One-Line Security Hardening for Ubuntu Servers
morningcoffee.ioServer hardening is good for anyone to learn.
I like to do it manually because I find myself changing stuff depending on what the VPS is doing, and I also feel that by making it more labor intensive and difficult I am forcing myself to stop and really think about everything.
But if you know you will use the same pattern for every server you harden then I see why you might automate the process.