GitLab vs Harness comparison

GitLab and Harness are both solutions in the Build Automation category. GitLab is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.6, while Harness is ranked #10 with an average rating of 7.7. GitLab holds a 17.0% mindshare in BA, compared to Harness’s 5.8% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of GitLab users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Harness users who would recommend it.

GitLab

Read 82 GitLab reviews

6,733 Views
5,509 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

Harness

Read 3 Harness reviews

2,139 Views
1,495 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

GitLab

Harness

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between GitLab and Harness based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Build Automation solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

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

Buyer's Guide

GitLab vs. Harness

January 2025

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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

GitLab

Ranking in Build Automation

1st

Ranking in Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

8th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

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

Harness

Ranking in Build Automation

10th

Ranking in Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

30th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Cost Management (15th)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Build Automation category, the mindshare of GitLab is 17.0%, down from 18.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Harness is 5.8%, up from 4.3% 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

Linwei Yuan

Software Engineer at Citi

Streamline microservices deployment with integrated execution pipelines and comprehensive monitoring

Harness integrates all functions like execution pipelines, environment checks, and log monitoring in one place. It is very convenient since we have many microservices, so having one platform for all of them is beneficial. The dashboard allows me to monitor all core services' deployment status in one place, making it easier to find bugs and check logs.

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

"We have seen a couple of merge requests or pull requests raised in GitLab. I see the interface, the way it shows the difference between the two source codes, that it is easy for anyone to do the review and then accept the request; the pull request is the valuable feature."

"GitLab has better support, and its features are superior compared to Jenkins."

"It is very useful for reviews. We are using branch merging operations and full reset operations. It is also very useful for merging our code and tracking another branch. The graph diagrams of Git are very useful. Its interface is straightforward and not too complex for us."

"This product is always evolving, and they listen to the customers."

"We like that we can create branches and then the branches can be reviewed and you can mesh those branches back. You can independently work with your own branch, you don't need to really control the core of other people."

"They incorporate new features every September, and they have introduced their own code editor and AI features."

"The solution is stable."

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

More GitLab pros

"It's a highly customizable DevOps tool."

"Harness starts integrating with organizations, making everything automated without the need for manual interruption."

"Harness integrates all functions like execution pipelines, environment checks, and log monitoring in one place, making it convenient."

"Harness integrates all functions like execution pipelines, environment checks, and log monitoring in one place."

Cons

"The solution should be more cloud-native and have more cloud-native capabilities and features."

"I rate the support from GitLab a four out of five."

"The solution could improve by providing more integration into the CI/CD pipeline, an autocomplete search tool, and more supporting documentation."

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

"GitLab's UI could be improved."

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

"We have only seen a couple of issues on Gitlab, which we use for building some of the applications."

"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

"When integrating Harness with more than twenty applications in one place, it becomes less stable, causing improvements to be necessary."

"Even with automation, there's a requirement for manual change requests for approvals."

"There's also room for improvement in debugging pipeline issues, which can sometimes become complex."

"I prefer the previous less compact UI version of Harness, which showed more details on the screen."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"The initial setup cost is excellent and you can add the premium features later."

"In total, I believe we have more than 300 licenses spread over about 100 users, though I can't comment on the costs involved."

"The price of GitLab could be better, it is expensive."

"The solution is based on a licensing model that includes technical support and is paid annually."

"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."

"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."

More GitLab pricing and cost advice

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

29%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

34%

Computer Software Company

13%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

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?

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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What do you like most about Harness?

It's a highly customizable DevOps tool.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Harness?

Previously, when deploying a version that had been deployed successfully before, it sometimes failed upon trying again, which seems to be an intermittent issue about stability. I prefer the previou...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Harness?

I used Harness for CICD, and it served as the release platform that our team used for Java applications. We do Java microservices, and we used it to deploy them.

See all answers

Comparisons

Microsoft Azure DevOps vs GitLab

Compared 34% of the time

GitHub CoPilot vs GitLab

Compared 9% 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 Harness

Compared 22% of the time

GitHub Actions vs Harness

Compared 17% of the time

TeamCity vs Harness

Compared 15% of the time

Tekton vs Harness

Compared 14% of the time

Cloudability vs Harness

Compared 4% of the time

More Harness Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

GitLab

February 2025

Download GitLab product report

Buyer's Guide

Build Automation

January 2025

Download Harness product report

Also Known As

Fuzzit

Armory

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

Harness offers a comprehensive toolset for automating deployment processes and enhancing software update efficiency. It's lauded for its CI/CD capabilities, feature flagging, and real-time deployment monitoring. Key features include an intuitive UI, secret management, and robust rollback functionalities, all contributing to improved productivity and reduced errors in DevOps environments.

Harness

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

Linedata, Openbank, Home Depot, Advanced

Buyer's Guide

GitLab vs. Harness

January 2025

Free Report: GitLab vs. Harness

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

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