI runners (optional): $5–$20/month for spot/preemptible instances
- Storage (registry, artifacts): Included in your VPS volume or a few dollars for object storage
- Licensing: $0 — all three tools are open-source
That leaves room for monitoring, backups, or a small staging environment — all within budget.
The Bottom Line
Self-hosting your CI/CD pipeline isn't just about privacy — it's about ownership. You decide when to upgrade, who has access, and where your data lives. The tools we've tested prove you don't need to spend thousands on enterprise licenses to get production-grade pipelines with full data sovereignty.
Our pick: GitLab Self-Managed for most teams — it's the closest thing to a turnkey experience with complete privacy. Argo CD if you're all-in on Kubernetes and GitOps. Tekton if you want to build your own pipeline architecture from the ground up.
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