GitLab vs LaunchDarkly comparison

GitLab and LaunchDarkly are both solutions in the Build Automation category. GitLab is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.6, while LaunchDarkly is ranked #12 with an average rating of 8.0. GitLab holds a 14.5% mindshare in BA, compared to LaunchDarkly’s 0.7% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of GitLab users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of LaunchDarkly users who would recommend it.

GitLab

Read 85 GitLab reviews

19,768 Views
4,547 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

LaunchDarkly

Read 7 LaunchDarkly reviews

262 Views
262 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

GitLab

LaunchDarkly

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 5, 2025

GitLab and LaunchDarkly compete in the software development tools category, offering solutions that cater to different aspects of the development lifecycle. GitLab seems to have the upper hand due to its comprehensive DevOps features that integrate through the entire development process, whereas LaunchDarkly excels in feature management and experimentation capabilities.

Features: GitLab offers a comprehensive set of DevOps tools, including CI/CD pipelines, integrated version control, and project management functionalities. Its platform facilitates streamlined development processes and supports various integrations, making it a popular choice for teams seeking an all-in-one solution. LaunchDarkly provides precise feature management, allowing businesses to control feature releases with ease, facilitate experimentation, and manage risks during deployments, focusing primarily on continuous delivery.

Room for Improvement: GitLab could enhance its feature set by improving user support and documentation to help users navigate its variety of offerings more efficiently. There could also be improvements in the onboarding process and advanced security features. LaunchDarkly might benefit from expanding its integrations with other DevOps tools and providing more comprehensive analytics for feature experimentation. It could also enhance user training resources and documentation for better client onboarding and usage.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: GitLab provides streamlined deployment with extensive documentation support, complemented by a robust community. This makes integration into diverse tech stacks relatively seamless and enabled through community collaboration and troubleshooting forums. LaunchDarkly prioritizes efficient deployment processes and offers responsive customer service that focuses on resolving specific user issues promptly, providing a more tailored support experience.

Pricing and ROI: GitLab offers flexible pricing structures that can provide strong long-term returns, making it economically appealing for broad development needs. Its pricing is based on the number of users and features selected, often giving clear ROI through cost-effective access to its extensive capabilities. LaunchDarkly's pricing might seem higher initially, but it delivers substantial ROI where enhanced feature management and reduced deployment risks are business priorities; this is particularly beneficial for companies focusing on innovative feature-driven development.

To learn more, read our detailed GitLab vs. LaunchDarkly Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

GitLab vs. LaunchDarkly

July 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

GitLab

Ranking in Build Automation

1st

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Security Tools (11th), Release Automation (2nd), Static Application Security Testing (SAST) (7th), Rapid Application Development Software (10th), Software Composition Analysis (SCA) (5th), Enterprise Agile Planning Tools (2nd), Fuzz Testing Tools (2nd), DevSecOps (1st)

LaunchDarkly

Ranking in Build Automation

12th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Build Automation category, the mindshare of GitLab is 14.5%, down from 17.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of LaunchDarkly is 0.7%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Build Automation

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.

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Ramya Nallamsetty

Associate at Cognizant

Enables us to target users and control what needs to be visible on their screens but it sometimes breaks down

We use LaunchDarkly for managing feature flags. It helps manage the keys to control what users view on our screens By managing the feature flags, we can target users and control what needs to be visible on their screens. I like that it offers the ability to control the flags. We need experience…

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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 SaaS setup is impressive, and it has DAST solutioning."

"The initial setup of GitLab is pretty simple, with no complications."

"The CI/CD pipeline with Helm has significantly improved deployment speed and efficiency."

"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."

"The CI/CD process is very efficient."

"We like that we can have an all-encompassing product and don't have to implement different solutions."

"The tool helps to integrate CI/CD pipeline deployments. It is very easy to learn. Its security model is good."

More GitLab pros

"From the development side, it allows us to manage multiple things."

"It has really helped during the series of product lines and faster deployment and faster development."

"The setup is easy."

"I like that it offers the ability to control the flags."

"The ability to turn off a flag is crucial when a task is not complete, especially if there is an error in a commit."

"I appreciate that we can release any feature in production and maintain control over it."

"The initial setup is very easy."

Cons

"I'm new to GitLab, so I would appreciate more documentation about the code and commands."

"Merge conflicts and repository maintenance could improve. If there is someone new to the system they would not know if there is a conflict."

"As GitLab is not perfect, what needs improvement in the solution is the Wiki feature of the groups or the repertories because currently, it's not searchable by default. You'll need an indexing service such as Elasticsearch to make it searchable, and that requires too much work, so for me, it's the main feature that should be improved in GitLab. In the next version of the solution, from the top of my head, the documentation could be improved. Besides the Wiki, it would be good if there's documentation that would be automatically generated based on the code repository. In other words, there should be some tutorials from GitLab for developers in the next release."

"It should be used by a larger number of people. They should raise awareness."

"The documentation is confusing."

"The integration and storage capabilities could be better."

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

"I believe there's room for improvement in the advanced features, particularly in enhancing the pipeline functionalities."

More GitLab cons

"Right now, no improvements are needed."

"Fetching information about multiple flags in a single action would be beneficial."

"I have used LaunchDarkly for around two and a half years and I haven't faced any issues with it."

"When the system has an excessive number of feature flags, managing them can become cumbersome."

"I strongly believe they need to develop a strategy for handling situations where LaunchDarkly goes down."

"We need experience to use it, and the initial setup can be difficult. Also, sometimes it has breakdowns."

"The feature where one feature flag is dependent on another could be explored more for our usage."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Its price is fine. It is on the cheaper side and not expensive. You have to pay additionally for GitLab CI/CD minutes. Initially, we used the free version. When we ran out of GitLab minutes, we migrated to the paid version."

"Regarding pricing, I would rate GitLab as moderately priced, maybe around a seven or eight out of ten. It could be more flexible for clients but generally offers good value."

"In terms of the pricing for GitLab, on a scale of one to five, with one being expensive and five being cheap, I'm rating pricing for the solution a four. It could still be cheaper because right now, my company has a small team, and sometimes it's difficult to use a paid product for a small team. You'd hope the team will grow and scale, but currently, you're paying a high license fee for a small team. I'm referring to the GitLab license that has premium features and will give you all features. This can be a problem for management to approve the high price of the license for a team this small."

"In total, I believe we have more than 300 licenses spread over about 100 users, though I can't comment on the costs involved."

"We are using the free version of GitLab."

"On a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate the pricing a five out of ten."

"I think that we pay approximately $100 USD per month."

"GitLab is cheap."

More GitLab pricing and cost advice

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

14%

Government

11%

Manufacturing Company

11%

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for LaunchDarkly?

I consider the pricing to be high.

See all answers

What needs improvement with LaunchDarkly?

We need experience to use it, and the initial setup can be difficult. Also, sometimes it has breakdowns. I would rate LaunchDarkly a seven out of ten.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for LaunchDarkly?

We use LaunchDarkly for managing feature flags. It helps manage the keys to control what users view on our screens.

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 5% of the time

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Compared 5% of the time

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Compared 100% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

GitLab

August 2025

Download GitLab product report

Buyer's Guide

Build Automation

July 2025

Download LaunchDarkly product report

Also Known As

Fuzzit

No data available

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

LaunchDarkly is acclaimed for its feature flag management, enabling safer, high-velocity code deployment and precise control over rollouts. Organizations use it to test, deploy, and manage features across user segments, performing canary releases and quick rollbacks without new code deployment. Users praise its robust flag system, real-time updates, detailed targeting, comprehensive analytics, and strong integration capabilities, significantly enhancing development efficiency and productivity.

LaunchDarkly

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

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

GitLab vs. LaunchDarkly

July 2025

Free Report: GitLab vs. LaunchDarkly

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