GitHub vs GitLab comparison

GitHub and GitLab are both solutions in the Application Security Tools category. GitHub is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.9, while GitLab is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.6. GitHub holds a 0.8% mindshare in AS, compared to GitLab’s 3.0% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of GitHub users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 97% of GitLab users who would recommend it.

GitHub

Read 93 GitHub reviews

2,513 Views
1,120 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

GitLab

Read 82 GitLab reviews

3,789 Views
3,120 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

GitHub

GitLab

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 5, 2025

GitHub and GitLab both compete in the DevOps domain, focusing on code management and CI/CD processes. GitLab may hold the edge due to its robust CI/CD capabilities and integration with tools like Kubernetes.

Features: GitHub offers source code management, GitHub Actions for automation, and integration with Microsoft Azure DevOps. GitLab provides robust CI/CD features, container management integration with Kubernetes, and comprehensive DevOps tools, giving it significant out-of-the-box DevOps and security scanning capabilities.

Room for Improvement: GitHub could enhance its integration with CI/CD, security features, support for large files, and user interface for more streamlined collaboration. GitLab can improve AWS integration, documentation, integration with third-party tools, and adapt its pricing for smaller teams.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: GitHub primarily operates in public and hybrid cloud environments, boasting user-friendly operations and a supportive community. GitLab offers versatility with a strong on-premises presence but seeks to balance ease of use with technical complexity. Both need improved documentation and more responsive support.

Pricing and ROI: GitHub offers a free tier for public repositories and competitive licensing models for private use. GitLab's free version is suitable for small-scale use, although premium versions are costly and favor large teams, yet offer a robust feature set that justifies the expense. Both provide time-saving benefits contributing to a positive ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed GitHub vs. GitLab Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

GitHub vs. GitLab

March 2025

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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

GitHub

Ranking in Application Security Tools

7th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Version Control (3rd)

GitLab

Ranking in Application Security Tools

8th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Build Automation (1st), Release Automation (2nd), Static Application Security Testing (SAST) (7th), 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 March 2025, in the Application Security Tools category, the mindshare of GitHub is 0.8%, down from 1.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of GitLab is 3.0%, up from 2.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Security Tools

Featured Reviews

Pervez Roy

Solutions Architect at Small Systems LTD

Very good for collaboration on software projects

We use GitHub for code repository alongside Bitbucket GitHub is very good for collaboration on software projects. We prefer Bitbucket for commercial use, while GitHub is used for open source. You can get the differences, history of changes, and version control for various pull requests. You can…

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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

"GitHub is good for collaboration because everyone can access it or we can restrict access to a few users. If I upload a file and share the URL, it's not restricted to a set number of users. Everyone with the link can download the files."

"It provides Draft Pull Requests for review purposes without needing immediate merging and GitHub Actions for CI/CD implementation."

"GitHub is the best tool for source repositories."

"The product has a very user-friendly interface and user-friendly security."

"I recommend using GitHub because it is reliable and helpful for developers."

"You can get the differences, history of changes, and version control for various pull requests."

"I find the most valuable collaboration between our peers to be a seamless collaboration between our peers. We can connect and change our code, allowing us to be agile in our projects. Since we're talking about DevOps, we're using Jenkins in our pipeline. It helps speed up the process by automating the DevOps workflow."

"The ease of use is valuable."

More GitHub pros

"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."

"The CI/CD pipeline with Helm has significantly improved deployment speed and efficiency."

"Everything is easy to configure and easy to work with."

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

"The important feature is the entire process of versioning source code maintenance and easy deployment. It is a necessity for the CI/CD pipeline."

"I have had no problem with the stability of the solution."

"I like that you can use GitLab as a double-sided solution for both DevOps and version management. It's a good product for working in these two areas, and the user interface makes it easy to understand."

"I like GitLab's security and SAS tools."

More GitLab pros

Cons

"The development team pushes the code into a repository, and the CI/CD pipeline will perform the build. We need open-source libraries to perform the builds. It would be helpful to have the ability to link to open-source libraries like npm libraries. I don't know if GitHub Actions provides this. I would like to see that in GitHub Actions if they don't."

"There is a bit of a learning curve."

"I decided not to use GitHub but developed my tool because I found it more efficient. I'm familiar with my tools, making them easier to use. I like being able to customize them to fit my workflow and the way I think.. Software development is like a personal workshop, and I tailor my version control to match my approach."

"There could be some improvements related to the automation of certain processes, especially with the integration of artificial intelligence."

"The sign in process is a bit difficult."

"It is difficult to merge a code or restore it to an older version."

"The user interface on GitLab is better."

"When I was new, I faced challenges with Git commands, such as reversing or deleting mistakes."

More GitHub cons

"The only thing our company is really waiting on in terms of features is the development of metrics."

"This solution could be improved by adding modifications such as slack notifications."

"GitLab can improve its user interface to make conflict resolution more user-friendly."

"The solution does not have many built-in functions or variables so scripting is required."

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

"Based on what I know so far, its integration with Kubernetes is not so good. We have to develop many things to make it work. We have to acquire third-party components to work with Kubernetes."

"The solution could be faster."

"Atlassian offers more products than GitLab. GitLab offers source control management, version control and collaboration between developers. Atlassian offers features on top of this as well as more integration points for developers."

More GitLab cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"GitHub is an open-source product, but when using the free-to-use version, anyone can see the code we're working on."

"The product is reasonably priced."

"The basic licensing model is free, and if you need to have technical support and such things, then it does cost something. You only need to pay extra if you need technical support."

"If there are only 10 people using a particular repository, then GitHub is free. But if we increase the number of users, we need to pay the normal charge for GitHub."

"We have an enterprise licensing agreement, and I am not part of the finance department so I can't say how much it costs."

"My company purchased it. Before, we used to receive the free version, but then they purchased some of the features."

"I haven't had to pay anything for GitHub, I use the free version."

"The licensing model from GitHub is very clear."

More GitHub pricing and cost advice

"GitLab is cheap."

"The solution is based on a subscription model and is reasonably priced."

"I'm not sure if they have some kind of discount. I've been negotiating with them on prices before, and I believe they weren't too happy to give discounts, but list prices are $19 per user, per month for Premium and $99 per user, per month for Ultimate. So, the difference between Premium and Ultimate is a bit bigger, and in most companies, you need to build some type of business case."

"We are using the open-source version."

"I think that we pay approximately $100 USD per month."

"This is an open-source solution."

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

"As I work in a vast enterprise, I'm unsure about the licensing cost for GitLab. It's the management team that takes care of that."

More GitLab pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Computer Software Company

11%

University

Educational Organization

26%

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about GitHub?

The control is the most valuable feature as developers can work on a single code.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for GitHub?

The pricing of GitHub depends on the choice of solutions, such as building one's own GitHub Runners to save money or using GitHub's Runners with extra costs. The pricing is considered reasonable an...

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What needs improvement with GitHub?

There are still areas for improvement with GitHub Actions and their deployment workflows, as they have made significant progress but are not yet polished. Occasionally, stability can be an issue, t...

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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.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

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...

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Comparisons

Bitbucket vs GitHub

Compared 16% of the time

Fortify on Demand vs GitHub

Compared 15% of the time

Snyk vs GitHub

Compared 12% of the time

AWS CodeCommit vs GitHub

Compared 12% of the time

IBM Rational ClearCase vs GitHub

Compared 3% of the time

More GitHub Competitors

Microsoft Azure DevOps vs GitLab

Compared 31% of the time

GitHub CoPilot vs GitLab

Compared 11% of the time

SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) vs GitLab

Compared 8% of the time

AWS CodePipeline vs GitLab

Compared 6% of the time

Tekton vs GitLab

Compared 5% of the time

More GitLab Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

GitHub

March 2025

Download GitHub product report

Buyer's Guide

GitLab

March 2025

Download GitLab product report

Also Known As

No data available

Fuzzit

Overview

GitHub is a web-based Git repository hosting service. It offers all of the distributed revision control and source code management (SCM) functionality of Git as well as adding its own features. Unlike Git, which is strictly a command-line tool, GitHub provides a Web-based graphical interface and desktop as well as mobile integration. It also provides access control and several collaboration features such as bug tracking, feature requests, task management, and wikis for every project.

GitHub

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.

GitLab

Sample Customers

Dominion Enterprises, NASA, Braintree, SAP, CyberAgent

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

Buyer's Guide

GitHub vs. GitLab

March 2025

Free Report: GitHub vs. GitLab

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