On the other hand, GitLab offers a more comprehensive free plan that includes unlimited private repositories and collaborators, built-in CI/CD pipelines, and issue tracking. For developers, the choice between GitLab and GitHub can influence everything from code review processes to continuous integration and deployment pipelines. It can shape how teams collaborate, communicate, and manage their codebase. Ultimately, this decision has far-reaching implications for the efficiency and quality of the web app development lifecycle. Yes, both platforms offer free plans that include unlimited public and private repositories. GitLab is a comprehensive DevOps platform that combines Git repository management, CI/CD, project planning, monitoring, and security features in a single application.
GitLab was the first to integrate CI/CD directly into its platform, and was marketed as an all-in-one DevOps solution. Both GitHub and GitLab allow developers to store and share their code projects in a centralized location, and collaborate on code projects, using the Git version control system. GitHub’s free plan provides unlimited public and private repositories and collaborators for all projects. It includes basic features like issue tracking, project boards, and wiki documentation.
GitLab: The Integrated DevOps Solution
GitHub’s vibrant community, social coding features, and seamless collaboration capabilities make it an attractive choice for developers and teams looking to contribute to or leverage open-source software. If your project involves open-source development, GitHub can streamline your workflows and foster effective collaboration. The choice between GitHub vs GitLab is about selecting the right tool for your development workflow. While both offer Git-based version control and CI/CD capabilities, GitHub stands out with its massive community, whereas GitLab excels with its built-in DevOps features.
Conversely, a more established company may lean towards GitHub for its extensive community and wide range of integrations. With GitHub, they can leverage robust collaboration tools and seamlessly integrate with existing DevOps infrastructure. In contrast, GitLab was introduced in 2011 by Ukrainian engineers Valery Sizov and Dmitriy Zaporozhets. Targeted initially at larger development teams, it provided a more comprehensive suite of tools, including built-in GitHub vs GitLab CI/CD tools for streamlined testing and deployment. Both GitHub and GitLab leverage Git to offer robust version control, making them accessible and effective for startups, enterprises, and everyone in between.
Free plan capabilities
GitLab Inc. is difference between github and gitlab a privately owned, fully remote company with 1,303 staff members. Most companies turn to cloud-based solutions when working with larger remote or distributed teams. Git is an open source version control system (VCS) that lets you save “snapshots” of a software project. It was developed by Chris Wanstrath, P. J. Hyett, Tom Preston-Werner, and Scott Chacon using Ruby on Rails in February 2008. Because of its first-mover advantage, GitHub became the home base of many open-source code repositories. What really matters is which Git VCS will give you the tools and services you need to best develop your software.
- GitHub’s interface is clean and simple, making it easy for new users to navigate.
- GitLab, on the other hand, stands out for its built-in DevOps tools and easy self-hosting.
- GitHub offers different levels of access permissions, including read, write, and admin.
- Without GitHub, using Git generally requires users to be a bit more technical savvy and it involves usage of familiarity with command line tools to operate it.
- Because of its first-mover advantage, GitHub became the home base of many open-source code repositories.
- The security features are robust, although they do require some extra manual configuration.
Conclusion: Making the Right Choice
They’re both open-source, meaning anyone can use or modify either platform. In terms of out-of-the-box functionality and self-hosting, GitLab comes out on top. GitLab itself is open source software, and the self-hosted version is free for anyone to use. Some conclude that this makes GitLab the more security-minded Git platform, but GitHub also supports the same workflow. One of the crucial things that makes this happen is the automated testing tool that automatically scans code for potential security risks.
While the underlying Git technology and features are virtually identical, the recommended workflow isn’t the same. GitHub offers a basic setup tutorial, including some bare-bones themes to help you create your site. Other than the renaming of pull requests into merge — which may make more intuitive sense — there’s little difference in the basic Git functionality. Next, let’s look at some more specific similarities beyond the surface level of the name and homepage. Okay, so now we know that despite offering—at first glance—very similar services, the companies are 100% unrelated. GitLab used to host its services on Microsoft Azure, but moved to Google Cloud Platform after Microsoft acquired GitHub.
Additional Resources
One of the main differences between the two is that GitLab offers its very own Continuous Integration/Delivery (CI/CD) pre-built meaning you do not need to install it separately. This will help teams reduce errors in code and deliver faster results by sticking to you team’s quality standards. On the contrary, it does not come pre-integrated with GitHub; in fact, there are several tools for that.
Integration
Both platforms offer robust access control mechanisms to manage permissions and roles within projects and organizations. GitHub utilizes team and repository permissions, while GitLab provides granular controls at the project, group, and instance levels. It includes static and dynamic application security testing (SAST/DAST), dependency scanning, container scanning, and more. These tools are integrated directly into the development lifecycle, enabling continuous security testing and compliance monitoring. Security is a top priority for both platforms, but they approach it differently.
- Both platforms allow you to control access at the repository and organization/group levels.
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- These roles determine the level of access and permissions granted to each member.
- Some conclude that this makes GitLab the more security-minded Git platform, but GitHub also supports the same workflow.
GitLab is known for being an all-in-one DevOps platform, and a few years ago it was definitely the best for enterprises that needed to manage all their DevOps in one place. When we look deeper at the full lifecycle of a code change in GitHub and GitLab, it becomes even clearer how similar they are in terms of workflow. There was no single source of truth, which made the workflow frustrating.
There are a few more services out there, however together with GitHub and GitLab this is quite a selection for source code hosting. Since 2001 he has been creating websites for customers, implementing individual development projects, and passing on his knowledge at conferences and in publications. Git has the ability to track changes and therefore supports non-linear development, allowing multiple members of a team to modify, add, or delete files at any time. GitHub’s code scanning capabilities are powered by CodeQL, a semantic code analysis engine that can detect vulnerabilities in several programming languages. It integrates with the repository’s workflow and automatically scans code on each push or pull request.
They offer similar features but have different approaches to the services they provide. So, let’s compare GitLab and GitHub, looking at what they each offer, how they work, their best features, and what they’re best used for. But GitHub likewise integrates security via GitHub Advanced Security (in enterprise plans) and provides Dependable as one such security feature to determine vulnerabilities. Other than that, GitHub has a few security features that are more built in, while GitLab has more than that, and they are also built in. If the security of Git hosting is important for your business, then GitLab is usually better.