We performed a comparison between GitHub and GitLab based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Result: Based on the reviews provided by users, GitHub and GitLab both seem to provide comprehensive and practical software development and project management tools. Long-time users find GitLab's customer service and responsiveness less reliable than GitHub's because they haven't had enough time to develop in that direction.
"I did not have any issues with the stability of Github. It worked seamlessly."
"The versioning of the code and the tracking of changes are definitely some of my top features."
"GitHub's version control is valuable."
"The best feature is the ability to track the history of all code changes, and it's easy to use. Additionally, as it's open source, anyone can use that feature resulting in distributed development. This opens the door to collaboration with different code and developer, feature, and master branches of development."
"This product is very good for storing and versioning code."
"It has a lot of features from the code development perspective. You get a lot of features such as repo, commit, merge, and branch. You can play around and do things on the fly. It is easy and simple to deploy. It is also easier to use when working from home."
"The Projects Tab, which shows you the todo list and the progress for projects, is very helpful."
"I would rate the stability a ten out of ten."
"GitLab is very useful for pipelines, continuous integration, and continuous deployment. It is also stable."
"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."
"GitLab's best features are maintenance, branch integration, and development infrastructure."
"The solution has an established roadmap that lays out its plans for upgrades over the next two to three years."
"It is scalable."
"I have had no problem with the stability of the solution."
"The most important features of GitLab for us are issue management and all the CI/CD tools. Another aspect that I love about GitLab is the UI."
"The most valuable features of GitLab are ease of use and highly intuitive UI and performance."
"This solution could be improved if migration was fully automated to make it easy, for example, to migrate repositories into GitHub."
"As of now, if I would like to learn about GitHub or its features, I would have to look on YouTube. It would be nice if they were able to send out a newsletter with explanations of new features that they are offering and what features are available."
"It is difficult to merge a code or restore it to an older version."
"I would like to see more security where a plugin was available for us to update in relation to security."
"The initial setup requires heavy documentation which can be challenging for new developers."
"The initial setup and implementation could be easier, I had some difficulties with it at first but I don't have a development background."
"The security for this solution could be tightened up and improved."
"The only thing I see missing in GitHub is that it isn't very user friendly for key personnel who don't have in-depth, technical knowledge. In Jira, there are many functions to upload our test cases, and in GitHub we can only do it manually. There are functions which can be used to upload different files, but that still requires some technical knowledge. A layman cannot do it."
"GitLab would be improved with the addition of templates for deployment on local PCs."
"I believe there's room for improvement in the advanced features, particularly in enhancing the pipeline functionalities."
"We do face issues in our company when we run out of disk space."
"The solution should again offer an on-premises deployment option."
"It should be used by a larger number of people. They should raise awareness."
"The solution could be faster."
"The user interface could be more user-friendly. We do most of our operations through the website interface but it could be better."
"It is a little complex to set up the pipelines within the solution."
GitHub is ranked 10th in Application Security Tools with 64 reviews while GitLab is ranked 7th in Application Security Tools with 70 reviews. GitHub is rated 8.6, while GitLab is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of GitHub writes "Beneficial version control and continuous integration, but guides would be helpful". On the other hand, the top reviewer of GitLab writes "Powerful, mature, and easy to set up and manage". GitHub is most compared with Snyk, AWS CodeCommit, Atlassian SourceTree, Bitbucket and Qualys Web Application Scanning, whereas GitLab is most compared with Microsoft Azure DevOps, Bamboo, AWS CodePipeline, SonarQube and Tekton. See our GitHub vs. GitLab report.
See our list of best Application Security Tools vendors.
We monitor all Application Security Tools reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.