GitLab vs GoCD comparison

GitLab and Thoughtworks are both solutions in the Build Automation category. GitLab is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.6, while Thoughtworks is ranked #15 with an average rating of 7.5. GitLab holds a 16.9% mindshare in BA, compared to Thoughtworks’s 1.5% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of GitLab users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 88% of Thoughtworks users who would recommend it.

GitLab

Read 82 GitLab reviews

6,568 Views
5,267 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

GoCD

Read 7 GoCD reviews

672 Views
508 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

GitLab

GoCD

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 7, 2025

GoCD and GitLab compete in the continuous integration and delivery space. GitLab seems to hold the advantage due to its comprehensive feature set and strong market appeal.

Features: GoCD provides powerful pipeline management, efficient resource consumption, and value stream mapping to enhance project transparency. In contrast, GitLab offers extensive integrations, robust CI/CD pipelines, and a sophisticated code review system, making it a complete solution for the development lifecycle.

Room for Improvement: GoCD could benefit from a broader range of plugins and enhanced documentation for newcomers. It may also require improvements in user interface customization options. GitLab may improve in refining its complex features for better accessibility, offering more straightforward onboarding guides, and expanding its feature set usage to meet diverse development needs.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: GoCD's lightweight architecture simplifies quick setups, focusing on standard workflow management. GitLab provides versatile deployment options, including cloud and hybrid setups, supported by extensive documentation and superior customer service channels for a seamless implementation experience.

Pricing and ROI: GoCD appeals with low initial costs due to its open-source nature, making it cost-effective. GitLab charges higher prices, justified by its extensive features and integration capabilities, which lead to favorable ROI through decreased need for additional tools.

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

Buyer's Guide

GitLab vs. GoCD

March 2025

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Helped 839,422 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

GitLab

Ranking in Build Automation

1st

Ranking in Release Automation

2nd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Security Tools (8th), 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)

GoCD

Ranking in Build Automation

15th

Ranking in Release Automation

8th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites (15th)

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Build Automation category, the mindshare of GitLab is 16.9%, down from 18.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of GoCD is 1.5%, down from 1.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Build Automation

Featured Reviews

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.

Read full review

RajeshReddy

Dev Ops Engineer at Infosys

The UI is colorful, but the user experience must be improved

We can see all the pipelines with a simple search. The UI is colorful. The user experience is very rich. The product is very easy to learn if we know a bit of the basics. If we have someone to show us how to use it, it is very easy.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The user interface is really good so that helps with huge teams who need to collaborate."

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

"The scalability is good."

"The stability of GitLab is impressive."

"The tool helps to integrate CI/CD pipeline deployments. It is very easy to learn. Its security model is good."

"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."

"GitLab's source control is excellent."

"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."

More GitLab pros

"Permission separations mean that we can grant limited permissions for each team or team member."

"GoCD's open-source nature is valuable."

"The UI is colorful."

"The most notable aspect is its user interface, which we find to be user-friendly and straightforward for deploying and comprehending pipelines. We have the ability to create multiple pipelines, and in addition to that, the resource consumption is impressive."

Cons

"GitLab would be improved with the addition of templates for deployment on local PCs."

"GitLab could improve by having more plugins and better user-friendliness."

"The integration could be slightly better."

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

"The price of GitLab could improve, it is high."

"There are some challenges with repository file management as GitLab may struggle to manage larger files."

"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."

"The user interface could be more user-friendly. We do most of our operations through the website interface but it could be better."

More GitLab cons

"It is difficult to assign different access levels because it relies on separate keys for developer and admin access, which could be simplified."

"The tool must be more user-friendly."

"The aspect that requires attention is the user management component. When integrating with BitLabs and authenticating through GitLab, there are specific features we desire. One important feature is the ability to import users directly from GitLab, along with their respective designations, and assign appropriate privileges based on that information. Allocating different privileges to users is a time-consuming process for us."

"The documentation really should be improved by including real examples and more setup cases."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"GitLab is highly priced for smaller teams, but it's okay if considering a user base of thousands."

"We are using the free version of GitLab."

"GitLab is a free solution to use."

"The solution's pricing is acceptable."

"GitLab is cheap."

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

"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."

More GitLab pricing and cost advice

"It's an open-source and free tool."

"This is an open-source solution and it is inexpensive."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

28%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

21%

Financial Services Firm

15%

Retailer

11%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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...

See all answers

What do you like most about GoCD?

The UI is colorful.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for GoCD?

The product is free of cost.

See all answers

What needs improvement with GoCD?

One area of product improvement is the access control system. It is difficult to assign different access levels because it relies on separate keys for developer and admin access, which could be sim...

See all answers

Comparisons

Microsoft Azure DevOps vs GitLab

Compared 32% 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

Jenkins vs GoCD

Compared 23% of the time

GitHub Actions vs GoCD

Compared 16% of the time

Tekton vs GoCD

Compared 11% of the time

Microsoft Azure DevOps vs GoCD

Compared 10% of the time

More GoCD Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

GitLab

February 2025

Download GitLab product report

Buyer's Guide

Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites

February 2025

Download GoCD product report

Also Known As

Fuzzit

Adaptive ALM, Thoughtworks Go

Overview

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

GoCD is an open source continuous delivery server created by ThoughtWorks. GoCD offers businesses a first-class build and deployment engine for complete control and visibility. It was designed for continuous delivery and the concepts essential to this practice are built in at the core.

Thoughtworks

Sample Customers

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

Ancestry.com, Barclay Card, AutoTrader, BT Financial Group, Gamesys, Nike, Vodafone, Haufe Lexware, Medidata, Hoovers

Buyer's Guide

GitLab vs. GoCD

March 2025

Free Report: GitLab vs. GoCD

Find out what your peers are saying about GitLab vs. GoCD and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.

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