Our primary use case is for source code maintenance, then doing the build and running code coverage tools like SonarQube, and then deployment.
Used for source code maintenance and provides user-friendly interface for code review and pull requests
Pros and Cons
- "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."
- "We have only seen a couple of issues on Gitlab, which we use for building some of the applications."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
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.
What needs improvement?
We have only seen a couple of times on Gitlab, which we use for building some of the applications. Recently, we have heard that some of the builds were taking a long time or were not scheduled. In such cases, they had to contact the GitLab community or the GitLab organization to address these issues.
So, there is room for improvement in regard to the issues with build times.
In future releases, additional features could be added in post-deployment monitoring. Currently, GitLab supports CI/CD up to deployment. Anything that would assist in monitoring deployments, especially in the context of Kubernetes or Docker, would be valuable. It may not be necessary for enterprise-level use, but for midrange organizations, integrating post-deployment monitoring of infrastructures and generating reports could be beneficial.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using this solution for three years now.
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GitLab
January 2025
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution offers good stability. However, sometimes we do see some issues due to upgrades and patches. But a couple of times, we have seen build issues where it takes a long time, or it gets stuck, and people have to manually restart those.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is a scalable solution in our environment. We have over a thousand end users.
How are customer service and support?
The support is very good.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Earlier, we were using Atlassian products, and then we shifted to GitLab.
What about the implementation team?
The deployment is handled by a different team. For maintenance, we get good support from GitLab. For any production issues, we hear that we get good support from GitLab. That is something good.
What other advice do I have?
My advice would be it's a very good tool for developers, especially those spread across the globe. It has a very good interface for any pull request or code review. The CI/CD pipeline is also easily built in, so we can easily build and deploy it into various environments. So that eases the developer's and the production ops team's life.
Overall, I would rate the solution a ten out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Security Engineer at Suraksha
A scalable tool with an easy initial setup phase useful for building new connectors and preparing scripts
Pros and Cons
- "The initial setup of GitLab is pretty simple, with no complications."
- "Some of the scripts that we encountered in GitLab were not fully functional and threw up errors."
What is our primary use case?
I use GitLab for some of my CyberArk scripting work.
What is most valuable?
GitLab's scoop is like a lifesaver. It's very crucial for us in our company to use some of those scripts from GitLab, either for health checks or building new connectors is very important for us, and at times, with GitLab, you don't even need to build the connectors.
What needs improvement?
Some of the scripts that we encountered in GitLab were not fully functional and threw up errors. The aforementioned area of the solution needs improvement.
In the future, I would like to see GitLab providing more oversight over the coding part.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using GitLab for a couple of years. I use the solution's latest version.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable solution and seems to be a well-tested product with no issues. I rate the stability a nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is a scalable solution. There are a lot of users on GitLab, so it is a highly scalable product. I rate the scalability a nine out of ten.
GitLab has only two users, including myself, in our company.
We don't have plans in our company to increase the number of users in future.
How are customer service and support?
The solution's technical support is pretty good. If you go on Stack Overflow platform, you can find technical support there. The product's technical team is knowledgeable, responds quickly, and is customer friendly.
I rate the technical support a nine out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of GitLab is pretty simple, with no complications.
The deployment process took less than an hour, which means it can be done in around 45 minutes.
The solution can be deployed on the cloud or on-premises version by installing the EXE file.
Only one junior engineer is required for deployment and maintenance.
What about the implementation team?
The deployment phase can be done by yourself, in-house.
What was our ROI?
The ROI has been good since we have had no issues so far.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
My company uses the free version of GitLab, which is GitLab Community Edition. There is a licensed version also available for GitLab.
What other advice do I have?
I would tell those planning to use the solution to try developing their own scripts in GitLab and then try to download them from the repository there. You build your knowledge while helping others as well.
I rate the overall solution a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
GitLab
January 2025
Learn what your peers think about GitLab. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2025.
831,020 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Environmental engineer at Coventry Building Society
Good for managing source code
Pros and Cons
- "GitLab is a solution for source code management, container registry, pipelines, testing, and deployment."
- "The pricing model of GitLab is an issue for me."
What is our primary use case?
GitLab is a solution for source code management, container registry, pipelines, testing, and deployment.
What needs improvement?
The problem with Git is that it's a solution for managing your source code history. But with Git, you can edit the history, which is not ideal.
Another issue is the pricing model of GitLab.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using GitLab for more than a year. I am using the latest version.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable solution. I would rate it a ten out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is a scalable solution. I would scalability rate it a ten out of ten.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I used GitHub. GitHub did not have a container registry or testing, and it is owned by Microsoft, which raises concerns about ethics. All my decisions are based on ethics.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is reasonably okay. Moreover, it's already in the cloud, so I didn't need to deploy it.
What about the implementation team?
There is no deployment or maintenance staff required.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is a bit high. I'm still on the free plan, but if I wanted to buy it, the pricing would be a bit high. There are not any additional costs associated with the standard license.
What other advice do I have?
GitLab is a good solution. Overall, I would rate it a nine out of ten. I would say it's better than GitHub.
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.
Manager de production SI technique et corporate at inwi
I like the security features and SAS tools
Pros and Cons
- "I like GitLab's security and SAS tools."
- "GitLab could add a plugin to integrate with Kubernetes stuff."
What is our primary use case?
I use GitLab to manage repository code sources, scanning code sources, and CI/CD. We have around 100 users.
How has it helped my organization?
GitLab helps us integrate with many types of software. You can deploy and integrate source code, various tools, webhooks, etc.
What is most valuable?
I like GitLab's security and SAS tools.
What needs improvement?
GitLab could add a plugin to integrate with Kubernetes stuff.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using GitLab for four years now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
GitLab is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
GitLab is scalable. You can deploy it in a Kubernetes cluster or on VMs.
How are customer service and support?
We don't contact support. GitLab has such a huge community that you can easily find a solution in the forums.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used Bitbucket and GitHub for personal use. We adopted GitLab because it's a good enterprise solution.
How was the initial setup?
GitLab is easy to install and takes you less than a day. You download the GitLab package, configure it, and push the repos. If you want to integrate Sonar Cube or Jenkins, you can use webhooks or the Jenkins file.
What was our ROI?
GitLab has a good ROI because it can accommodate many users, and it increases your DevOps score.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
GitLab has three plans: starter, professional, and LTMH. The LTMH is $99 for user permits, but some integrators in Morocco bundle GitLab into a package. It's reasonable, but they could lower the price now that we have a huge community and many users.
What other advice do I have?
I rate GitLab eight out of 10. It's a good solution for DevOps and managing Ripple. It's possibly the most complete DevOps and DevSecOps platform. You can help users to make wonderful stuff with their source code and applications. GitLab supports many types of source code like Python, Ruby, etc. It's great software.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
DevOps/Cloud Lead at a comms service provider with 1-10 employees
With a comprehensive and flexible CI/CD engine, this is the leading solution in the market right now
Pros and Cons
- "Their CI/CD engine is very mature. It's very comprehensive and flexible, and compared to other projects, I believe that GitLab is number one right now from that perspective."
- "I don't really like the new Kubernetes integration because it is pretty focused on the on-premise environment, but we're in a hybrid environment."
What is our primary use case?
There are two primary functions. The first function is a Git-compliant source code repository, and the second function is a full-fledged CI/CD platform.
What is most valuable?
The CI/CD functionality as a whole is pretty helpful and nice to have. Their CI/CD engine is very mature. It's very comprehensive and flexible, and compared to other projects, I believe that GitLab is number one right now from that perspective.
What needs improvement?
They have had a Kubernetes integration built in, but they recently announced that in Version 16 they're going to strip out the legacy Kubernetes integration, and then introduce a new way of doing the integration. I don't really like the new way because it is pretty focused on the on-premise environment, but we're in a hybrid environment. The integration they're offering is not really a good fit for hybrid infrastructure and I was disappointed with that new feature.
I work for a government-based institution in the US and government-based institutions are very strict about compliance and security. The new model GitLab is offering implies the connectivity will be initiated from the server side to the clients, meaning from Kubernetes back to GitLab, and that's not going to work in our space. We cannot allow traffic back from the cloud to on-prem, so that's going to be a compliance violation. I understand why they want to implement the feature, maybe it's going to be more solid, but it looks like they aren't taking into consideration hybrid environments and the security and compliance aspects. We will find a workaround, but we're still kind of disappointed. It'll generate a lot of additional work.
One feature that has been requested by our development team is a multi-level review of the pool request. When you maintain code and you've got a lot of contributors, a contributor can submit a change in the form of a pool request. There is a feature called merge request in GitLab for when you have a team of people who are supposed to approve a change, but Atlassian BitBucket has a more complete version of the same feature, which includes a multi-approval mechanism. For instance, if you have three people, you can create a rule for how changes should be approved. Maybe they should be approved by you and me and the third guy is not really important, or it could be approved by only you or me, or all three of us together. BitBucket has that flexibility and there is no such flexibility in GitLab.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using GitLab for approximately four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Overall, it's pretty stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability is not directly a feature of GitLab because GitLab is about storing your source code. Your storage can be organized in a way that makes it very scalable. For instance, we use the NetApp Store and we are not limited at all, so whenever we hit a disk space problem, we can simply extend the storage and give it more IOPs. However, the way you organize your storage is not GitLab's responsibility.
There are about 100 people currently involved with this solution at my company.
How are customer service and support?
Their customer service is very helpful. They're really good. I communicate with tons of different support clients and GitLab's support is one of the best. A lot of people don't like calling support because it's often useless or annoying, but I would rate GitLab's support as a ten out of ten. I haven't had any complications.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is pretty straightforward. I don't remember having any issues related to the setup.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There is an open-source edition and a commercial version. I've used both, but mostly I've used the commercial one. However, the open-source version is also very, very good. The commercial version is reasonably priced. It's about 20k annually.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Checkmarx is a static analysis tool. GitLab offers, in turn, their own solution. They offer static analysis, dynamic analysis, and a lot of integration. They also offer integration with Checkmarx. There are a lot of features, actually, and plenty of tools. For the price, I think it's very comprehensive.
Compared to other products, for instance, Nessus, they're approximately at the same price level. I would put them all on the same level with approximately the same functionality, but GitLab is one of the best.
What other advice do I have?
I would give this solution a ten out of ten. There are a couple of caveats, but compared to other products, GitLab is certainly the leading solution in the market right now.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Tool Manager at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Good for CI/CD and version control, highly scalable, and very easy to set up
Pros and Cons
- "CI/CD is very good. The version control system is also good. These are the two features that we use."
- "I would like more Agile features in the Premium version. The Premium version should have all Agile features that exist in the Ultimate version. IBM AOM has a complete Agile implementation, but in GitLab, you only have these features if you buy the Ultimate version. It would be good if we can use these in the Premium version."
What is our primary use case?
We use it for version control and CI/CD.
What is most valuable?
CI/CD is very good. The version control system is also good. These are the two features that we use.
What needs improvement?
Its security features are very expensive. The Ultimate version is very expensive.
I would like more Agile features in the Premium version. The Premium version should have all Agile features that exist in the Ultimate version. IBM AOM has a complete Agile implementation, but in GitLab, you only have these features if you buy the Ultimate version. It would be good if we can use these in the Premium version.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using GitLab for five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is very stable. In five years, we had to fix it only once.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is very scalable. We have about 2,000 users, but as per the reference architecture documentation, it can be scaled up to 50,000 users.
How are customer service and support?
We are using the open-source free version. So, we don't have support. We are looking to buy the intermediate version or Premium version.
How was the initial setup?
It was very easy to set up.
What about the implementation team?
We set it up by ourselves. We also update it, and we don't have to turn it off.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We are using its free version, and we are evaluating its Premium version. Its Ultimate version is very expensive.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We are evaluating its Premium version, and we are also evaluating other products like GitHub.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate it a nine out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
A great user interface but more built-in functions are needed
Pros and Cons
- "The user interface is really good so that helps with huge teams who need to collaborate."
- "The solution does not have many built-in functions or variables so scripting is required."
What is our primary use case?
Our company uses the solution as a repository manager for our best code, to set up CI/CD pipelines, and to build projects and get architects. We build code and generate artifacts that we push to UrbanCode for deployment.
For one use case, we created an entire CI/CD pipeline that deploys code to the artifact and Target Server. This deployment was our first using the solution and included a lot of scripting. The customer has 250 current users that includes maintenance, owners, and developers.
Eventually, we plan to use the solution for all deployments.
What is most valuable?
The user interface is really good so that helps with huge teams who need to collaborate.
The solution is great for SCM, depository management, building, and CI/CD.
What needs improvement?
The solution does not have many built-in functions or variables so scripting is required and that is a drawback. For example, it would be nice to have a button on the interface for setting up environments in meta folders.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable. Performance comes down slightly when multiple pipelines for a complex project are triggered at once. I rate performance a seven out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We use the solution on-premises so do not scale in the way others do on the cloud.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is very quick. I raised two tickets and and they followed up regularly which was great.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Our company currently uses UrbanCode for deployments. Eventually, we want to conduct all deployments in the solution.
How was the initial setup?
The setup is straightforward so I rate it an eight out of ten.
What about the implementation team?
Our company includes a four-person deployment team who implements the solution for customers.
Our internal team handles maintenance of our GitLab server. Every month, we download, install, and publish patches or upgrades to our community.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution is based on a licensing model that includes technical support and is paid annually. Our company currently has between 430 to 480 licenses.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
The solution is newer to the market so other tools with longevity such as Jenkins are more popular. The solution is slowly emerging as its potential as a complete CI/CD setup becomes known.
UrbanCode is specifically designed as a deployment tool and dominates because of its efficiencies. The user interface has built-in functionality for creating multiple environments, creating approval processes, and downloading artifacts. Conversely, to perform these same functions in the solution you must script the configuration file.
Java includes Deployment Managers and agent pools for deploying to a Target Server. The solution might not be good for deployments because there isn't enough flexibility to create them quickly. We can script, but it is easier to click buttons for deployment functionality.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend the solution and rate it a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Senior Test Engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
A scalable, easy to implement solution that can also be customized
Pros and Cons
- "This is a scalable solution. We had around 200 users working with it."
- "I would like configuration of a YML file to be done via UI rather than a code file."
What is our primary use case?
GitLab was mostly used for version control. All of the code was uploaded into GitLab and then shared across the company. We also used it for running CICD pipelines and automating those pipelines.
What is most valuable?
Basically, it was up to the mark. The solution did what it was supposed to do.
What needs improvement?
We had to write GitLab configuration files, commands and conditions, in a YML format. I would like configuration of a YML file to be done via UI rather than a code file. There should be support for code files, as well, but if there could be a UI for it and a little bit of documentation along with it, that would help.
For how long have I used the solution?
I used this solution for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This is a scalable solution. We had around 200 users working with it. Two people are required for deployment and maintenance.
What about the implementation team?
The implementation was handled in-house. It shouldn't take a long time to implement because it's pretty basic stuff. It all depends on how much customization you want to have.
What other advice do I have?
My advice for others looking into this product is to go for it. GitLab is the future. There are some alternates, like Stash and Bitbucket, that have the same concept, but GitLab is one of the most widely used version control systems. It's easy to use.
I would rate this solution as a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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I was looking for a free alternative to GitHub for my hacking projects. I tried GitHub, BitBucket, GitLab, and a few others and settled on GitLab. It's free, easy to use, and has a lot of great features.
I will say that the UI is a bit confusing at first, but it is very easy to figure out. For the most part, you will just be adding and removing repos. You can also view and edit issues and merge.