GitLab vs Retool comparison

GitLab and Retool are both solutions in the Rapid Application Development Software category. GitLab is ranked #11 with an average rating of 8.3, while Retool is ranked #16 with an average rating of 8.4. GitLab holds a 3.7% mindshare in RADS, compared to Retool’s 0.9% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of GitLab users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Retool users who would recommend it.

GitLab

Read 87 GitLab reviews

18,203 Views
1,638 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

Retool

Read 8 Retool reviews

506 Views
506 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

GitLab

Retool

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

GitLab and Retool are competitive products in the business development sector. GitLab has a competitive edge with robust collaboration tools, while Retool is notable for its intuitive app building capabilities.

Features: GitLab provides comprehensive DevOps lifecycle tools such as version control, CI/CD pipelines, and issue tracking, which integrate with diverse third-party tools to enhance workflow management. Retool excels in rapid application development with drag-and-drop functionality, allowing for quick prototyping, targeting teams aiming to swiftly build internal tools.

Room for Improvement: GitLab could improve by simplifying its interface for new users, enhancing its code review tools, and expanding automated testing capabilities. Retool might benefit from improved support for complex integrations, expanded customization options, and better versioning capabilities for collaborative projects.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: GitLab offers both cloud-based and on-premise deployment options to meet diverse security requirements and is recognized for its resources that facilitate deployment. Retool provides a straightforward cloud-hosted solution, reducing setup complexity, while being praised for fast, responsive customer support that ensures high satisfaction.

Pricing and ROI: GitLab's pricing models are scalable, maximizing value for large-scale implementations, and its extensive functionality ensures favorable ROI by reducing operational complexity. Retool offers a cost-effective entry point, focusing on rapid development and time savings, providing a low upfront investment advantage and efficiency in delivering quick solutions.

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

Buyer's Guide

GitLab vs. Retool

September 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 869,566 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:

Categories and Ranking

GitLab

Ranking in Rapid Application Development Software

11th

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), Software Composition Analysis (SCA) (5th), Enterprise Agile Planning Tools (2nd), Fuzz Testing Tools (3rd), DevSecOps (1st)

Retool

Ranking in Rapid Application Development Software

16th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Rapid Application Development Software category, the mindshare of GitLab is 3.7%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Retool is 0.9%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Rapid Application Development Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
GitLab	3.7%
Retool	0.9%
Other	95.4%

Rapid Application Development Software

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

Anees Shoukat

Full Stack PHP/Python AWS Developer at Binary Port

Built-in features streamline data processing and integration

Retool provides built-in features with all processing happening within the platform, which is a significant advantage. The platform is easy to use without requiring the installation of different libraries. Various features are available through drag and drop and UI-based interactions. The tool allows data retrieval through queries and displays information directly. It offers data tools that grab information based on specified queries and draws everything on screen. If a table is needed, it efficiently lists down the table data. Data manipulation happens through queries. We simply specify the table and required query, and the results are displayed immediately. Permissions are required for access. When we grant access from AWS, Retool can access the data. Without proper permissions, access is restricted. We can provide view-only access in Retool while maintaining view, edit, and delete capabilities in the main system. This allows us to control access for sales personnel and external data viewing. The platform provides an extensive range of graphs and visualization options.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution has an established roadmap that lays out its plans for upgrades over the next two to three years."

"When a developer checks in code, it is automatically built and deployed, and automated test cases are also run. We have extensive integration with GitLab, which helps us with source code management. We run the static code analysis using SonarQube."

"Continuous integration with deployment is very powerful, which is a significant reason for migrating from TFS to GitLab."

"Git merging allows us to track the details of how and who has done what; this is the best feature which is useful for all companies."

"CI/CD and GitLab scanning are the most valuable features."

"I have found the most valuable feature is security control. I also like the branching and cloning software."

"It is user-friendly, easy to use, and easy to administer."

"The most valuable features of Gitlab are integration with CIE and the ability to rapidly deploy solutions, projects, and applications. It is very easy to use, and there are no complaints."

More GitLab pros

"There are several key aspects to Retool that make it stand out. Firstly, its extensive range of components makes integration straightforward. Secondly, its support for SQL and JavaScript allows for the implementation of complex logic, which is particularly beneficial for developers like yourself with experience in .NET development."

"Retool can be used with many applications as it is language independent; anyone can use it easily and create various visualizations regardless of their programming knowledge—this is the main reason I recommend it."

"The stability is okay."

"We can create the dashboards quickly."

"Retool's most valuable features are its drag-and-drop components and the ability to customize them extensively."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is connectivity with APIs and other databases."

"The most valuable feature of Retool is the workflow because I can integrate multiple features, such as RESTful API, JavaScript API, or different databases on the same dashboard."

"Retool provides us with the opportunity to save time and be more efficient."

More Retool pros

Cons

"Even if I say I want some improvement, they will say it is already planned in the first quarter, second quarter, or third quarter. That said, most everything is quite improved already, and they're improving even further still."

"I would like more Agile features in the Premium version. The Premium version should have all Agile features that exist in the Ultimate version. IBM AOM has a complete Agile implementation, but in GitLab, you only have these features if you buy the Ultimate version. It would be good if we can use these in the Premium version."

"In the next release, I would like to see GitLab expand its integration capabilities to include platforms like DigitalOcean, which developers widely use for cloud infrastructure. Enhancing CI/CD automation features specifically tailored for DigitalOcean would be beneficial."

"I would like to see AI support in GitLab."

"The tool should include a feature that helps to edit the code directly."

"It is a little complex to set up the pipelines within the solution."

"The solution should again offer an on-premises deployment option."

"The initial setup was quite challenging because it takes some time to understand how to pull out or push the code."

More GitLab cons

"The solution lacks inbuilt customization to customize bar charts."

"The part where we can add some custom logic or custom plugins could be better."

"There are restrictions on the front-end side."

"One area for improvement in Retool is expanding its library support to include a broader range of third-party JavaScript libraries."

"AI tools, features, and machine learning capabilities should be added as they would be helpful in the future."

"Retool should add more resource integration."

"AI tools, features, and machine learning capabilities should be added as they would be helpful in the future."

"The components are changed frequently, which is very irritating."

More Retool cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"GitLab is an open-source solution."

"We are using the free version of GitLab."

"The initial setup cost is excellent and you can add the premium features later."

"We are currently using the open-source version."

"The solution's standard license is paid annually. They have changed the pricing model and it used to be better. There is a free version available."

"We are using the open-source version."

"We are using its free version, and we are evaluating its Premium version. Its Ultimate version is very expensive."

"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."

More GitLab pricing and cost advice

"For new users, evaluate the scale of their administrative needs as Retool provides excellent free services for smaller setups, but larger deployments might require transitioning to a paid plan."

"For me, I'm in India right now, and we have Retool's subscription for one team member for $10 per month."

"The tool is a little bit expensive."

"The pricing is very expensive. It costs for each user, for automated users, open-end users, et cetera."

"I don't know Retool's current pricing, but it cost around $12 per month earlier."

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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

16%

Comms Service Provider

14%

Outsourcing Company

10%

University

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	4
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	2

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?

We are currently using general GitLab, not GitLab Premium.

See all answers

What needs improvement with GitLab?

GitLab needs to improve the CI/CD functionality because it is not compatible with Jenkins and other tools, as it is not that efficient. Security-wise, we have security features enabled in GitLab fo...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Retool?

For new users, evaluate the scale of their administrative needs as Retool provides excellent free services for smaller setups, but larger deployments might require transitioning to a paid plan.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Retool?

The platform already provides many features, and additional features aren't necessary for medium-level usage. Only very high-level requirements might necessitate more features. AI tools, features, ...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Retool?

In Retool, I have designed graphs and data tools to implement rules-based functionality. Instead of implementing these features in our platform, we created them through Retool because we only provi...

See all answers

Comparisons

Microsoft Azure DevOps vs GitLab

Compared 38% of the time

GitHub CoPilot vs GitLab

Compared 12% of the time

TeamCity vs GitLab

Compared 5% of the time

Tekton vs GitLab

Compared 4% of the time

SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) vs GitLab

Compared 3% of the time

More GitLab Competitors

Streamlit vs Retool

Compared 60% of the time

Pega Platform vs Retool

Compared 17% of the time

AWS App Studio vs Retool

Compared 13% of the time

ToolJet vs Retool

Compared 11% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

GitLab

September 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Retool

September 2025

Download Retool 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

Retool enables rapid construction of internal tools with minimal coding, streamlining workflows across HR, customer support, and compliance. Praised for its drag-and-drop interface, extensive component library, and SQL support, it boosts organizational efficiency by automating tasks and enhancing data management.

Retool

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

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Buyer's Guide

GitLab vs. Retool

September 2025

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