Heck, you don't even need to run something like GitLab. Owing to Git's design as a distributed version control system, a "Git server" isn't even really a separate piece of software—it's the same software being used in a different way. Details @ https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-on-the-Server-Setting-Up-... , but you basically just need to `git init` somewhere on your VPS that you can later ssh to and add as a remote a la `git remote add origin username@yourvpsserver:/srv/git/project.git`

If you're not too wedded to git, have a look at fossil, perhaps. Its a dvcs just like git, but is itself distributed as a single static binary. This binary, in addition to allowing you to init & interact with fossil repo's, also comes with an integrated bug tracker, gui (for logs, etc), wiki, even a web forum with threaded discussions (so kind of a replacement for a mailing list).

And a builtin admin interface to govern permissions on the above. Plus, its its own server. All of this ... is builtin to that single binary.

It has a few of its own quirks as a vcs, but its pretty much equivalent to git, both functionally & conceptually (if you know git, you'll know fossil in 5 minutes)

So, if you want a dvcs for syncing, and don't want to setup git for external access, try fossil?

In a single user scenario where you don't care about a web interface (and its associated additional features) for your repository you can literally use any server that is accessible to you via ssh and has git installed as a git remote for your repository.