GitLab Reviews

Pros

I am not constrained at all by a company like GitHub or Bitbucket. It allows my team to have faith that what we are working on - remains in house. For piece of mind - without using git native.

Cons

Difficult to setup for the uninitiated linux administrator. Administration and upgrades are also difficult to do.

Alternatives Considered

GitHub

Reasons for Choosing GitLab

I needed to ensure that our repositories are private and held on premise.

Switched From

GitHub and Bitbucket

Reasons for Switching to GitLab

GitLab is totally free and can be hosted on premise.

Pros

Using Git as a configuration management tool is already common sense (essential), but I think this software is the most used for remote (distributed) development. There are many cases where you install Git on each person's terminal and operate the commands, but if it is team development and you can't use an "external (public Internet) repository", it is better to set up and operate a Git repository with GitLab I think it will be the safest and standard way to use Git.

Cons

I guess there is no choice but to get used to it, but I would like to see more visual changes and expressions (messages) when conflicts occur that are easier to understand for beginners. After all, I'd like to see them develop an interface that makes it easier to understand the concept of Git configuration in the first place.

Alternatives Considered

GitHub

Reasons for Choosing GitLab

With the end of MS-VSS support and the trend of the times, it was necessary to use Git for configuration management, and I was looking for a Git configuration management tool that could be used by groups (and remotely) instead of individuals, so we decided to implement GitLab.

Switched From

Bitbucket

Reasons for Switching to GitLab

I think it is the first candidate for managing the configuration of development assets in internal development (because the use of Git itself is a global standard). There was a feature that changed the display of the file icon for each file extension, and it had the advantage that it was possible to reduce the file selection error. Also, unlike GitHub, it has not been acquired by Microsoft, so I think it is an advantage that it can be used with confidence in terms of security.

Pros

I like that GitLab incorporates a variety of security scanning tools, including static application security testing (SAST), dynamic application security testing (DAST), and container scanning into our development process . These tools help to analyze our code and our application's runtime behavior to identify potential vulnerabilities and weaknesses.

Cons

GitLab lacks the ability to be a full project management software. Thus , for projects that involves extensive collaborations with teams outside our development team, Gitlab needs to be integrated with a standard project management tool.

Pros

- Unlike Github, it can be installed locally, it also makes it highly customizable
- It has CI/CD functionality integrated
- It has code search and indexing
- It's integrated with a docker registry and multiple code repositories

Cons

- It's highly monolithic, if some feature fails, most of the times everything fails
- It's not easy to clusterize the service
- It's not easy to update, nor to migrate to a new server
- It costs the same to use the self-hosted than the cloud-hosted version
- Gitlab CI/CD shared (both free and paid minutes) run on a GCE Kubernetes cluster without any fixed IP address so it's hard to access your servers unless you open ports publicly or create a VPN tunnel

Alternatives Considered

GitHub and Bitbucket

Reasons for Switching to GitLab

It was more modern than Bitbucket, and Github lacked a self-hosted version

Pros

Having our own git instance is a very good thing. We're know where our data is. (Self managed). Also, Gitlab have multiple integrations, and it is very great.

Cons

Most of our problems have been solved through the official documentation. But, we have some problems with performance that we're under it.

Pros

GitLab stands out for its impressive­ all-in-one platform for DevOps, earning my utmost admiration. This compre­hensive solution seamle­ssly integrates esse­ntial features like source­ code management, CI/CD pipe­lines, issue tracking, and collaboration tools in a single location. As a re­sult, it streamlines our development workflow while eliminating the need for multiple fragme­nted tools and significantly improving our productivity. Moreover, with its e­xceptional version control system and e­xtensive repository management capabilities, GitLab establishe­s itself as the go-to choice for software­ development te­ams.

Cons

Although GitLab provides a wide­ range of features, it can be challenging for new users, especially those unfamiliar with DevOps practices. The interface, while­ powerful, can initially feel ove­rwhelming. Furthermore, the documentation could be more be­ginner-friendly. I have also encountered occasional performance issues with larger repositorie­s; however, these problems are being addressed and improved through regular update­s.

Pros

Easy to use all the needed features from self-hosted options, and change controls on many projects..

Cons

Dont have any cons for this service that is provided by Gitlab, their deployments for self-hosted and online are easy to use

Pros

As for the collaborative tool, GitLab is used for my 4th year research project. It is also highly compatible with the main project management tools. This tool makes it possible to manage our project by means of very simple mechanisms.

Cons

A more realistic view could be provided by highlighting potential performance issues or learning curve for new users. So, it should improve this feature.

Pros

It has a lot of good features out-of-the-box, without having to research and find workarounds to do some tasks.

Cons

There were some issues with the integration with AWS where the runner sometimes would just not run.

Pros

I have felt that Gitlab provides more tools and access control over private repositories than other version controls out there. The feature to host the server ourselves rather than using the cloud impressed me. It has impressive UI/UX and management of the code is very easy.

Cons

I think it lacks open-source support compared to other version controls. It doesn't support all the platforms out there. It provided a lot of features and as a beginner, it was a bit difficult for me to learn and use it. As I was working for a startup organization, the pricing was a bit disadvantageous using GitLab.

Pros

GitLab is easy to use and offers a versatile range of applications. GitLab can be used not only for software development projects. Especially in the academic sector, institutions can use GitLab to persist the respective work steps and research data, data in general, and workflows. Version control is particularly helpful in this regard, as it allows each step of a work to be traced, and errors to be undone directly without having to do a great deal of extra work.
In addition, GitLab can be customized and the respective instances can be easily transferred to one's own infrastructure. The development team is also always open to new ideas and actually incorporates them.

GitLab is therefore not only suitable for software development, but for any form of project in which it is a matter of the step-by-step tracking of work steps.

Cons

GitLab can be quite overwhelming. It is particularly difficult for non-experts from the non-software sector to get to know the processes of GitLab, as GitLab is less focused on gamification aspects compared to GitHub. Therefore, a high level of preparatory work and expertise is required in GitLab. Likewise, GitLab is often very technical, which is understandable, but it would be quite conceivable that especially in the area of testing and CI, modular principles, like for websites, would be conceivable and desirable.

Alternatives Considered

GitHub and Google Drive

Reasons for Switching to GitLab

Compared to GitHub, GitLab is much more customizable and suitable for experts. Compared to Google Drive, the versioning principle is convincing. Google Drive as a pure data storage is insufficient for larger, more traceable projects.

Pros

- Excellent UI that is easy to understand: many of our developers are migrating for the first time from other software (github, bitbucket) and a constant comment is that the ui is intuitive and easy to understand compared to previous software. The transition is always smooth.
- Feature-full product: Gitlab offers a variety of features that I have found to be excellent and of high quality. The code-review process in gitlab is always smooth with the ability to resolve or re-open discussions, address specific comments or the whole of the discussion, the ability to suggest and even apply and commit code from the ui is also a huge plus. The IDE is decent and the file editor is also decent. The CI/CD integration with gitlab runners is smooth, the notification system is great. I get an email whenever a test fails. All from the gitlab ecosystem, i do not need to go to circleCi or some other provider for all of this, which allows the ui and experience to be consistent.

Cons

At this very moment there is no feature or issue that I have found to be detrimental to my experience.

Alternatives Considered

GitHub and Bitbucket

Reasons for Choosing GitLab

At the moment of the switch, Gitlab offered free private repos. At the moment both Github and Gitlab have this feature; however, I would not switch back to Github due to the ecosystem i've grown accustomed to in gitlab.

Switched From

GitHub

Reasons for Switching to GitLab

At the moment, mostly private repositories. Over time, it became a matter of more bang-for-the-buck: more features, a friendlier Ui, more polished software.

Pros

Gitlab offers you a secure space to store and manage your git repositories, for personal use and or for your organization's development team. You can easily assign tasks to team members, and track and follow up on them with clearly laid out and categorized Kanban boards.

Cons

Gitlab's UI and UX are quite overwhelming for a first-time user. If you are new to Gitlab and you haven't used a similar platform like Github or Bitbucket before, you will definitely need a little training to fully utilize your Gitlab space. Make sure to get through the entire onboarding tutorial to avoid feeling lost because it's all going to seem very clunky and difficult to find your way at the beginning.

Alternatives Considered

GitHub

Reasons for Choosing GitLab

We did not entirely shift. We work with both Gitlab and Github for different projects within the organization.

Switched From

GitHub

Reasons for Switching to GitLab

We were already working with Github and found that Gitlab was a powerful solution we could add to our stack. We use GitLab for specific projects that are more timebound and we need to move fast on.

Pros

GitLab is a great integrated SCM, Issue Management and CI/CD solution which is a pleasure to work with. The tools feel very nicely integrated and cooperate very well. It embodies by default the best practices for code management and is developed by a company which has open source and transparency at its heart, thus reassuring that the product can be trusted, either as a SaaS solution or as a self-hosted solution.

Cons

The SaaS version of the problem has over the year suffered some issues; however these have been decreasing over time and the company has made a hosted experience on par of those of other SaaS solutions. The resource consumption of the product is not to be taken lightly; however for small teams it has a relatively inexpensive monthly server cost.

Pros

GitLab provides all-in-one capability for developers to do Source Code Management, CI/CD automation, Security and coding standards checks. Earlier we used to have separate tools for each of the above functions, but moving to Gitlab we now have a single stop-shop for all our Application Development and Automation needs. I see many other companies are trying to follow the gitlab methodology but gitlab is way ahead of the competetion.

Cons

Project and Portfolio management can still have improvements to provide Roadmap and Grantt views in future versions

Alternatives Considered

GitHub

Reasons for Choosing GitLab

Moving to a single stop window instead of disparate tools

Switched From

Jenkins and Bitbucket

Reasons for Switching to GitLab

GitHub has just started GitHub actions and will take at least a year to provide similar capabilities

Pros

Gitlab is simply the best version control and project management tool for any organisation, period! It has everything you need in a greatly priced package. It is my go to tool for my personal projects as well as used in every organisation I have worked with. I even tried to host their community version myself which was great. The documentation is well laid out, breaking changes are communicated well. Apart from this, the CI/CD functionality is easy to use, UI easy to navigate, reporting/labelling/tagging features are one of the easiest.

The free plan for individuals or small team covers everything you need.

Cons

None I can think of. I even like the new UI introduced recently.

Alternatives Considered

GitHub and Bitbucket

Reasons for Switching to GitLab

Availability of CI/CD before any other alternatives. Ease of use. Private repositories in free plan. Ease of working with in a team.

Pros

The installation is pretty straight forward and easy. It's the only free git server solution I found that offers LFS support. We started our project without the support of Git LFS but as the project grew, we had to find a solution and transfer our repository to an LFS ready server. GitLab offered the perfect solution, allowing us to keep our existing SSH keys for authentication, existing LDAP users and transfer our existing project pretty easily. Since then, we never ran into issues and the server is running smoothly since the first day.

Cons

The server is based on RoR so it's heavier than a simple Git Server. You need to make sure you have enough resources to get it to run properly.

Alternatives Considered

GitHub

Reasons for Switching to GitLab

SSH authentication + LFS, installed on our own server.

Pros

A huge number of features.
Intuitive and easy to use.
Extensive documentation and good customer service.
Flexibility of customization.

Cons

It can become expensive, particularly if the company has many users.
Some less-known external tools cannot be integrated.

Pros

GitLab is an easy to use and versatile project management tool. As a team, we use it not only for software development projects, but also for the follow-up of our other projects. It is really great that it is customizable, you can simplify your interface for your teammates who cannot use complex applications. This offers you a more user-friendly product.

Cons

It's a little harder for people other than engineers to adapt. You shouldn't expect traditional drag-and-drop kanban boards. It's a bit of a technical product. But if we consider that the intended use of the product, this is really normal, not a big minus.

Alternatives Considered

Jira

Switched From

GitHub

Pros

The most important feature is source code managing tool. App provides interface for GIT client. Creating a merge request is easy and you don't need to use console, it is possible to achieve this goal also on mobile! Another most important feature is CI/CD integration. Gitlab provides its solution to do this. You can define configuration and run tasks on GitLab runner, which can be easily installed on any server.

Cons

It provides a less functions than other software and a UI is a bit non modern.

Alternatives Considered

Bitbucket

Reasons for Choosing GitLab

Cheaper product.

Switched From

GitHub

Reasons for Switching to GitLab

Cheaper product.

Pros

GitLab CI is great. The GitLab CI/CD language allows us to build complex pipelines easily, pipeline's configs are stored in the repository as well, so we can manage everything in one place. GitLab also has built-in Docker registry. We have both our build pipeline and our images hosted on GitLab.
The pricing is also flexible, I recommend it for both startup and large enterprises.

Cons

Explore Projects feature can be better, it would be more useful if we have a filter to select projects by technologies.
Should support templates on the job level, so it can be reused between multiple environments.
Lack of integration: there are not many 3rd party services that integrate with GitLab for now.

Alternatives Considered

GitHub and Bitbucket

Reasons for Choosing GitLab

Better CI/CD

Switched From

Bitbucket

Reasons for Switching to GitLab

Better CI/CD

Pros

Project operation: Using GitLab provides the user with complete control over their projects. Users can easily follow up activities assigned to their respective partners. Additionally, the program gives you the advantage to have members across the borders as well, hence it is pretty useful and comes in handy when the work is beyond the borders.

Easy to use: GitLab is easy to lean and very easy to use the software as it helps in creating a project by giving instructions from the beginning. The tutorial mode is extremely helpful and because of that no experience or expertise is required to exhaust all the features offered by GitLab.

Cons

Contact Support: Although GitLab provides a good platform for its users, unfortunately, their contact section is poor. Users are unable to recover if they face any problem as the administration is limited. Administration can only be at your service if you own the premium version.

Complicated: Although Gitlab is easy to learn when it comes to the menu users tend to feel as if they are lost in some sort of maze. The menu is pretty much clunky because of this some of its users are unable to use GitLab to its full potential. Additionally, the efficiency of users is reduced to a great extent when they wish to search for aspects because it consumes time and energy.

Pros

I really love the issue board (Kanban board) feature which is very user friendly and easy to track the progress.
I also like the CICD feature.
I find the UI and UX of Gitlab is simple and easy.

Cons

I almost like everything of gitlab.
But I feel that a gitlab is little expensive to run CI/CD pipelines.
We may have some issues while running the multiple parallel nodes for CI/CD integrating with the kubernates cluster.

Alternatives Considered

GitHub and Bitbucket

Switched From

GitHub and Bitbucket

Pros

One of the things I admire most about GitLab is its open-source nature, which means that a vast community of users is constantly working to expand the platform's capabilities and use cases. I am particularly impressed with GitLab's robust branching and merging capabilities, which enhance its version control protocol and make it easy to manage even the most complex codebases by providing access to all versions of our codebase.

Cons

When working with large codebases on GitLab with multiple collaborators, it's not uncommon to experience slower load times and sluggish navigation. Additionally, while GitLab offers a range of integrations with third-party tools and services, there is certainly room for improvement in this area.

Pros

GitHub is a complete tool in every sense that will allow you to do your work in the most efficient and fast way, all the options it offers you to carry out your tasks and carry out an accurate documentation of the work that is being carried out will make your days of work are much easier and less stressful.
GitHub gives you very simple search options where only a fraction of the name of the object you are looking for will show you all the possible results within the repository, helping you locate the elements much more quickly and efficiently.
It also allows you to manage all kinds of permissions, so that not just anyone can delete, create or accept merge requests but only the people designated for it, allowing you better control of what happens all the time.
Its security is very high, making it a very safe product to store your company's code.

Cons

One of the things that can be said that puts this tool at a disadvantage is its cost, its cost of business implementation is somewhat high, making companies consider other more economical implementation options.