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AWS CodeBuild vs GitLab comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 5, 2025

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 CodeBuild
Ranking in Build Automation
9th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
GitLab
Ranking in Build Automation
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
84
Ranking in other categories
Application Security Tools (9th), Release Automation (2nd), Static Application Security Testing (SAST) (7th), Rapid Application Development Software (11th), Software Composition Analysis (SCA) (5th), Enterprise Agile Planning Tools (2nd), Fuzz Testing Tools (2nd), DevSecOps (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Build Automation category, the mindshare of AWS CodeBuild is 1.2%, down from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of GitLab is 15.9%, down from 18.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Build Automation
 

Featured Reviews

Udhay Prakash Pethakamsetty - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides good integrations, is flexible, and has a comparable price
The product must provide more integrations. It is a replica of Jenkins. We have a management overhead. When I build artifacts stored outside the S3 bucket, it will have additional charges on the storage volumes. If we use S3 buckets regularly, it is fine. However, when we store somewhere else, it will be an issue. There is no persistent storage or preservation of workspace between the builds. We must fix the dependencies every time, even if the dependencies are the same. It is unnecessary.
Gaurav Chandel - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The integration is a good feature."
"The most important thing is that it's self-contained in an AWS account, and it's all linked to the customer's AWS account."
"AWS CodeBuild reduces wait time and optimizes workflows."
"One of the main features I value in CodeBuild compared to previous experiences, like using Jenkins, is its ability to handle tasks automatically with AWS, requiring only proper setup of the check file."
"The integration is a good feature."
"The integration with other AWS services has streamlined our workflow."
"A valuable feature is the support for third-party repositories such as Bitbucket, GitLab, or GitHub."
"CodeBuild supports various platforms and coding."
"GitLab has better support, and its features are superior compared to Jenkins."
"I recommend GitLab for DevOps engineers."
"The most valuable functionality of GitLab, for me, is the DevOps. Besides the normal source control based on Git, I find the Auto DevOps features most important in the solution."
"It is very flexible and easy because you can store data on cloud."
"It is user-friendly, easy to use, and easy to administer."
"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."
"GitLab's best feature is Actions."
"GitLab is very well-organized and easy to use. Also, it offers most features that customers need."
 

Cons

"For improvement, I'd suggest more build instance-type options. There's a big jump from 15 gigabytes of RAM to 150, and I'd like something in between as the larger option is too expensive for our needs."
"There is no persistent storage or preservation of workspace between the builds."
"Multiple clients have faced issues with pricing. After migrating from Azure to EC2, they were unexpectedly charged 100,000 rupees because the pricing details were not clearly visible."
"While working on building images for multiple applications within a single script, I encountered an issue where looping functionality was not supported as expected."
"They can further improve the integration of the Bitbucket for CodeBuild."
"The front-end interface and the management are somewhat challenging, and there's a lot of space for improvement."
"We had integration issues with a tool called Octopus Deploy while using CodeBuild. AWS support helped us resolve it, however, it could be better."
"Notifications could be added, or SNS integration could be included so that notifications can be received on every build, whether the build fails or succeeds."
"The solution could improve by providing more integration into the CI/CD pipeline, an autocomplete search tool, and more supporting documentation."
"You need to have a good knowledge of the product in order to use it."
"There are some challenges with repository file management as GitLab may struggle to manage larger files."
"Perhaps the integration could be better."
"The documentation is confusing."
"This solution could be improved by adding modifications such as slack notifications."
"I would like more Agile features in the Premium version. The Premium version should have all Agile features that exist in the Ultimate version. IBM AOM has a complete Agile implementation, but in GitLab, you only have these features if you buy the Ultimate version. It would be good if we can use these in the Premium version."
"As GitLab is not perfect, what needs improvement in the solution is the Wiki feature of the groups or the repertories because currently, it's not searchable by default. You'll need an indexing service such as Elasticsearch to make it searchable, and that requires too much work, so for me, it's the main feature that should be improved in GitLab. In the next version of the solution, from the top of my head, the documentation could be improved. Besides the Wiki, it would be good if there's documentation that would be automatically generated based on the code repository. In other words, there should be some tutorials from GitLab for developers in the next release."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"AWS CodeBuild is free. We only pay for our code's compute resources during the build process. For example, if our code takes ten minutes to build, we only pay for those ten minutes of computing time. CodeDeploy and CodePipeline are free because they're serverless and don't require computing resources. CodeCommit has minimal costs for storing code."
"Despite the cost, it is worth the investment."
"We pay a monthly licensing fee."
"The price of GitLab could be better, it is expensive."
"I don't mind the price because I use the free version."
"Regarding pricing, I would rate GitLab as moderately priced, maybe around a seven or eight out of ten. It could be more flexible for clients but generally offers good value."
"The initial setup cost is excellent and you can add the premium features later."
"This product is not very expensive but the price can be better."
"In total, I believe we have more than 300 licenses spread over about 100 users, though I can't comment on the costs involved."
"We are currently using the open-source version."
"The solution's standard license is paid annually. They have changed the pricing model and it used to be better. There is a free version available."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
21%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Media Company
10%
Educational Organization
22%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about AWS CodeBuild?
It works seamlessly with AWS Elastic Container Registry (ECR).
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS CodeBuild?
Regarding pricing, AWS services are quite expensive compared to open source tools like Git that are available for free.
What needs improvement with AWS CodeBuild?
We had integration issues with a tool called Octopus Deploy while using CodeBuild. AWS support helped us resolve it, however, it could be better.
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?
Certain features in Jira are not available in GitLab, such as the functionality to have weights at the milestone and epic levels. Hopefully, these features will be resolved with work items in GitLa...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

CodeBuild
Fuzzit
 

Overview

 

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
Find out what your peers are saying about AWS CodeBuild vs. GitLab and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
850,671 professionals have used our research since 2012.