GitLab vs Sonatype Repository Firewall comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Mar 20, 2023

We performed a comparison between GitLab and Sonatype Nexus Firewall based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

  • Ease of Deployment: GitLab’s setup is straightforward and easy, with a learning curve for DevOps toolchain implementation. It takes time to set upSonatype Nexus Firewall and Linux knowledge, but upgrades and support are easy.
  • Features: GitLab features a comprehensive CI/CD pipeline, along with a single platform for source code management, build management, test management, artifact management, and deployment management. Sonatype Nexus Firewall offers secure code downloading, vulnerability notifications, and policy enforcement throughout the software development lifecycle.
  • Pricing: GitLab ranges from $19 per user, per month for Premium to $99 per user, per month for Ultimate. Sonatype Nexus Firewall's pricing is reasonable and fair, with no additional costs.
  • Service and Support: GitLab's support is responsive and helpful. Sonatype Nexus Firewall lacks a phone support option.
  • ROI: Both GitLab and Sonatype Nexus Firewall provide a good ROI by improving code quality and security.

Comparison Result: Based on the parameters we compared, Sonatype Nexus Firewall came out ahead of GitLab. Although both products have valuable features and can be estimated as high-end solutions, our reviewers found that GitLab's complexity is its main drawback, which some users find overwhelming and difficult to navigate.

To learn more, read our detailed GitLab vs. Sonatype Repository Firewall Report (Updated: November 2023).
744,865 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The inventory management as well as the ability to identify security vulnerabilities has been the most valuable for our business.""The dashboard view and the management view are most valuable.""The best feature is that the Mend R&D team does their due diligence for all the vulnerabilities. In case they observe any important or critical vulnerabilities, such as the Log4j-related vulnerability, we usually get a dedicated email from our R&D team saying that this particular vulnerability has been exploited in the world, and we should definitely check our project for this and take corrective actions.""There are multiple different integrations there. We use Mend for CI/CD that goes through Azure as well. It works seamlessly. We never have any issues with it.""WhiteSource is unique in the scanning of open-source licenses. Additionally, the vulnerabilities aspect of the solution is a benefit. We don't use WhiteSource in the whole organization, but we use it for some projects. There we receive a sense of the vulnerabilities of the open-source components, which improves our security work. The reports are automated which is useful.""I am the organizational deployment administrator for this tool, and I, along with other users in our company, especially the security team, appreciate the solution for several reasons. The UI is excellent, and scanning for security threats fits well into our workflow.""What is very nice is that the product is very easy to set up. When you want to implement Mend.io, it just takes a few minutes to create your organization, create your products, and scan them. It's really convenient to have Mend scanning your products in less than one hour.""Mend has reduced our open-source software vulnerabilities and helped us remediate issues quickly. My company's policy is to ensure that vulnerabilities are fixed before it gets to production."

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"The SaaS setup is impressive, and it has DAST solutioning.""It is scalable.""GitLab is a solution for source code management, container registry, pipelines, testing, and deployment.""CI/CD is very good. The version control system is also good. These are the two features that we use.""It scales well.""As a developer, this solution is useful as a repository holder because most of the POC projects that we have are on GitLab.""The most valuable features of GitLab are the review, patch repo, and plans are in YAML.""GitLab's best feature is Actions."

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"The product's network and intrusion protection features are valuable. It also has rules and compliance features for security."

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Cons
"It should support multiple SBOM formats to be able to integrate with old industry standards.""I rated the solution an eight out of ten because WhiteSource hasn't built in a couple of features that we would have loved to use and they say they're on their roadmap. I'm hoping that they'll be able to build and deliver in 2022.""Mend lets you create custom policies. They're not too complicated to set up, but it would be helpful if they had some preconfigured policies to match what we have in Azure DevOps. That would save us a lot of time. It's tedious to configure the policies manually, and I lack the capacity to do it right now. Other products have preconfigured packs and templates, and Mend doesn't.""At times, the latency of getting items out of the findings after they're remediated is higher than it should be.""I would like to have an additional compliance pack. Currently, it does not have anything for the CIS framework or the NIST framework. If we directly run a scan, and it is under the CIS framework, we can directly tell the auditor that this product is now CIS compliant.""They're working on a UI refresh. That's probably been one of the pain points for us as it feels like a really old application.""Mend supports most of the common package managers, but it doesn't support some that we use. I would appreciate it if they can quickly make these changes to add new package managers when necessary.""On the reporting side, they could make some improvements. They are making the reports better and better, but sometimes it takes a lot of time to generate a report for our entire organization."

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"GitLab could add a plugin to integrate with Kubernetes stuff.""GitLab can improve by integrating with more tools, such as servers with Docker.""Their RBAC is role-based access, which is fine but not very good.""We would like to have easier tutorials. Their tutorials are too technical for a user to understand. They should be more detailed but less technical.""It's more related to the supporting layer of features, such as issue management and issue tracking. We tend to always use, for example, Jira next to it. That doesn't mean that GitLab should build something similar to Jira because that will always have its place, but they could grow a bit in those kinds of supporting features. I see some, for example, covering ITSM on a DevOps team level, and that's one of the things that I and my current client would find really helpful. It's understandably not going to be their main focus and their core, and whenever you are with a company that needs a bit more advanced features on that specific topic, you're probably still going to integrate with another tool like Jira Service Management, for example. However, some basic features on things like that could be really helpful.""The initial setup was quite challenging because it takes some time to understand how to pull out or push the code.""Merge conflicts and repository maintenance could improve. If there is someone new to the system they would not know if there is a conflict.""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."

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"The tool needs to improve its file systems. The product should also include zero test feature."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "This is an expensive solution."
  • "When comparing the price of WhiteSource to the competition it is priced well. The cost for 50 users is approximately $18,000 annually."
  • "Its pricing model is per developer. It depends on the number of developers in the company. The license is for a minimum of 20 developers. So, even if you are a small startup with less than 10 developers, you have to buy a license for 20 developers on a yearly subscription, which makes it quite expensive for startup customers. I provide consultation to startup accelerators. They're small at the beginning, and only once they grow to 20 developers, they can afford this tool. As a result, WhiteSource is missing this target audience. Their licensing is not flexible."
  • "We always negotiate for the best price possible, and as far as I know, Mend has done an excellent job with their pricing. Our management is happy with the pricing, which has led to renewals."
  • "Pricing and licensing are comparable to other tools. When we started, it was less than our existing solution. I can't go into specifics, but it isn't cheap."
  • "Mend is costly but not overly expensive. The license was quite expensive this year, but we managed to negotiate the price down to the same as last year. At the same time, it's a good value. We're getting what we're paying for and still not using all the features. We could probably get more out of the tool and make it more valuable. At the moment, we don't have the capacity to do that."
  • "Over the last two years, they have tried to add more and more features to their license packages, but the price is a little bit high, comparatively."
  • "It is fairly priced."
  • More Mend.io Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "We are using its free version, and we are evaluating its Premium version. Its Ultimate version is very expensive."
  • "The price of GitLab could be better, it is expensive."
  • "I'm not aware of the licensing costs because those were covered by the customer."
  • "GitLab is an open-source solution."
  • "GitLab's pricing is good compared to others on the market."
  • "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."
  • "This product is not very expensive but the price can be better."
  • "GitLab is a free solution to use."
  • More GitLab Pricing and Cost Advice →

    Information Not Available
    report
    Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Software Composition Analysis (SCA) solutions are best for your needs.
    744,865 professionals have used our research since 2012.
    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:Red Hat Ceph does well in simplifying storage integration by replacing the need for numerous storage solutions. This… more »
    Top Answer:We researched Black Duck but ultimately chose WhiteSource when looking for an application security tool. WhiteSource is… more »
    Top Answer:The best feature is that the Mend R&D team does their due diligence for all the vulnerabilities. In case they observe… more »
    Top Answer:We are using the open-source version, anyone can download it.
    Top Answer:The documentation is confusing. Sometimes, it is incomplete or has incorrect information. I have informed the vendor… more »
    Top Answer:The product's network and intrusion protection features are valuable. It also has rules and compliance features for… more »
    Top Answer:The licensing is quite reasonable, I believe. I do see that it adds value. It means whatever part you want to use, you… more »
    Top Answer:The product helps with vulnerability and security assessment. It also helps with assessment at the configuration level.
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    WhiteSource, Mend SCA
    Fuzzit
    Sonatype Nexus Firewall, Nexus Firewall
    Learn More
    Overview

    Mend.io is a software composition analysis tool that secures what developers create. The solution provides an automated reduction of the software attack surface, reduces developer burdens, and accelerates app delivery. Mend.io provides open-source analysis with its in-house and other multiple sources of software vulnerabilities. In addition, the solution offers license and policy violation alerts, has great pipeline integration, and, since it is a SaaS (software as a service), it doesn’t require you to physically maintain servers or data centers for any implementation. Not only does Mend.io reduce enterprise application security risk, it also helps developers meet deadlines faster.

    Mend.io Features

    Mend.io has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

    • Vulnerability analysis
    • Automated remediation
    • Seamless integration
    • Business prioritization
    • Limitless scalability
    • Intuitive interface
    • Language support
    • Integration
    • Continuous monitoring
    • Remediation suggestions
    • Customization

    Mend.io Benefits

    There are many benefits to implementing Mend.io. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

    • Easy to use: The Mend.io platform is very user-friendly and easy to set up.
    • Third-party libraries: The solution eases the process of keeping track of all the used third-party dependencies within a product. It not only scans for the pure occurrence (also transitively) but also takes care of licenses and vulnerabilities.
    • Static code analysis: With Mend.io’s static code analysis, you can quickly identify security weaknesses in custom code across desktop, web, and mobile applications.
    • Broad support: Mend.io provides 27 different programming languages and various programming frameworks.
    • Easy integration: Mend.io makes integration very easy with existing DevOps environments and CI/CD pipelines so developers don’t need to manually configure or trigger the scan.
    • Ultra-fast scanning engine: The solution’s scanning engine generates results up to ten times faster than legacy SAST solutions.
    • Unified developer experience: Mend.io has a unified developer experience inside the code repository that shows side-by-side security alerts and remediation suggestions for custom code and open-source code.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by PeerSpot users currently using the Mend.io solution.

    Jeffrey H., System Manager of Cloud Engineering at Common Spirit, says, “Finding vulnerabilities is pretty easy. Mend.io (formerly WhiteSource) does a great job of that and we had quite a few when we first put this in place. Mend.io does a very good job of finding the open-source, checking the versions, and making sure they're secure. They notify us of critical high, medium, and low impacts, and if anything is wrong. We find the product very easy to use and we use it as a core part of our strategy for scanning product code moving toward release.”

    PeerSpot reviewer Ben D., Head of Software Engineering at a legal firm, mentions, “The way WhiteSource scans the code is great. It’s easy to identify and remediate open source vulnerabilities using this solution. WhiteSource helped reduce our mean time to resolution since we adopted the product. In terms of integration, it's pretty easy.”

    An IT Service Manager at a wholesaler/distributor comments, “Mend.io provides threat detection and an excellent UI in a highly stable solution, with outstanding technical support.”

    Another reviewer, Kevin D., Intramural OfficialIntramural at Northeastern University, states, "The vulnerability analysis is the best aspect of the solution."

    GitLab is a complete DevOps platform that enables teams to collaborate and deliver software faster. 

    It provides a single application for the entire DevOps lifecycle, from planning and development to testing, deployment, and monitoring. 

    With GitLab, teams can streamline their workflows, automate processes, and improve productivity.

    Sonatype Repository Firewall is a cloud-based security solution designed to safeguard your software supply chain against malicious components. It operates by meticulously scanning and evaluating each new component against customized governance policies, thereby effectively identifying and blocking potential threats before they infiltrate your development pipeline. What sets Sonatype Repository Firewall apart is its user-friendly setup, seamless integration with existing workflows, and remarkable scalability, making it suitable for software development environments of any size. Key features include blocking malicious components through behavioral analysis, malware scanning, and vulnerability assessment, as well as the ability to enforce custom governance policies. By utilizing this tool, organizations can enhance their software supply chain security, mitigate risks related to supply chain attacks, bolster compliance with industry standards, and ultimately reduce costs associated with security incidents. 

    Offer
    Learn more about Mend.io
    Learn more about GitLab
    Learn more about Sonatype Repository Firewall
    Sample Customers
    Microsoft, Autodesk, NCR, Target, IBM, vodafone, Siemens, GE digital, KPMG, LivePerson, Jack Henry and Associates
    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
    EDF, Tomitribe, Crosskey, Blackboard, Travel audience
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company33%
    Financial Services Firm11%
    Energy/Utilities Company6%
    Media Company6%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Financial Services Firm16%
    Manufacturing Company9%
    Insurance Company5%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm18%
    Computer Software Company18%
    Manufacturing Company14%
    Retailer11%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization26%
    Computer Software Company12%
    Financial Services Firm10%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm32%
    Computer Software Company9%
    Government9%
    Insurance Company5%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business36%
    Midsize Enterprise7%
    Large Enterprise57%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business20%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise66%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business43%
    Midsize Enterprise8%
    Large Enterprise49%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business15%
    Midsize Enterprise34%
    Large Enterprise52%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business16%
    Midsize Enterprise10%
    Large Enterprise74%
    Buyer's Guide
    GitLab vs. Sonatype Repository Firewall
    November 2023
    Find out what your peers are saying about GitLab vs. Sonatype Repository Firewall and other solutions. Updated: November 2023.
    744,865 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    GitLab is ranked 5th in Software Composition Analysis (SCA) with 49 reviews while Sonatype Repository Firewall is ranked 11th in Software Composition Analysis (SCA) with 2 reviews. GitLab is rated 8.6, while Sonatype Repository Firewall is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of GitLab writes "Powerful, mature, and easy to set up and manage". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Sonatype Repository Firewall writes "You will get clean code every time, and that's a great achievement". GitLab is most compared with Microsoft Azure DevOps, Bamboo, AWS CodePipeline, TeamCity and Tekton, whereas Sonatype Repository Firewall is most compared with JFrog Security Essentials, Cisco Secure Firewall, Snyk, Black Duck and Sonatype Lifecycle. See our GitLab vs. Sonatype Repository Firewall report.

    See our list of best Software Composition Analysis (SCA) vendors and best Application Security Tools vendors.

    We monitor all Software Composition Analysis (SCA) 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.