GitLab vs IBM Rational Build Forge comparison

GitLab and IBM are both solutions in the Build Automation category. GitLab is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.6, while IBM is ranked #23. GitLab holds a 16.6% mindshare in BA, compared to IBM’s 0.8% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of GitLab users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of IBM users who would recommend it.

GitLab

Read 82 GitLab reviews

6,080 Views
4,974 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

IBM Rational Build Forge

Read 2 IBM Rational Build Forge reviews

434 Views
331 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

GitLab

IBM Rational Build Forge

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 5, 2025

IBM Rational Build Forge and GitLab compete in software development and build management. GitLab has the upper hand due to its comprehensive feature set, despite potentially higher costs.

Features: IBM Rational Build Forge provides automation capabilities and efficient build and process management. GitLab includes continuous integration/continuous deployment, version control, and collaboration tools, making it a versatile solution for software development teams.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM Rational Build Forge offers straightforward deployment and reliable customer service with tailored support. GitLab utilizes a cloud-based deployment model with community-driven support, offering scalability through a centralized platform.

Pricing and ROI: IBM Rational Build Forge provides cost-effective solutions with a clear return on investment. GitLab, though potentially more expensive, offers long-term ROI with enhanced project management and collaboration capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed GitLab vs. IBM Rational Build Forge Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

GitLab vs. IBM Rational Build Forge

March 2025

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Helped 845,406 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

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Security Tools (9th), 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)

IBM Rational Build Forge

Ranking in Build Automation

23rd

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Build Automation category, the mindshare of GitLab is 16.6%, down from 18.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Rational Build Forge is 0.8%, down from 1.4% 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

Amy DeLorge

CRM Program Release Manager at Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center

Great reporting features and very functional

The solution could be more user friendly. Trying to train somebody on it can be difficult. If you're in this field, you kind of learn the tools, but trying to show a PM how to find report sheets to pull data was difficult. I had to show them how to write the queries and pull the data that they needed. It's not a layman's solution. If you're working with a programmer or with an architect, you won't have issues trying to relay how to utilize the tool. It was for those who cut the checks where there were problems enabling them to pull the data they required. I guess the answer is DevOps, but it depends on your environment. Just being able to sign into dashboards and get accurate results was my biggest thing with my PMs on my projects. They like charts and pie graphs, the ability to see things at a glance data where they could make decisions on the fly.

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 most valuable feature of GitLab is its security."

"The most valuable feature of GitLab is the ability to upload scripts and make changes when needed and then reupload them. Additionally, the solution is user-friendly."

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

"As a developer, this solution is useful as a repository holder because most of the POC projects that we have are on GitLab."

"CI/CD is valuable for me."

"The most valuable features of GitLab are the review, patch repo, and plans are in YAML."

"In our software development lifecycle, GitLab is used as a component for code repository management. We use GitLab for several projects to handle code repositories. For other software projects, we use Bitbucket, but the use case for both is very similar."

"The solution's most valuable features are pipelines."

More GitLab pros

"All features are useful. Our customer doesn't have any complaints about the tool. It works pretty well for what they want and what they need to do."

"Very good reporting features."

Cons

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

"It should be used by a larger number of people. They should raise awareness."

"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."

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

"The documentation could be improved to help newcomers better understand things like creating new branches."

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

"GitLab can improve by integrating with more tools, such as servers with Docker."

"You need to have a good knowledge of the product in order to use it."

More GitLab cons

"Not user friendly for the layman."

"Its logging can be improved. When something goes wrong, it is not always very easy to find the problem. It is hard to identify whether the problem is because of low memory in the server or some configuration in Rational Build Forge. The error logs are not very detailed, and they should provide more information. It should also have more integration with third-party tools. It would be great to have more integration with third-party tools."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution's pricing is acceptable."

"This is an open-source solution."

"GitLab is an open-source solution."

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

"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."

"This product is not very expensive but the price can be better."

"GitLab is a free solution to use."

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

More GitLab pricing and cost advice

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

26%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

20%

Financial Services Firm

18%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Educational Organization

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?

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

Microsoft Azure DevOps vs GitLab

Compared 29% of the time

GitHub CoPilot vs GitLab

Compared 13% 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 IBM Rational Build Forge

Compared 100% of the time

More IBM Rational Build Forge Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

GitLab

March 2025

Download GitLab product report

Buyer's Guide

Build Automation

March 2025

Download IBM Rational Build Forge product report

Also Known As

Fuzzit

Rational Build Forge

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

IBM Rational Build Forge is an adaptive execution framework that helps automate and standardize the software assembly process. Rational Build Forge helps teams standardize repetitive tasks, improve software quality and manage compliance mandates. This software scales to 25 seats. Rational Build Forge delivers:
Flexibility - gives developers self-service access to preconfigured build processes from within their integrated development environment (IDE). You can add IBM Rational software products to further enhance automation, reporting and integration.
Productivity - accelerates build and release cycles through iterative development, parallel processes and efficient use of hardware.
Compliance - simplifies compliance management with self-documenting audit trails and role-based security.
Compatibility - increases team efficiency with centralized build and release management using the tools you have today.

IBM

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

Cars.com

Buyer's Guide

GitLab vs. IBM Rational Build Forge

March 2025

Free Report: GitLab vs. IBM Rational Build Forge

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