AWS Amplify vs GitLab comparison

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AWS Amplify

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 7, 2025

GitLab and AWS Amplify are key competitors in the DevOps and cloud services landscape, each with distinct strengths. GitLab holds an advantage with its comprehensive development platform, offering robust CI/CD pipelines, whereas AWS Amplify is favorable for those fully immersed in AWS, excelling in cloud integration.

Features: GitLab integrates issue tracking, agile planning tools, and advanced CI/CD capabilities. AWS Amplify provides advanced cloud integration, real-time data, and storage management, enhancing its suitability for AWS-centric infrastructures.

Room for Improvement: GitLab could enhance its security features and provide more advanced analytics tools. Improved scalability options and deeper third-party integrations could benefit AWS Amplify. GitLab might expand its cloud service integrations, while Amplify could further market its services outside the AWS ecosystem.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: GitLab supports easy deployment with Docker and Kubernetes integration, supported by community-driven resources and extensive documentation. AWS Amplify offers seamless cloud deployment with 24/7 customer support for enterprise-level service.

Pricing and ROI: GitLab presents flexible pricing with a free tier, maximizing ROI for full DevOps needs. AWS Amplify's pricing is aligned with AWS usage, delivering effective ROI for businesses engaged with AWS due to its cost-effectiveness and scalability.

To learn more, read our detailed AWS Amplify vs. GitLab Report (Updated: January 2025).

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AWS Amplify vs. GitLab

January 2025

Helped 838,713 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

AWS Amplify

Ranking in Release Automation

5th

Average Rating

7.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

GitLab

Ranking in Release Automation

2nd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Security Tools (8th), Build Automation (1st), Static Application Security Testing (SAST) (8th), Rapid Application Development Software (12th), Software Composition Analysis (SCA) (5th), Enterprise Agile Planning Tools (2nd), Fuzz Testing Tools (2nd), DevSecOps (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Release Automation category, the mindshare of AWS Amplify is 2.1%, down from 3.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of GitLab is 35.6%, up from 31.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Release Automation

Featured Reviews

Shrihari Haridas

DevOps Engineer at Burns & McDonnell

Amplify CLI acts as a single source of truth

The Amplify CLI acts as a single source of truth. You install the SDK from there, and using the Amplify API, you can talk to and manage AWS services directly from your code. You don't need to go to the GUI and click through menus - everything is manageable through the Amplify API at the code level. AWS Amplify integrates seamlessly with other services through AWS CloudFormation. Amplify first connects to the cloud for me. Whenever we write down the SDK, it's managed by CloudFormation. CloudFormation still happens on our cloud for your application because everything is updated with the help of cloud automation. Anything we need to change, we just add it to Amplify, and Amplify triggers the CloudFormation templates. Then it logs permission, updates the whole thing, or whatever you need it to ask.

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Gaurav Chandel

AWS DevOps/ Site Reliability Engineer at Tata Consultancy

Boosted productivity with automated pipelines and seamless collaboration

There are some challenges with repository file management as GitLab may struggle to manage larger files. Improvements could be made regarding size management and file partitioning. Also, the UI has remained the same for a couple of years and could benefit from an update with AI features and better customization.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Typically, whenever we make changes and need to switch environments (e.g., dev to production), it's easy for our developers to maintain the state of each environment and make customizations as needed. They don't necessarily need to involve the cloud team for basic management."

"The link with Figma is very nice. You can create your design in Figma, and then you can import it into AWS Amplify and use it. You can link it to your data source and data bindings."

"One of the things I like best about AWS Amplify is its ease of use and strong integration with other AWS services, which enhances efficiency."

"I didn't host my application but have used their backend as a service. It was a complete package with authentication, AWS AppSync, DynamoDB, and GraphQL. AWS Amplify is great if you don't know backend development and don't want to struggle with other backend services like MongoDB. You don't have to worry about what backend language or database to use. If you're confused, enroll with AWS Amplify. I also recommend Google Firebase for similar purposes."

"The only tricky part I experienced was during the initial installation. I followed the documentation, but it wasn't working for some reason. I had to modify some local files in the CLI-generated folder to get it to work. I had to dig deep to find the issue, and it wasn't mentioned in the docs. So, some issues could be better highlighted in the AWS CLI documentation, which would help developers integrate other services more easily. AWS needs to improve its support."

"The most valuable feature is user management, which includes authentication and authorization."

"The most valuable feature of AWS Amplify is authentication."

"Their CI/CD engine is very mature. It's very comprehensive and flexible, and compared to other projects, I believe that GitLab is number one right now from that perspective."

"The most important features of GitLab for us are issue management and all the CI/CD tools. Another aspect that I love about GitLab is the UI."

"The code merging capability is something that we use very frequently."

"It's a great toolbox where the CI/CD pipeline is the fundamental component, but there are so many other features that you can pull from, which makes it a very powerful tool. My current client is using AWS, and they can, of course, use AWS CodePipeline, but GitLab is much more mature than that, and it also gives you the freedom to decide to go to another platform or have a multi-cloud strategy and things like that. That freedom for me is also very valuable."

"The solution is stable."

"It scales well."

"I like that it's easy to deploy our services over GitLab. The customer support is also good with a really active community. You have a lot of support that you can get online with your stack. That is probably one of the benefits of using GitLab. It's also really fast."

"We use GitLab in the new project for CI/CD, integration, and deployment."

More GitLab pros

Cons

"AWS Amplify can be improved in some areas, particularly in providing more robust documentation and easier customization options."

"Its capability to handle big projects needs to be improved. If you generate a user interface in Figma and import everything where all components are in one directory, currently, it is complicated. It isn't able to cope with that. For small projects, it is not an issue, but if you have big projects and you want to use AWS Amplify, then it gets more difficult. That is the most important point for me. It should be improved to cope better with bigger projects."

"The documentation needs improvement, as it is not user-friendly and can be challenging for novices."

"I like AWS Amplify's documentation. It's comprehensive and includes many examples, so you don't need to ask for help much - you can refer to the docs. It's easy to use. I also appreciate the cost structure. You only pay for what you use. For example, if you use 100 GB, you're charged for that, but if you don't use it, you pay the maintenance cost."

"AWS can implement multiple web applications, and cross-platform applications, like iOS."

"AWS Amplify could improve in the deployment. It would be beneficial to have more methods, such as automation."

"I don't think there are major issues, but there is room for improvement in the UI/UX of AWS Amplify. The UI still needs to be more polished and user-friendly. It's currently a bit like drag-and-drop initially, but there should be more options to customize the UI based on our needs."

"Some of the scripts that we encountered in GitLab were not fully functional and threw up errors."

"There is a need to improve or adopt AI into the ecosystem like a co-pilot, which Microsoft has done with GitHub."

"Even if I say I want some improvement, they will say it is already planned in the first quarter, second quarter, or third quarter. That said, most everything is quite improved already, and they're improving even further still."

"I used Spring Cloud config and to connect that to GitLab was so hard."

"GitLab can improve the integration with third-party applications. It could be made easier. Additionally, having API control from my application could be helpful."

"The solution should again offer an on-premises deployment option."

"It would be better if there weren't any outages. There are occasions where we usually see a lot of outages using GitLab. It happens at least once a week or something like that. Whatever pipelines you're running, to check the logs, you need to have a different set of tools like Argus or something like that. If you have pipelines running on GitLab, you need a separate service deployed to view the logs, which is kind of a pain. If the logs can be used conveniently on GitLab, that would be definitely helpful. I'm not talking about the CI/CD pipelines but the back-end services and microservices deployed over GitLab. To view the logs for those microservices, you need to have separate log viewers, which is kind of a pain."

"We do face issues in our company when we run out of disk space."

More GitLab cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"When you're just starting, it is free. You have to pay only when you reach a certain amount of usage. I'm still at the early stage. So, I don't have to pay a lot. At the moment, it is not too expensive for me. It is worth the money."

"The pricing depends on what your use case is and whether you're an existing AWS customer. It's a pay-as-you-go model, so not expensive."

"My company uses the free version of GitLab, which is GitLab Community Edition. There is a licensed version also available for GitLab."

"It seems reasonable. Our IT team manages the licenses."

"GitLab is comparatively expensive, but it provides value because it's feature-rich."

"In terms of the pricing for GitLab, on a scale of one to five, with one being expensive and five being cheap, I'm rating pricing for the solution a four. It could still be cheaper because right now, my company has a small team, and sometimes it's difficult to use a paid product for a small team. You'd hope the team will grow and scale, but currently, you're paying a high license fee for a small team. I'm referring to the GitLab license that has premium features and will give you all features. This can be a problem for management to approve the high price of the license for a team this small."

"The open-source version is very good and the commercial version is reasonably priced."

"There are different licensing options available, including a free limited-user license."

"Its price is fine. It is on the cheaper side and not expensive. You have to pay additionally for GitLab CI/CD minutes. Initially, we used the free version. When we ran out of GitLab minutes, we migrated to the paid version."

"We are currently using the open-source version."

More GitLab pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Comms Service Provider

Educational Organization

29%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

How to estimate whether using the AWS services is worthwhile for saving time and money for manufacturing at a retailer company?

Estimating the cost-effectiveness of using AWS services for manufacturing at a retailer company involves a comprehensive analysis. To make an informed decision, you should consider factors like the...

What do you like most about AWS Amplify?

Typically, whenever we make changes and need to switch environments (e.g., dev to production), it's easy for our developers to maintain the state of each environment and make customizations as need...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS Amplify?

I find the pricing of AWS Amplify reasonable, considering the value it provides, although opinions may vary based on usage.

What do you like most about GitLab?

I find the features and version control history to be most valuable for our development workflow. These aspects provide us with a clear view of changes and help us manage requests efficiently.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for GitLab?

The pricing of GitLab is reasonable, aligning with what I consider to be average compared to competitors.

What needs improvement with GitLab?

There are missing search features, particularly when searching repositories or applying filters. Additionally, I have encountered issues with the deployment of CI/CD pipelines, especially dealing w...

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Compared 8% of the time

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Compared 6% of the time

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Product Reports

Download AWS Amplify product report

AWS Amplify

February 2025

Download GitLab product report

February 2025

Also Known As

No data available

Fuzzit

Overview

AWS Amplify is a set of purpose-built tools and features that lets frontend web and mobile developers quickly and easily build full-stack applications on AWS, with the flexibility to leverage the breadth of AWS services as your use cases evolve. With Amplify, you can configure a web or mobile app backend, connect your app in minutes, visually build a web frontend UI, and easily manage app content outside the AWS console. Ship faster and scale effortlessly—with no cloud expertise needed.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

GitLab is a complete DevOps platform that enables teams to collaborate and deliver software faster.

It provides a single application for the entire DevOps lifecycle, from planning and development to testing, deployment, and monitoring.

With GitLab, teams can streamline their workflows, automate processes, and improve productivity.

Sample Customers

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers

1. NASA 2. IBM 3. Sony 4. Alibaba 5. CERN 6. Siemens 7. Volkswagen 8. ING 9. Ticketmaster 10. SpaceX 11. Adobe 12. Intuit 13. Autodesk 14. Rakuten 15. Unity Technologies 16. Pandora 17. Electronic Arts 18. Nordstrom 19. Verizon 20. Comcast 21. Philips 22. Deutsche Telekom 23. Orange 24. Fujitsu 25. Ericsson 26. Nokia 27. General Electric 28. Cisco 29. Accenture 30. Deloitte 31. PwC 32. KPMG