Hey, GitLab team member here.

Through our startup program, we offer a free one year Ultimate license to members of the current or two most recent YC batches with less than $3M in funding. More info here: https://about.gitlab.com/solutions/startups/

If you don't meet the criteria, you can still test our Ultimate tier through a free trial: https://about.gitlab.com/free-trial/

I think you'll find there is a lot of value there for a startup that wants to focus on delivering value to their customers (rather than managing a complex toolchain).

We also have free SaaS and self-managed offerings that are available to everyone and are widely used by organizations of all sizes.