During the development environment, we have a different number of developers, close to five. So each of them will have a different project. Maybe some of them do it in one project, but their assignment or the activity they are doing may be different, so they will do their activity and then they will push it to the GitLab. If there is an amendment or update required, they will pull it from GitLab and if they do their activity again, they will push it.
Information Technology Division Director at a insurance company with 201-500 employees
Replicates with accuracy, scalable, and cost effective with premium options available
Pros and Cons
- "The merging feature makes it easy later on for the deployment."
- "I would like to see security increased in the future. A secure environment is very important."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
GitLab also does the merging . The merging feature makes it easy later on for the deployment.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see security increased in the future. A secure environment is very important.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using GitLab for the past seven years.
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GitLab
January 2026
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The cloud provides good stability for GitLab.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
GitLab is scalable. I think they have their own actually premium services. So, there are some functionalities and features that may be added on top of the free version.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of GitLab is easy and straightforward. You do not need to be a deployment expert. It can be done by the managers or directors.
What about the implementation team?
GitLab can be done in-house but we are using CloudWatch. All you need is to have a free account.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The initial setup cost is excellent and you can add the premium features later.
What other advice do I have?
Using GitLab is important to help provide a more secure and reliable environment for developers working with information in the cloud. GitLab brings a level of safety. I would rate GitLab a ten out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
DevOps Lead at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
Great continuous integration and fast deployment
Pros and Cons
- "GitLab's best features are continuous integration and fast deployment."
- "GitLab's UI could be improved."
What is most valuable?
GitLab's best features are continuous integration and fast deployment.
What needs improvement?
GitLab's UI could be improved. In the next version, the documentation of the migrations steps should be better.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been working with GitLab for six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
GitLab is very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
GitLab is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
GitLab's technical support is quick and responsive.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is pretty simple for GitLab as a service, but it's more complex for a hosted solution.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
GitLab is comparatively expensive, but it provides value because it's feature-rich. I would rate its pricing four out of five.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate GitLab nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Buyer's Guide
GitLab
January 2026
Learn what your peers think about GitLab. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2026.
880,255 professionals have used our research since 2012.
DevOps Team Lead at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
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: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Project Manager at a consultancy with 201-500 employees
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: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Chief Executive Officer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Simple to set up, feature-rich, and has good code merging capabilities
Pros and Cons
- "The code merging capability is something that we use very frequently."
- "The integration could be slightly better."
What is most valuable?
Most of the features are pretty good.
The code merging capability is something that we use very frequently. Merging code is a big factor for us because most of our teams use GitLab.
What needs improvement?
The integration could be slightly better.
The interface should be more user-friendly.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been working with GitLab for more than five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable product. We have not had any issues with respect to instability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
With approximately 30 users, we are not a large company. I found the scalability to be okay but I haven't tested it extensively.
How are customer service and support?
We have experience with GitLab support and we found the service to be good. There is not much of a lag in terms of addressing queries.
I would rate the support a five out of five.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I also use GitHub and I am more comfortable with GitLab.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is simple.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
This product is not very expensive but the price can be better. As such, I would rate GitLab a four out of five in terms of pricing.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, this is a good product that has a lot of features. There are several features that I don't use personally but other members of my team do.
I would rate this solution a nine out of 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: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Cloud architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
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.
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: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Manager at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
A double-sided solution for both DevOps and version management
Pros and Cons
- "I like that you can use GitLab as a double-sided solution for both DevOps and version management. It's a good product for working in these two areas, and the user interface makes it easy to understand."
- "There was a problem with the build environment when we were looking at developing iOS applications. iOS build require Mac machines and there are no Mac machines provided by GitLab in their cloud. So to build for mobile iOS application, we needed to use our own Mac machine within our own infrastructure. If GitLab were to provide a feature such that an iOS application could also be built through GitLab directly, that would be great."
What is our primary use case?
I'm part of the application development team comprising 10-12 developers and I have used GitLab for configuration and version management. We have also used it for DevOps, but I have not been involved in the DevOps side. My work with GitLab involved basic version management (i.e. checking in, checking out, merging) and related features.
I have also used GitLab for doing remote builds, which is when you check in and it triggers the build on the application remotely. For example, we have a YAML script that has been written for performing builds on GitLab automatically and when that script gets executed, it performs the builds and copies them to the destination folder. All of this gets triggered from GitLab.
What is most valuable?
I like that you can use GitLab as a double-sided solution for both DevOps and version management. It's a good product for working in these two areas, and the user interface makes it easy to understand.
What needs improvement?
There was a problem with the build environment when we were looking at developing iOS applications. iOS build require Mac machines and there are no Mac machines provided by GitLab in their cloud. So to build for mobile iOS application, we needed to use our own Mac machine within our own infrastructure. If GitLab were to provide a feature such that an iOS application could also be built through GitLab directly, that would be great.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used GitLab for two months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Once all the scripts are written, it becomes scalable. When an application gets deployed and people start using it, it's on the cloud and so it becomes scalable. All the applications that we design are deliberately written in such a way as to be scalable.
How are customer service and support?
We only used GitLab for a short duration, so there was not much scope or need for contacting technical support.
How was the initial setup?
The setup is straightforward to an extent because the part of GitLab that I was using for version management was similar to other tools that I have used such as Git and SVN. When I use GitLab, it's more or less the same process and workflow as these other tools, so there wasn't a big learning curve for me.
Our application was an accumulation of multiple applications, so there were multiple builds happening at any given time. GitLab would process the builds and it would take only a couple of hours for us to deploy the builds on the cloud.
The other thing is that the GitLab user interface is good, so it's easy to understand. You, yourself, can learn it simply by exploring and trying it out. Then there's a lot of help that is available on the GitLab website on how to use it.
What about the implementation team?
For the implementation, we had a DevOps engineer who was the primary technical guy, and then the others were developers and related entities performing the development.
What was our ROI?
Personally, I can't say much about the return on investment because the licensing and costs and everything have been borne by our customer. We were just using it. But I think that the return on investment must be good, and it might be one of the reasons why the customer is using it for all their projects.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I'm not aware of the licensing costs because those were covered by the customer.
What other advice do I have?
I can certainly recommend GitLab. It's a good product and I would rate it an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Business Head at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Secure, reliable, but priced high
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of GitLab is its security."
- "The price of GitLab could improve, it is high."
What is our primary use case?
GitLab can be deployed on-premise and in the cloud and it is used for DevOps.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of GitLab is its security.
What needs improvement?
The price of GitLab could improve, it is high.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using GitLab for approximately one year.
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.
How are customer service and support?
The support from GitLab is good.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price of GitLab could be better, it is expensive.
What other advice do I have?
I rate GitLab a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
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