I can recommend in getting in k8s with something like microk8s from ubuntu:

You will learn k8s and you will get the same thing as they do but with open components, industry standards and a whole industry moving in this direction.

I have already microk8s running at home with argocd. I have never had IaC that quick and that simple setup.

With traefik you can have your domains as well. Then just go to gitlab (or now to github, haven't checked out yet if i wanna migrate back) and register your microk8s cluster as a buildrunner.

Thats it you are set. Quite future proof setup, modern, stable, easy to use.