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GitLab vs Rally Software comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
6.1
GitLab increases ROI by streamlining automation, speeding deployments, enhancing security, and lowering costs, boosting DevOps productivity and adoption.
Sentiment score
7.5
Rally Software boosts efficiency by 10%, offers 15X ROI, saves time, and is cost-effective despite some user challenges.
Regarding release frequency, previously we had one to two releases per week, but now we achieve daily or on-demand releases, resulting in a three to five-fold increase in release frequency.
Site Reliability Engineer at Granicus Inc.
Migrating to GitLab is bringing time-saving benefits, and everything is easier to automate.
IT Manager at a tech company with 5,001-10,000 employees
We have saved time significantly, reducing deployment time from four hours to five minutes per deployment.
IT Software Architect at ANAC - Autorità Nazionale Anticorruzione
The ROI is visible, as that's why we are investing in these tools and running our projects successfully through them, despite a few challenges such as role-based access being somewhat difficult.
Sr. Information Architect and Principal Consultant UX at Tech Mahindra Limited
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.6
GitLab users appreciate stable service and solid paid support but note inconsistency and self-reliance challenges for free tiers.
Sentiment score
6.8
Rally Software's customer service is responsive, with quick, knowledgeable support and proactive communication, generally satisfying users despite occasional delays.
We have rarely needed to escalate issues to technical support since GitLab usually runs seamlessly.
AWS DevOps/ Site Reliability Engineer at Tata Consultancy
I have interacted with architects for some advice during the implementation, and they were prompt in their response.
Platform Engineer & Manager at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
I have had meetings where they taught me, explained things, and provided guidance for starting from scratch.
IT Manager at a tech company with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
GitLab is scalable and suited for cloud setups, though on-premises deployments might present challenges requiring additional expertise.
Sentiment score
7.2
Rally Software offers strong scalability supporting large enterprises, despite occasional performance issues, effectively handling significant user volumes globally.
It has all the features required for our coding and deployment needs, which makes it scalable to our changing requirements.
Senior Application Developer at IBM
We're transitioning to OpenShift for future scalability with increased user numbers.
Platform Engineer & Manager at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
For scaling, other deployment options from GitLab's side need to be adopted.
Manager, Engineering at 7-Eleven
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
GitLab is highly reliable with minimal bugs, occasional slowdowns, and generally supports teams with consistent, stable performance.
Sentiment score
7.4
Rally Software is generally stable and reliable, with occasional slowness and downtime, but users appreciate the responsive support.
I have not encountered any performance or stability issues with GitLab so far.
AWS DevOps/ Site Reliability Engineer at Tata Consultancy
The updates are frequent and demanding, happening at least once a week due to security reasons.
Chief Technology Officer at Acclym
We raised a request with GitLab support, but they were unable to help because they could not find the root cause of what went wrong.
Assistant Manager at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Room For Improvement

GitLab users seek better AWS integration, improved CI/CD, enhanced documentation, security, and deployment support, with interface and cost concerns.
Rally Software struggles with navigation, integration, user-friendliness, and requires improvements in reporting, customization, and workflow efficiency.
It would be beneficial to have a user-friendly interface for setting up these configurations, instead of just writing YAML files.
IT Manager at a tech company with 5,001-10,000 employees
It is essential to conduct proper testing, such as unit tests and code coverage, within the SDLC pipelines.
Manager, Engineering at 7-Eleven
GitLab can improve its user interface to make conflict resolution more user-friendly.
Senior Application Developer at IBM
One area for improvement might be the rigidity in role and access configurations, which require many process changes to fit the tool.
Sr. Information Architect and Principal Consultant UX at Tech Mahindra Limited
 

Setup Cost

GitLab offers free and paid plans; Premium and Ultimate tiers provide advanced features but can be costly.
Enterprise users find Rally Software pricing high but valuable for large-scale agile projects, suggesting a more flexible model.
Even when working in other small organizations, we opted for GitLab as it was cost-efficient.
Senior Application Developer at IBM
The pricing of GitLab is reasonable, aligning with what I consider to be average compared to competitors.
IT Manager at a tech company with 5,001-10,000 employees
The price is high, and it limits user accessibility.
IT Software Architect at ANAC - Autorità Nazionale Anticorruzione
Rally Software is affordable because our customers also prefer it.
Sr. Information Architect and Principal Consultant UX at Tech Mahindra Limited
 

Valuable Features

GitLab excels in CI/CD, integration, and security, offering intuitive features and strong community support, enhancing team collaboration and efficiency.
Rally Software offers user-friendly Agile project management with real-time dashboards, customizable reporting, and robust integration capabilities.
As we implement automated testing and DevSecOps, it speeds up the process by forty to sixty percent.
Platform Engineer & Manager at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
The Ultimate version offers enhanced features for security scanning through DAST and SAST analysis, which have greatly benefitted our project workflow.
IT Software Architect at ANAC - Autorità Nazionale Anticorruzione
By integrating GitLab as a DevOps platform, we have enhanced agility, improved our time to market, and different teams can work collaboratively on various projects.
Manager, Engineering at 7-Eleven
Rally Software provides real-time dashboards for different kinds of stakeholders and governance, giving clear insights into project progress, team velocity, and potential risks.
Sr. Information Architect and Principal Consultant UX at Tech Mahindra Limited
 

Categories and Ranking

GitLab
Ranking in Enterprise Agile Planning Tools
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
90
Ranking in other categories
Application Security Tools (11th), Build Automation (1st), Release Automation (2nd), Static Application Security Testing (SAST) (9th), Rapid Application Development Software (11th), Software Composition Analysis (SCA) (4th), Fuzz Testing Tools (2nd), DevSecOps (1st)
Rally Software
Ranking in Enterprise Agile Planning Tools
7th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
120
Ranking in other categories
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites (9th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Enterprise Agile Planning Tools category, the mindshare of GitLab is 31.2%, down from 31.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Rally Software is 5.2%, down from 5.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Agile Planning Tools Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
GitLab31.2%
Rally Software5.2%
Other63.6%
Enterprise Agile Planning Tools
 

Featured Reviews

BasilJiji - PeerSpot reviewer
System Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
Role-based workflows have transformed daily deployments and improve team collaboration
GitLab has role-based access control, so when a team member needs to make a code change, they cannot directly apply it to the environment but must put in a merge request. Once a senior reviews the code and approves it, then it is implemented across the environment, making it safer and allowing everyone to experience the process. The best features GitLab offers are version control and automation, which are the major things that stand out to me. When it comes to access, the login is very smooth, with just one login integrated with our Okta, allowing everyone to log in easily. Deployments become much easier, and that is how GitLab helps. The automation features make my work easier because we use a tool called AWX, which is connected to GitLab. Whenever we run a job on AWX, it directly checks the code and uses it. Since the code is not preserved locally but kept in the cloud, it is safe and nobody can tamper with it. When it comes to safety, that is a major thing. Automation features allow the code to be accessed from any tools we use, so the jobs we run are helping tremendously and doing their work perfectly. For pipeline tasks, we have created a significant amount of pipelines, which are all hosted in GitLab. Running the pipelines has become much easier, and they are doing a perfect job, helping tremendously in our day-to-day activities. GitLab has positively impacted my organization because previously we stored code locally on servers, leading to many risks. Since GitLab came into our environment, our integration and deployments became much easier, helping our work become much smoother. Improvements from GitLab have led to better team collaboration because when several people are working, they can all edit the code and submit it as a merge request, and once approved, it reflects directly to the main branch. Many can work at the same time. When it comes to deployments, deploying has become much faster since we started using GitLab, and even if errors occur, we can spot them easily and troubleshoot, which has helped tremendously.
Rakhee Srivastava - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Information Architect and Principal Consultant UX at Tech Mahindra Limited
Real-time dashboards provide clear insights into project progress and team velocity
Rally Software is easy to use for Agile project methodology because it follows Scrum and Kanban, helping with sprint planning and backlog management. Rally Software provides real-time dashboards for different kinds of stakeholders and governance, giving clear insights into project progress, team velocity, and potential risks. Backlog management is present in the product, allowing prioritization of tasks. The dashboards provide all types of insights through analytics. Capacity planning helps optimize resource allocation, ensuring balanced workload and realistic sprint commitments for our projects. The solution integrates with GitHub, and we can also integrate with Excel and CI/CD pipelines.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Government
11%
Manufacturing Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Insurance Company
9%
Healthcare Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business36
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise45
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business13
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise110
 

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.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for GitLab?
We are currently using general GitLab, not GitLab Premium.
What needs improvement with GitLab?
GitLab can be improved by being more responsive in the UI and offering better pricing for premium features, which would be useful for small startups. While GitLab's CI/CD is powerful, it is somewha...
What do you like most about Rally Software?
Rally offers many features that help the management of activities, coordination, alignment and reports, which applies agility across the organization. If I were to highlight a particular feature, i...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Rally Software?
Rally Software is affordable because our customers also prefer it, and I have never heard concerns about pricing preventing us from using this tool.
What needs improvement with Rally Software?
While I'm not heavily involved in project management tools, I am familiar with these tools. One area for improvement might be the rigidity in role and access configurations, which require many proc...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Fuzzit
CA Agile Central, Rally Enterprise, CA Agile Training, CA Agile Coaching, CA Agile Academy, CA Agile Management , CA ALM
 

Overview

 

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
Physicians Mutual, Harvard Pilgrim HealthCare, Editora Abril, Tata Communications, Level 3 Communications, Seagate, TomTom, Philips, Hiscox, Physicians Mutual, MYOB
Find out what your peers are saying about GitLab vs. Rally Software and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
880,255 professionals have used our research since 2012.