I think asking for both free and scalable is exactly why we end up with GitHub and ad tech models. It takes work to build and operate anything and they have to

I think asking for both free and scalable is exactly why we end up with GitHub and ad tech models. It takes work to build and operate anything and they have to get some benefit. You can't ask for everything free and no ads and no paying with your data - that's a charity. I think Gitlab is pretty good and there's nothing wrong with paying for it if your projects become big enough. Anyways, by self hosting I meant also buying a domain and hosting it on the public web. Personally I discover repos via other sources like a project page, chatrooms, forums etc. so I wouldn't think hosting it on your own server impedes discoverability