We used the product for CI/CD.
Independent consultant at a hospitality company with 1-10 employees
Reasonably priced, robust, easy to use, and easy to manage
Pros and Cons
- "I like the CI/CD features."
- "The stability can be improved."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
I like the CI/CD features. The tool was easy for me to use because I had used it for a long time. GitHub is a leader in the domain. Others copy GitHub.
What needs improvement?
The stability can be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used the solution for 15 years.
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate the tool’s stability a ten out of ten. The vendor modifies many things and provides new releases regularly.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The tool is very scalable and reliable. There is no loss in quality.
How was the initial setup?
It is easy to set up the account and give permissions to others.
What about the implementation team?
The product can be deployed in-house.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The product is reasonably priced.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I have also used GitLab. There is not much difference between GitLab and GitHub.
What other advice do I have?
I used GitHub in my previous organization. In my current organization, we mostly use Azure. GitHub is easy to use and easy to manage. It's good for integration and for multi-worker projects. It is robust. Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Last updated: May 16, 2024
Flag as inappropriateFreelance at SÍŤ spol. s.r.o.
Easy to use, supports collaboration, and provides a repository to store source codes
Pros and Cons
- "The ease of use is valuable."
- "We face issues with synchronization while working with teams."
What is our primary use case?
I use the solution as a repository to store the source codes that I create with small tools. I also use it to share codes with customers when it is impossible to directly upload them from my computer to the customer’s environment due to some network restrictions. However, it is possible to download from GitHub in such environments. So, I transfer my source codes through GitHub so that they can download and implement them.
What is most valuable?
GitHub is a simple repository of source codes. The ease of use is valuable. It supports collaboration within the team very well.
What needs improvement?
We face issues with synchronization while working with teams. It is difficult to synchronize the source code between team members.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for more than five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The tool is very stable. I do not face any unavailability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I use the solution for my personal use cases.
How was the initial setup?
The setup is very easy. It is very easy to create a new repository for a new project. It is easy to create teams.
What was our ROI?
The tool is of great value. It provides space for source codes for future use. If I migrate from one computer to another, I can still use the same Git without any complications.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We must pay the licensing fee if we want to use the tool commercially.
What other advice do I have?
I do not use any pipelines or other tools. I do not use the tool frequently. I mostly develop things on my computer and hand them over to the customers. People must start using the product. It is easy for users who have experience with other Git tools like GitLab or GitBucket. We just have to create a project and clone it. Overall, I rate the product a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Last updated: May 15, 2024
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December 2024
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Information Technology Division Director at Ethiopian Roads Administration
Outstanding service, stability, and gives us everything we need
Pros and Cons
- "We are finding GitHub is very stable."
- "I would like to see more security where a plugin was available for us to update in relation to security."
What is our primary use case?
We are using GitHub for the development environment. After we develop some applications, we are pushing actually on both settings.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see more security where a plugin was available for us to update in relation to security.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using GitHub for the past seven years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We are finding GitHub is very stable. Because it is the one that we are actually using on the cloud, it is easy for actual resources.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We currently did not choose the option with the subscription, but the free version actually provided by GitHub and GitLab is acceptable for us. Maybe the institution wants to increase the number of developers to twenty from what we currently have three, then definitely we will increase and prefer to have additional services from GitHub as well as GitLab.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is excellent on a scale of one to ten I give technical support a ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward and easy. For someone who has actually good experience in software development, including using a repository solution, I think it is easy. Beginners need to refer to the manual and see some online tutorials to receive assistance so that it is easier for them to setup.
What about the implementation team?
You can do the deployment in-house without a problem.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We are currently paying nothing for GitHub.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I think I remember Tortu was the name of the product. There is a Q Balance in our repository providers. I think that one is Microsoft. I do not know exactly, but we are not using it. We tried it but we returned to GitHub.
What other advice do I have?
If you are working in development I would recommend using GitHub. I would rate GitHub a ten out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Senior Director - Quality Engineering at mobileum
A convenient and easy to use solution
Pros and Cons
- "GitHub is convenient and easy to use."
- "GitHub should provide more integration in their next release, including integrating with Jenkins, CI/CD and Jira."
What is our primary use case?
We use GitHub for source control.
What is most valuable?
GitHub is convenient and easy to use.
What needs improvement?
GitHub should provide more integration in their next release, including integrating with Jenkins, CI/CD and Jira.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using GitHub for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
GitHub is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable. We have approximately 200 users.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Prior to using GitHub, we used Subversion, or SVN and CVS. We switched to GitHub because of the cloud enablement as well as the ease of use.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend GitHub to anyone considering implementing the solution into their organization.
Overall, I would rate GitHub a nine out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Software Engineer at Creditas
Provides the SFH key to protect our passwords and connection, it's very helpful
Pros and Cons
- "GitHub provides the SFH key to protect our passwords and connection."
- "Our firewall was blocking cloning and downloading with SSH."
What is our primary use case?
We are customers of GitHub.
What is most valuable?
GitHub provides the SFH key to protect our passwords and our connection, it's a helpful product. It secures our repositories so any attempt to access from outside the company is blocked. We also have control of our product versions in GitHub, which is very useful. I like the fact that you can use it on any device.
What needs improvement?
The only problem we have is that our firewall was blocking cloning and downloading with SSH.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
GitHub is stable. In the three years that I've been working with it, we've had very few problems.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Stability is good, we have around 200 users.
How are customer service and support?
I never use the technical support of GitHub. I believe it's user-friendly but I've never needed to access it.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
This is a free solution so there are no licensing costs.
What other advice do I have?
I rate this solution 10 out of 10.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Software Engineer at OZ
Simple to set up, offers easy code management, and is very reliable
Pros and Cons
- "It is really simple to set up."
- "The user interface on GitLab is better."
What is our primary use case?
We are actually working with MuleSoft, and for that, we have to build our application. We are working for a company offering hotels and resorts. We are using GitHub for that process. We're building applications on it.
What is most valuable?
It's good for branching and keeping the code. Overall, it is a good tool. We can find stable branches there and it is very easy to manage code there.
The interface is good.
We have found that it does allow for helpful integrations.
It is really simple to set up.
What needs improvement?
They need to make it possible to recover branches. For any of the branch that does not have PR, that is unrecovered. So there should be an option to recover those branches.
I cannot recall coming across any missing features.
The user interface on GitLab is better.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for six or seven months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable. There are no bugs or glitches. The performance is reliable. It doesn't crash or freeze.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have 70 to 80 users on the product currently. We use it on a daily basis.
It's very easy to scale as needed.
How are customer service and support?
I've never directly contacted technical support. As a developer, I'm not the one who would be contacting technical support. If there were issues, someone else in the company would deal with them.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I previously worked with GitLab. They are pretty much the same. GitLab does have a very good user interface. That's the main difference.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is simple and straightforward. it is not overly complex or difficult.
As it is a solution that is on the cloud, there is no manual maintenance required.
What about the implementation team?
We do have a separate team that handles deployment. I don't handle deployments directly myself.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I don't deal with licensing. I cannot speak to the exact pricing.
What other advice do I have?
I'm just a customer and an end-user.
We currently work with the latest updates of the product.
I'm a developer and I don't work with managing everything on GitHub. I just use it for putting in the code and merging branches.
GitHub actually is a pretty easy tool. It is not very difficult to understand. It is very easy. Everyone can set up branches there or work on it.
I'd rate it eight out of ten. If we could recover branches, I'd give it a perfect ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Stable solution for version control and source code management
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature is the source code management. It's very helpful and it's a great product."
- "If you are uploading or cloning a large file, with more than 25 megs, it's pretty slow."
What is our primary use case?
The primary use case of this solution is for version control and source code management.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is the source code management. It's very helpful and it's a great product.
What needs improvement?
If you are uploading or cloning a large file, with more than 25 megs, it's pretty slow.
The upload/download speed is pretty slow for a single large file. It is only a problem if the repo has a high-resolution pic or video.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using GitHub for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This solution is quite stable.
We have over 1,000 users that use this solution daily.
How are customer service and technical support?
We very seldom need support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, we were using Bitbucket. We switched to GitHub because it is the number one source code management platform, and it has the cooperation of the open-source community. It provides for better collaboration. We all participate in the open-source community.
There are more users on GitHub, compared to Bitbucket.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is quite simple. It took less than an hour and could even be done in as little as 15 minutes.
What about the implementation team?
The server was set up with support from the team in the development center of the office. It's GitHub, so you don't need a special consultant for it.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to organizations that are looking for a platform to manage source code.
I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Senior Software Architect with 5,001-10,000 employees
GitHub vs. GitLab vs. BitBucket Server (Formerly Stash)
Originally posted at http://technologyconversations.com/2015/10/16/github-vs-gitlabs-vs-bitbucket-server-formerly-stash/
This article will try to compare GitHub, GitLab and BitBucket Server (previously called Stash) installed on your own servers. Similar comparison of cloud offerings is outside the scope of this article. I won’t try to go feature by feature in some kind of a table so that you can count who has more features. I find that approach often misleading even though it’s very commonly used among companies (especially where there is a software architect around). Instead, I’ll give my opinionated view.
GitHub
GitHub has a great, intuitive, informative and, to many, familiar UI. Its big advantage is that most of us already used GitHub.com (if not as a repository than at least to clone someone some code or to look at snippets). If installed on our own servers, most developers will feel at home. It features LDAP integration, integration with JIRA and many other features important to today’s companies. You’ll hardly be in need of something that GitHub doesn’t have. On top of “enterprise features”, it has Gists (a way to share code snippets), ability to edit files directly from the browser (comes in handy when taking notes during a meeting), works with almost any cloud provider, has powerful search, and so on. It comes with its own Wiki and issue tracking. In many cases it is enough for many needs. If it isn’t, it can easily be connected with Jenkins, JIRA, Confluence, BugZilla, Trello and many other products. It can be used as a full package or in conjunction with others. Simply put, GitHub is the gold standard for code repositories. Since everything is so peachy, we could just finish now so that you can go to their site and pay a huge amount of money for licences and install it. However, that’s where problems start accumulating, especially if you haven’t evaluated the alternatives.
First surprise comes when you discover that prices are nowhere to be found. You need to request a quote. In most cases, that’s a sign that prices are high (or at least higher than those of similar products). I won’t provide here the exact pricing since it depends on different variables but suffices to say that it costs more than other solutions. Is it worth it? Wait until we get to GitLab.
Another problem is installation. GitHub provides installation to various cloud providers or a VM that you can run on your own servers. I was truly surprised when I discovered this since it didn’t fit my guess of the reasons people have when considering GitHub Enterprise Edition. If I’d want it to run in one of the cloud providers, I’d simply purchase private accounts on GitHub.com. On the other hand, if I’d want to install it on my own servers, having a pre-made VM is not an option I’m comfortable with. Installation on my servers means that I (or someone from the organization) needs to be in control. Maybe I use VMWare or maybe I’d like to run it directly on the server. Maybe I’d like to know the installation steps. Maybe I would even want it to be deployed as a Docker container. No matter the choice, I need to be in control and having a pre-made VM image does not fit this need. That does not mean that the pre-made VM would not come in handy. In some cases it would and in some others it wouldn’t.
Finally, it’s not open source. I’m fully aware that most companies are never going to look at the code and even those who do will never contribute. However, this is similar to the problem I have with the installation. I like to know that I can be in control even if I will probably never have to modify anything. That would not be such a problem if closed-source provides things that open source doesn’t. However, that is not the case.
GitLab
Let’s start with the simple statement. GitLab has (almost) everything that GitHub does. Features are more or less the same (with very few exceptions) and UI is as great as the one from GitHub. If you go to GitLab’s site you’ll have a hard time not thinking that you are in GitHub. One would need to look very hard to find something meaningful that GitHub has and GitLab doesn’t so let’s skip at what distinguishes GitLab from GitHub.
GitLab Community Edition is free and open sourced. That in itself gives it a huge boost when compared to GitHub Enterprise Edition (the only version that can be installed on premises). While there are some features available only in the enterprise edition, you might not need them and even if you do, it makes the decision easier knowing that you can start with the free version and upgrade to the paid one later on. That does not mean that GitHub doesn’t have a trial. It does. But, as trials go, it is for a limited period of time that might or might not be enough. With GitLab community edition you might be fine until the end of time or you might start with the enterprise edition right away. The good thing is that you have a choice that does not expire.
Pricing for the enterprise edition is reasonable (several times lower than with GitHub). Unlike GitHub, GitLab can be installed on virtually any hardware/OS/CM combination. Cloud providers, virtual machines, directly on the server, Linux, Windows, Puppet, Chef, and so on. I dare you to find a combination you’d like to use that is not supported by GitLab. They are even maintaining Docker images. More over, installation is dead simple. It shows the power of open source with infinite combinations community came up with and wrote about.
Let’s move on and take a look at the third contestant.
BitBucket Server (Formerly Stash)
Short story is that I do not recommend it. It has no advantage over the other two (except maybe integration with other Atlassian products), its UI is horrible (for the lack of better words) and it is a huge and slow application that will eat your resources in no time. However, it has a great marketing power through the rest of Atlassian products. JIRA, Confluence, Bamboo and other Atlassian offerings are very popular and present in many companies. That makes BitBucket Server a very tempting choice. However, not all products Atlassian makes are truly good with BitBucket Server and Bamboo being in the group of those that made my life harder than it should be. UI lacks information I expected to find (actually information is there but not where it should be) and is as un-intuitive as it can get. There is no option to commit code snippets (called Gists in GitHub) and no editing in-line. That leaves us with the integration with other products as the reason to purchase it. Right? Wrong! I haven’t seen anything in Stash (I’ll use the older and shorter name from now on) that was easier to set up than in GitHub or GitLab. Integration with Jira is easy in all of them (haven’t tried the integration with the rest of Atlassian products so that’s the part I might be wrong). Of course, if you are the company doing everything Atlassian, then Stash is no brainer. Where there’s room for JIRA, Confluence, Bamboo, HipChat and what not, there is room for Stash as well. But then again, the fact you’re reading this article probably means that you are not in that group.
Good thing about Stash is the pricing. It’s a one time fee that is not much higher than the yearly subscription to GitLab (we already established that GitHub is over the top). Moreover, if you’ll have only few users (up to ten) the price is so low that it’s practically free. Then again, you’re probably not thinking to set up your own repository for only a few people. However, the price is low only if you already have a Wiki and an issue tracking system. If you don’t that will cost you extra with Stash while the other two have it incorporated.
Besides the (questionable) price advantage and the desire to have everything Atlassian, there is no real reason to choose Stash.
Final Verdict
If price is not an issue, you don’t mind closed-source, you’re OK with its installation options and you want to put your trust into the biggest and the greatest, choose GitHub Enterprise Edition.
If you must have everything Atlassian, choose BitBucket Server.
Everyone else should go with GitLab. It’s a great product, it’s open source with the enterprise offering, its pricing is reasonable and there’s nothing it lacks when compared to GitHub.
Finally, if you’d like to try it out and have Docker installed, just run the following command and you’ll see it in action in no time.
- docker run -d --name gitlab-ce \
- -p 8443:443 \
- -p 8080:80 \
- -p 2222:22 \
- --volume $PWD/gitlab/config:/etc/gitlab \
- --volume $PWD/gitlab/logs:/var/log/gitlab \
- --volume $PWD/gitlab/data:/var/opt/gitlab \
- gitlab/gitlab-ce
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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