GitLab vs IBM Engineering Workflow Management comparison

GitLab and IBM are both solutions in the Enterprise Agile Planning Tools category. GitLab is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.5, while IBM is ranked #10 with an average rating of 6.3. GitLab holds a 28.1% mindshare in EAP, compared to IBM’s 1.6% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of GitLab users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 64% of IBM users who would recommend it.

GitLab

Read 86 GitLab reviews

19,204 Views
8,066 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

IBM Engineering Workflow Ma...

Read 17 IBM Engineering Workflow Management reviews

1,182 Views
366 Comparison Views

64% willing to recommend

GitLab

IBM Engineering Workflow Ma...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 2024

IBM Engineering Workflow Management and GitLab compete in software development management. GitLab has the upper hand thanks to its extensive feature set despite IBM's competitive pricing and support.

Features: IBM Engineering Workflow Management offers comprehensive change management and workflow capabilities that support well-coordinated process control and collaboration. Jazz Source Control provides isolated sandboxes for seamless code management and integration with tasks. It is valuable for managing stories, sprints, and releases, offering traceability and reporting from requirements to test cases. GitLab provides robust DevOps integrations and excels with its CI/CD pipeline support, simplifying configurations and deployment. It integrates source-code repository management with development, offering a streamlined architecture for modern practices.

Room for Improvement: IBM sometimes faces challenges with deployment ease, requiring structured planning and potential upfront investments. Users might also benefit from enhanced user interface updates to match current usability standards and feature sets. It would be helpful for IBM to simplify integrations and enhance flexibility. GitLab's vast feature set might be overwhelming, creating a steep learning curve for new users. Its user interface could benefit from refinement for more intuitive operations. Enhanced built-in analytics and reporting could better aid those unfamiliar with external tools.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM Engineering Workflow Management requires meticulous deployment planning but offers strong customer support, addressing complex process and system requirements. GitLab is praised for its ease of deployment across cloud-based and on-premises environments, supported by a large online community and abundant resources. While IBM's customer support is robust, GitLab's flexible deployment options and community resources make it notably adaptable.

Pricing and ROI: IBM Engineering Workflow Management involves notable setup costs yet promises significant ROI through structured process management. GitLab offers more flexible pricing with a potentially faster ROI, leveraging open-source components and broad feature availability. The flexibility in GitLab's pricing and quicker returns make it appealing for diverse development teams and practices, optimizing cost-efficiency for varying scales.

To learn more, read our detailed GitLab vs. IBM Engineering Workflow Management Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

GitLab vs. IBM Engineering Workflow Management

July 2025

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Helped 867,370 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

ROI

Sentiment score

6.5

GitLab boosts efficiency and ROI by reducing deployment times, enhancing agility, and supporting vulnerability-free software management.

Sentiment score

7.2

IBM Engineering Workflow Management boosts productivity by 30%, enhancing team efficiency and leadership insights with user-friendly tracking features.

Migrating to GitLab is bringing time-saving benefits, and everything is easier to automate.

reviewer2603940

IT Manager at a tech company with 5,001-10,000 employees

We have saved time significantly, reducing deployment time from four hours to five minutes per deployment.

Andrea PICCININI

IT Software Architect at ANAC - Autorità Nazionale Anticorruzione

For more quotes and insights, download the GitLab report

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM Engineering Workflow Management report

Customer Service

Sentiment score

6.7

GitLab support receives mixed reviews; some praise ticket systems while others report delays, often preferring community or partner assistance.

Sentiment score

6.1

IBM Engineering Workflow Management offers reliable, skilled support with effective local vendor assistance, though customization and forum support are limited.

We have rarely needed to escalate issues to technical support since GitLab usually runs seamlessly.

Gaurav Chandel

AWS DevOps/ Site Reliability Engineer at Tata Consultancy

I have interacted with architects for some advice during the implementation, and they were prompt in their response.

Mikhael Ibrahim

Platform Engineer & Manager at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

I have had meetings where they taught me, explained things, and provided guidance for starting from scratch.

reviewer2603940

IT Manager at a tech company with 5,001-10,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the GitLab report

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM Engineering Workflow Management report

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

7.2

GitLab's container architecture supports scalability, enabling easy expansion despite deployment complexities, adapting well to diverse organizational needs.

Sentiment score

7.0

IBM Engineering Workflow Management is scalable and adaptable, with some integration challenges and performance improvement needs noted by users.

It has all the features required for our coding and deployment needs, which makes it scalable to our changing requirements.

Sarfaraz Khan

Senior Application Developer at IBM

We're transitioning to OpenShift for future scalability with increased user numbers.

Mikhael Ibrahim

Platform Engineer & Manager at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

For scaling, other deployment options from GitLab's side need to be adopted.

Rohit Kesharwani

Manager, Engineering at 7-Eleven

For more quotes and insights, download the GitLab report

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM Engineering Workflow Management report

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

8.2

GitLab is praised for its high stability and reliability, despite occasional upgrade issues, maintaining strong user satisfaction.

Sentiment score

6.7

IBM Engineering Workflow Management's stability varies with customizations, server factors, and deployment planning, affecting performance for some users.

I have not encountered any performance or stability issues with GitLab so far.

Gaurav Chandel

AWS DevOps/ Site Reliability Engineer at Tata Consultancy

The updates are frequent and demanding, happening at least once a week due to security reasons.

Andrew Schetinin

Chief Technology Officer at Acclym

We raised a request with GitLab support, but they were unable to help because they could not find the root cause of what went wrong.

AvdheshSharma

Assistant Manager at Tata Consultancy Services

For more quotes and insights, download the GitLab report

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM Engineering Workflow Management report

Room For Improvement

GitLab users want better third-party integration, security, pricing, interface, documentation, automation, stability, and enhanced deployment with improved Agile functionality.

IBM Engineering Workflow Management faces challenges in integration, customization, usability, vendor reliance, and requires enhanced tools and cloud adaptability.

It would be beneficial to have a user-friendly interface for setting up these configurations, instead of just writing YAML files.

reviewer2603940

IT Manager at a tech company with 5,001-10,000 employees

It is essential to conduct proper testing, such as unit tests and code coverage, within the SDLC pipelines.

Rohit Kesharwani

Manager, Engineering at 7-Eleven

GitLab can improve its user interface to make conflict resolution more user-friendly.

Sarfaraz Khan

Senior Application Developer at IBM

For more quotes and insights, download the GitLab report

Improved graphics in terms of metrics and connectivity to SharePoint from Microsoft products would be beneficial.

Jarvis Bellamy

Sr. Project Scheduler at a government with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM Engineering Workflow Management report

Setup Cost

GitLab provides flexible pricing from free to premium, catering to various needs, but Ultimate edition may be expensive.

IBM Engineering Workflow Management offers flexible licensing with complex yet worthwhile pricing, yielding strong ROI and excellent support.

Even when working in other small organizations, we opted for GitLab as it was cost-efficient.

Sarfaraz Khan

Senior Application Developer at IBM

The pricing of GitLab is reasonable, aligning with what I consider to be average compared to competitors.

reviewer2603940

IT Manager at a tech company with 5,001-10,000 employees

The price is high, and it limits user accessibility.

Andrea PICCININI

IT Software Architect at ANAC - Autorità Nazionale Anticorruzione

For more quotes and insights, download the GitLab report

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM Engineering Workflow Management report

Valuable Features

GitLab excels with CI/CD, integration, user interface, security, and platform compatibility, boosting productivity and market speed.

IBM Engineering Workflow Management enhances software development with task linking, traceability, agile support, and seamless change management integration.

As we implement automated testing and DevSecOps, it speeds up the process by forty to sixty percent.

Mikhael Ibrahim

Platform Engineer & Manager at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

The Ultimate version offers enhanced features for security scanning through DAST and SAST analysis, which have greatly benefitted our project workflow.

Andrea PICCININI

IT Software Architect at ANAC - Autorità Nazionale Anticorruzione

By integrating GitLab as a DevOps platform, we have enhanced agility, improved our time to market, and different teams can work collaboratively on various projects.

Rohit Kesharwani

Manager, Engineering at 7-Eleven

For more quotes and insights, download the GitLab report

It provides more efficiencies for our scrum team, ensures everyone is on the same page, and offers leadership insight into progress.

Jarvis Bellamy

Sr. Project Scheduler at a government with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM Engineering Workflow Management report

Categories and Ranking

GitLab

Ranking in Enterprise Agile Planning Tools

2nd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Security Tools (11th), Build Automation (1st), Release Automation (2nd), Static Application Security Testing (SAST) (7th), Rapid Application Development Software (11th), Software Composition Analysis (SCA) (5th), Fuzz Testing Tools (2nd), DevSecOps (1st)

IBM Engineering Workflow Ma...

Ranking in Enterprise Agile Planning Tools

10th

Average Rating

6.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Software Configuration Management (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Enterprise Agile Planning Tools category, the mindshare of GitLab is 28.1%, down from 33.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Engineering Workflow Management is 1.6%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Enterprise Agile Planning Tools Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
GitLab	28.1%
IBM Engineering Workflow Management	1.6%
Other	70.3%

Enterprise Agile Planning Tools

Featured Reviews

Rohit Kesharwani

Manager, Engineering at 7-Eleven

Improved agility and time to market with CI/CD enhancements

The CI/CD pipelines in GitLab are highly valuable. Another important feature is the single source of repository, allowing efficient repository management and source code management. GitLab provides manageability by allowing us to manage source code effectively through separate repositories. Additionally, GitLab enables the creation of individual CI/CD pipelines for each repository, making software more agile. By integrating GitLab as a DevOps platform, we have enhanced agility, improved our time to market, and different teams can work collaboratively on various projects.

Read full review

Suvajit Chakraborty

Manager, Digital Engineering at Harman International

Offers good traceability elements but UI needs improvement

There is room for improvement in the UI. The UI has to improve a lot compared to the competitive tools, like Atlassian Jira, for example. It's very easy to use. It is easy to manage and easy to use. Anybody can learn it right quickly and start with it. But IBM ELM is something where somebody has to have good knowledge, training, and understanding and then only start using it. But there's a big known knowledge curve for IBM ELM. But once that is there, it's normally; organizations do have their own internal team to basically manage it IBM ELM portfolio, the tool chain. So if they have internal teams who are doing it for quite some time, not something new, then it is definitely better. But if there's if somebody is starting new, definitely there is a knowledge curve time it can take at least a year or maybe a couple of years before they can start realizing the benefits.

Read full review

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

13%

Government

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

17%

Government

16%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	35
Midsize Enterprise	9
Large Enterprise	42

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	9

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about GitLab?

I find the features and version control history to be most valuable for our development workflow. These aspects provide us with a clear view of changes and help us manage requests efficiently.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for GitLab?

The pricing and cost are on par with other tools and are neither too expensive nor cheap.

See all answers

What needs improvement with GitLab?

Regarding improvements, making task management is something that GitLab can potentially make easier, similar to what DevOps or Jira does.

See all answers

What do you like most about IBM Engineering Workflow Management?

We can track the status of test cases (passed or saved) in a single view. Based on releases and other attributes, we generate various reports and extract metrics from the data.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Engineering Workflow Management?

I've heard IBM Engineering Workflow Management is more expensive than other tools. On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a six out of ten.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Engineering Workflow Management?

Improved graphics in terms of metrics and connectivity to SharePoint from Microsoft products would be beneficial.

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 34% of the time

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Compared 5% of the time

Tekton vs GitLab

Compared 5% of the time

SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) vs GitLab

Compared 4% of the time

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Compared 42% of the time

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Compared 12% of the time

Codebeamer vs IBM Engineering Workflow Management

Compared 9% of the time

ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management vs IBM Engineering Workflow Management

Compared 6% of the time

Inflectra SpiraPlan vs IBM Engineering Workflow Management

Compared 6% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

GitLab

September 2025

Download GitLab product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM Engineering Workflow Management

September 2025

IBM Engineering Workflow Management report

Download IBM Engineering Workflow Management product report

Also Known As

Fuzzit

IBM Rational Team Concert (IBM ALM), IBM RTC

Overview

GitLab offers a secure and user-friendly platform for CI/CD pipeline management, code repository control, and collaboration, enhancing development speed and efficiency. It facilitates automation with extensive customization and tool integration, ideal for DevOps processes.

GitLab supports source code management, version control, and collaborative development. It's frequently used in CI/CD processes to automate builds and deployments while integrating DevOps practices. GitLab allows companies to manage repositories, automate pipelines, conduct code reviews, and maintain development lifecycles. The platform supports infrastructure and configuration management, enabling efficient code collaboration, deployment automation, and comprehensive repository handling. Many organizations commit and deploy developed code using GitLab's capabilities.

What are GitLab's most valuable features?

CI/CD Pipeline Management: Streamlines development through automated testing and deployment.
User-Friendly Interface: Ensures ease of collaboration and task automation.
Code Merging and Branching: Facilitates smooth code integration and version control.
Security Platform: Provides strong security features for safe development.
Tool Integration: Enhances functionality with diverse tool integration.

What benefits should users evaluate?

Development Speed: Accelerates processes through automation.
Collaboration Ease: Simplifies team interactions and workflow.
Customization Options: Offers extensive personalization for specific needs.
Comprehensive Documentation: Provides detailed guidance for users.
Secure Platform: Maintains integrity with robust security features.

In specific industries, GitLab serves as a backbone for source code management and CI/CD implementation. Companies leverage its capabilities for infrastructure management and deployment automation, thus streamlining project delivery timelines. Its ability to handle configuration management and code repositories effectively aids in maintaining development lifecycles, making it a preferred choice for organizations committed to enhancing their DevOps practices.

GitLab

IBM Engineering Workflow Management manages plans, tasks, the project status and acts as the critical link between required and delivered work. It provides flexibility to adapt to any process, which enables companies to adopt faster release cycles and manage dependencies across both small and complex development projects. This solution offers no-charge server software and flexible pricing models. It becomes a complete IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management solution—when purchased as a set of seamlessly integrated tools: IBM Engineering Workflow Management, IBM Engineering Test Management, and IBM Engineering Requirements Management DOORS Next.

IBM

Sample Customers

1. NASA 2. IBM 3. Sony 4. Alibaba 5. CERN 6. Siemens 7. Volkswagen 8. ING 9. Ticketmaster 10. SpaceX 11. Adobe 12. Intuit 13. Autodesk 14. Rakuten 15. Unity Technologies 16. Pandora 17. Electronic Arts 18. Nordstrom 19. Verizon 20. Comcast 21. Philips 22. Deutsche Telekom 23. Orange 24. Fujitsu 25. Ericsson 26. Nokia 27. General Electric 28. Cisco 29. Accenture 30. Deloitte 31. PwC 32. KPMG

Telstra Corporation, Visteon, Atos SE, Panasonic Automotive Systems, IBM Global Technology Services, CareCore National, JTEKT Corp., ItaÒ BBA, Avea, CACEIS, Danske Bank Group, APIS IT

Buyer's Guide

GitLab vs. IBM Engineering Workflow Management

July 2025

Free Report: GitLab vs. IBM Engineering Workflow Management

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