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Javad_Talebi - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud architect at Vodafone
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Open-source with a nice interface and great features
Pros and Cons
  • "It scales well."
  • "I used Spring Cloud config and to connect that to GitLab was so hard."

What is our primary use case?

GitLab is for professional teams, and it has some abilities in the user interface that are interesting to me. 

What is most valuable?

The look of the user interface is good. I have seen many features here that I don't see in BitBucket.

We like the automatic deployment for different environments. For example, if you want to deploy your application for the Azure system, Azure Cloud, you have the default configuration for them. That's true for Amazon or a VM, for example, as well. 

They provide default templates for products.

It is an easy setup.

The solution is stable.

It scales well.

I have a free version. It is open-source.

What needs improvement?

Authentication can be a problem when you have an application and you want to configure it with them. I used Spring Cloud config and to connect that to GitLab was so hard. It took hours for me to configure that.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for two years. 

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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The product is perfectly stable. There aren't bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable. It easily expands. 

I have two projects. In my personal experience, for my own project, it's a scalable system for e-commerce mobile microservice spaces for event-driven e-commerce systems that are using GitLab.

How are customer service and support?

I've never requested the assistance of technical support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I'm also familiar with Bitbucket, although I don't use it right now. 

How was the initial setup?

The solution is quite simple to set up. 

I'm actually proficient. I'm not sure if a beginner user would have issues. It's likely okay for them.

The only difficult part may be the authentication configuration. It's a specific thing and not very common. 

What about the implementation team?

I didn't use an integrator. It is easily deployed in-house. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I don't need a license. I use the free version, and that is perfectly fine for me. 

What other advice do I have?

I always use the latest version of GitLab. I don't check the version number.

I'd recommend the solution to others. 

I'd rate it a ten out of ten. I'm happy with its capabilities. 

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Cloud Architect at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Good interface, stable, and useful for merge operations and reviews
Pros and Cons
  • "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."
  • "It can be free for commercial use."

What is our primary use case?

We are providing solutions for consumer electronics. We have a repository of our code between the device team, mobile applications team, and cloud team.

How has it helped my organization?


What is most valuable?

It is very useful for code reviews and merging operations. Review analytics is available to users with reporter access and displays a table of open merge requests. Many merge requests can be added to the train. Each merge request runs its own merged results pipeline, which includes the changes from all of the other merge requests. If the pipeline for a merge request fails, the breaking changes are not merged, and the target branch is unaffected. It is very useful for merging our code and tracking another branch before giving release. Its interface is straightforward to see all process.

What needs improvement?

It can be free for commercial use of project management and code integrity features.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using git solutions for almost two years. We are new for GitLab.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We are a small team. Almost 60 people are working on the same repo. It works for us currently, and we don't need to scale it.

How are customer service and technical support?

For any technical issues, we have our infrastructure team. They have some experience with this product. Currently, we don't create any tickets for technical operations.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We were using Subversion. GitLab is a little bit more complex than Subversion, but it is okay for me.

How was the initial setup?

It is easy.

What about the implementation team?

We have an IT department for infrastructure operations, and they are managing this solution for us.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It seems reasonable. Our IT team manages the licenses.

What other advice do I have?

I would advise others to follow best practices because they are useful for each case. If you have a problem, it can be easily solved by other people if you follow the best practices.

I would rate GitLab a nine 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.
PeerSpot user
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.
Nor EL MALKI - PeerSpot reviewer
Project Manager at Leyton & Associés, SAS
Real User
Highly intuitive UI, reliable, and good performance
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features of GitLab are ease of use and highly intuitive UI and performance."
  • "GitLab can improve by integrating with more tools, such as servers with Docker."

What is our primary use case?

We use GitLab for all of our Git sources and it is mapped to our integrated solution for the complete ICG platform.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features of GitLab are ease of use and highly intuitive UI and performance.

What needs improvement?

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

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using GitLab for approximately 11 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

GitLab is a stable solution. We've never faced any issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Our current setup is with one server but GitLab overall can scale.

We have approximately 300 people using the solution. Most of the people are in the developers' teams, management, and tech leads that all log into GitLab.

GitLab can be used for enterprise-sized companies.

How are customer service and support?

I have not used the support from GitLab.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have previously used GitHub as a developer. GitLab looks similar to GitHub and it's helping the developer use it better.

What about the implementation team?

We update the GitLab version annually for maintenance.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

GitLab is a free solution to use.

What other advice do I have?

I rate GitLab a ten 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.
PeerSpot user
IT Processes Methodologist at Gysan Gmart
Real User
Easy to use, easy to install, and offers an open-source option
Pros and Cons
  • "Of all available products, it was the easiest to use and easy to install."
  • "The solution should be more cloud-native and have more cloud-native capabilities and features."

What is our primary use case?

I've used the solution just for my learning purposes. My company is using currently GitLab. We are using it for our CI/CD purposes for continuous integration and continuous deployment.

How has it helped my organization?

To my knowledge, my company started to use it as there were no decent alternatives to GitLab when they started to use it. The only decent alternative was GitHub, however, it was lacking in the CI/CD pipeline capabilities. At that time there were no GitHub actions available at the moment.

What is most valuable?

Of all available products, it was the easiest to use and easy to install.

What needs improvement?

The solution should be more cloud-native and have more cloud-native capabilities and features. It should be more GitOps-ready.

For how long have I used the solution?

I started using the solution a year ago. My company has used it for four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I cannot speak to how stable the solution is. From what I have seen so far, there were no serious issues with GitLab.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Approximately four to five developers and maybe a couple of QA testers and a couple of DevOps engineers are responsible exclusively for GitLab maintenance and support.

How are customer service and support?

Technical support has mostly been good.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I tried to learn a little bit about Jenkins, however, it was only through some internet content.

How was the initial setup?

At the moment of the GitLab acquisition, I was not working for the company. I did not handle the implementation process.

We need at least a couple of technicians, engineers, for deployment and maintenance. 

What about the implementation team?

Our own technical team handled the deployment. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

When I was hired (in 2020) they told me that they were using an open-source version. I'm not sure if that's still the case as it's a quite big company. Nowadays they should be using some kind of paid version, as the demand is pretty high, as far as I know.

I'm not sure of the exact licensing costs. 

What other advice do I have?

We are customers and end-users.

As far as I know, we are using the on-premise version. There are two versions of GitLab - the on-premise and the cloud version. We are using on-premise. As far as I know, we also keep making sure it's up-to-date.

I'd rate the solution nine 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.
PeerSpot user
Premkumar Kadam - PeerSpot reviewer
DevOps Engineer at ETP Group
Real User
Top 5
Used for CI/CD, integration, and deployment
Pros and Cons
  • "We use GitLab in the new project for CI/CD, integration, and deployment."
  • "You need to have a good knowledge of the product in order to use it."

What is most valuable?

We use GitLab in the new project for CI/CD, integration, and deployment.

What needs improvement?

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

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using GitLab for six months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

GitLab is a stable solution, and we haven’t faced any bugs.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Around 40 people are using the solution in our organization.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We previously used SVN and Jenkins. We switched to GitLab because it is an advanced tool with many new features.

How was the initial setup?

The solution's initial setup is easy if you follow the official document.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We are using the free version of GitLab.

What other advice do I have?

I am working with the latest version of GitLab. I would recommend the solution to other users based on their requirements. It is easy to learn to use GitLab if you understand Git commands.

Overall, I rate the solution a nine 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.
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PeerSpot user
Udaysimha Nerella - PeerSpot reviewer
Specialist Data Analysis vehicle safety at Cubeware
Real User
Scalable, stable, and has a straightforward setup, but requires a lot of steps just to push code to the repository
Pros and Cons
  • "We're only using the basic features of GitLab and haven't used any advanced features. The solution works fine, so that's what we like about GitLab. We're party using GitHub and GitLab. We have a GitHub server, while we use GitLab locally or only within our team, and it works okay. We don't have any significant problems with the solution. We also found the straightforward setup, stability, and scalability of GitLab valuable."
  • "I've noticed an area for improvement in GitLab, particularly needing to go through many steps to push the code to the repository. Resolving that issue would make the product better. My team quickly fixed it by writing a small script, then double-clicking or enabling the script to take care of the issue. However, that quick fix was from my team and not the GitLab team, so in the next release, if an automatic deployment feature would be available in GitLab, then that would be good because, in Visual Studio, you can do that with just one click of a button."

What is our primary use case?

My team primarily uses GitLab for CI/CD purposes. Whatever code I develop has to go with the team, so I work in a team that tries to write its version of the code, or uses the ticketing system, takes a ticket, covers that information, and then updates the main branch about it. That's the use case my team has for GitLab.

What is most valuable?

We're only using the basic features of GitLab and haven't used any advanced features. The solution works fine, so that's what we like about GitLab. We're party using GitHub and GitLab. We have a GitHub server, while we use GitLab locally or only within our team, and it works okay. We don't have any significant problems with the solution.

We also found the straightforward setup, stability, and scalability of GitLab valuable.

What needs improvement?

I've noticed an area for improvement in GitLab, particularly needing to go through many steps to push the code to the repository. Resolving that issue would make the product better.

My team quickly fixed it by writing a small script, then double-clicking or enabling the script to take care of the issue. However, that quick fix was from my team and not the GitLab team, so in the next release, if an automatic deployment feature would be available in GitLab, then that would be good because, in Visual Studio, you can do that with just one click of a button.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using GitLab for almost four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

As of now, we don't have any issues with GitLab stability-wise. We never faced any critical issues, so everything's going smoothly.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

GitLab is a scalable solution.

How are customer service and support?

We didn't use the technical support for GitLab because there are specific people within our organization that we can contact about issues, for example, access issues or permissions, and they give us access to the folders.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We haven't used any other build automation product other than GitLab.

How was the initial setup?

We found the initial setup for GitLab very straightforward. We're developers, so we develop the code, then push that code to our branch. We have a moderator who keeps track of the testing process, so from our side, we already have the steps and what needs to be done and written, so we follow those steps to set up GitLab.

What about the implementation team?

The implementation of GitLab was done in-house within my company.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

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.

What other advice do I have?

I'm a developer, so I write all the code from scratch, but I don't use predefined platforms. I've been using GitLab and Visual Studio, though.

As GitLab is only used within my team, only five people use it.

My team uses GitLab almost every day, then when a project is complete, my team pushes it back into GitHub.

My team is an end-user of GitLab.

Regarding recommending GitLab to others, I'm a developer of data science solutions, so I mostly do end-user tasks rather than developer tasks. As of now, nothing was so bad about GitLab, and I didn't come across any significant hardships in using the solution. For a person like me who uses resources in a bigger enterprise, there shouldn't be problems using GitLab. If you're part of a small company, there could be some issues.

My rating for GitLab is seven 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.
PeerSpot user
Ali Toksoy - PeerSpot reviewer
General Manager at Ekinoks Software
Real User
An easy setup with good configuration and source management
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution is stable."
  • "We'd always like to see better pricing on the product."

What is our primary use case?

We are using the product for configuration management and source course management. For some projects, we are using it issue management.

What is most valuable?

Configuration and source management are the most valuable aspects of the solution.

It offers an easy initial setup. 

The solution is stable.

I find the product scalable. 

It's not overly expensive. 

What needs improvement?

We'd always like to see better pricing on the product. If they could make the cost lower, that would be ideal for users. 

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been using the solution for five or six years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is scalable and easy to expand. 

We have about 100 users on the solution. That includes developers and testers. 

Our team is getting better. We'll likely need 30 more licenses. Therefore, we plan to expand usage.

How are customer service and support?

We don't need technical support. Our IT team has handled all the issues and therefore we don't need any additional support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We did previously use a different solution. I can't recall the name.

How was the initial setup?

The solution is very straightforward to set up. It's not very complex at all. My understanding is it quite easy to implement. However, I was not completely involved. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We pay a yearly licensing fee. The pricing is pretty low. It's not too expensive. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did not evaluate other solutions. We've always used GitLab.

What other advice do I have?

I'm not sure which version of the solution I'm using. 

I'd rate this product nine 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.
PeerSpot user
Alexandru Zeevleanu - PeerSpot reviewer
DevOps Team Lead at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Beneficial YAML plans, reliable, and low maintenance
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features of GitLab are the review, patch repo, and plans are in YAML."
  • "GitLab could improve the patch repository. It does not have support for Conan patch version regions. Additionally, better support for Kubernetes deployment is needed as part of the package."

What is our primary use case?

We use GitLab as a source code repository, terraform modules repository, generic packages repository and for our CI/CD pipelines.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features of GitLab are the merge request approvals, package repository, and that GitLab CI/CD pipelines plans are written in YAML.

What needs improvement?

GitLab could improve the package repository. It does not have support for Conan packages revisions.

Additionally, better support for deploying GitLab in Kubernetes is needed (i.e. more mature helm packages and updated documentation).

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using GitLab for approximately five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of GitLab is good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

GitLab is scalable. We only needed to add more resources to the VM. Horizontally, we were not able to scale it because we couldn't deploy it in Kubernetes correctly.

We have approximately 300 people using the solution in my organization.

How are customer service and support?

I have not used the support from GitLab.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I previously used Gerrit and I prefer GitLab. It is much better in the interface and integration, it is much more than only Git software, it is more of a complete package.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of GitLab is not complex. However, it can be difficult to deploy GitLab on Kubernetes.

What about the implementation team?

The deployment of GitLab was done in-house.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution's standard license is paid annually. They have changed the pricing tiers and removed the bronze tier, which was the perfect sweet spot.
There is a free version available.

I rate the price of GitLab a seven out of 10.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend the solution to others. For a self-hosted version, I advise others to deploy it using Docker/Docker-compose, it is the easiest way. The solution has no maintenance. 

I rate GitLab a nine 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.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free GitLab Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: January 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free GitLab Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.