Zeeshan Haider - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior AI Engineer at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Real User
Top 20
Gives us the flexibility to monitor our changes in the repos and allows multiple people to work on the same code
Pros and Cons
  • "GitLab is kind of an image of GitHub, so it gives us the flexibility to monitor our changes in the repos."
  • "When deploying the solution on cloud and the CI/CD pipeline, we have to define the steps and it becomes confusing."

What is our primary use case?

The solution is cloud-based. There are around 30 people using this solution in my organization. 

What is most valuable?

GitLab is kind of an image of GitHub, so it gives us the flexibility to monitor our changes in the repos. Multiple people can work on the same code and make various branches. We can merge them together and resolve conflicts. This feature makes development quite fast. Everybody gets to work on their own feature independently without waiting for someone else to complete their code first.

What needs improvement?

When deploying the solution on cloud and the CI/CD pipeline, we have to define the steps and it becomes confusing. The trend is shifting toward CI/CD pipeline automation, so GitLab could provide some features that help with CI/CD automation. 

There could also be integration with different cloud services like GCP, AWS, or Microsoft Azure. A one-click deployment with the CI/CD pipeline of our code would be a good feature.

For how long have I used the solution?

I worked with GitLab for one year.

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March 2024
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable. We haven't encountered any issues with loading repos.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's scalable. We haven't performed a lot of computation on GitLab because we're just storing our code on it. We can create as many admins, branches, and projects as we want.

How are customer service and support?

I haven't contacted technical support because we haven't encountered any issues. 

How was the initial setup?

Initial setup is simple. Our model and other application repo was pushed on GitLab. From there, we pushed the code into the VM and then used that to make the Docker images. The models were deployed on GCP. It was easy to deploy them on Cloud Run on GCP.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution isn't as expensive as other solutions.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate this solution as nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Alexandru Zeevleanu - PeerSpot reviewer
DevOps Team Lead at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Beneficial YAML plans, reliable, and low maintenance
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features of GitLab are the review, patch repo, and plans are in YAML."
  • "GitLab could improve the patch repository. It does not have support for Conan patch version regions. Additionally, better support for Kubernetes deployment is needed as part of the package."

What is our primary use case?

We use GitLab as a source code repository, terraform modules repository, generic packages repository and for our CI/CD pipelines.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features of GitLab are the merge request approvals, package repository, and that GitLab CI/CD pipelines plans are written in YAML.

What needs improvement?

GitLab could improve the package repository. It does not have support for Conan packages revisions.

Additionally, better support for deploying GitLab in Kubernetes is needed (i.e. more mature helm packages and updated documentation).

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using GitLab for approximately five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of GitLab is good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

GitLab is scalable. We only needed to add more resources to the VM. Horizontally, we were not able to scale it because we couldn't deploy it in Kubernetes correctly.

We have approximately 300 people using the solution in my organization.

How are customer service and support?

I have not used the support from GitLab.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I previously used Gerrit and I prefer GitLab. It is much better in the interface and integration, it is much more than only Git software, it is more of a complete package.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of GitLab is not complex. However, it can be difficult to deploy GitLab on Kubernetes.

What about the implementation team?

The deployment of GitLab was done in-house.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution's standard license is paid annually. They have changed the pricing tiers and removed the bronze tier, which was the perfect sweet spot.
There is a free version available.

I rate the price of GitLab a seven out of 10.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend the solution to others. For a self-hosted version, I advise others to deploy it using Docker/Docker-compose, it is the easiest way. The solution has no maintenance. 

I rate GitLab a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
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GitLab
March 2024
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Nor EL MALKI - PeerSpot reviewer
Project Manager at Leyton & Associés, SAS
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Highly intuitive UI, reliable, and good performance
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features of GitLab are ease of use and highly intuitive UI and performance."
  • "GitLab can improve by integrating with more tools, such as servers with Docker."

What is our primary use case?

We use GitLab for all of our Git sources and it is mapped to our integrated solution for the complete ICG platform.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features of GitLab are ease of use and highly intuitive UI and performance.

What needs improvement?

GitLab can improve by integrating with more tools, such as servers with Docker.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using GitLab for approximately 11 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

GitLab is a stable solution. We've never faced any issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Our current setup is with one server but GitLab overall can scale.

We have approximately 300 people using the solution. Most of the people are in the developers' teams, management, and tech leads that all log into GitLab.

GitLab can be used for enterprise-sized companies.

How are customer service and support?

I have not used the support from GitLab.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have previously used GitHub as a developer. GitLab looks similar to GitHub and it's helping the developer use it better.

What about the implementation team?

We update the GitLab version annually for maintenance.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

GitLab is a free solution to use.

What other advice do I have?

I rate GitLab a ten out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Ali Toksoy - PeerSpot reviewer
General Manager at Ekinoks Software
Real User
Top 5
An easy setup with good configuration and source management
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution is stable."
  • "We'd always like to see better pricing on the product."

What is our primary use case?

We are using the product for configuration management and source course management. For some projects, we are using it issue management.

What is most valuable?

Configuration and source management are the most valuable aspects of the solution.

It offers an easy initial setup. 

The solution is stable.

I find the product scalable. 

It's not overly expensive. 

What needs improvement?

We'd always like to see better pricing on the product. If they could make the cost lower, that would be ideal for users. 

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been using the solution for five or six years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is scalable and easy to expand. 

We have about 100 users on the solution. That includes developers and testers. 

Our team is getting better. We'll likely need 30 more licenses. Therefore, we plan to expand usage.

How are customer service and support?

We don't need technical support. Our IT team has handled all the issues and therefore we don't need any additional support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We did previously use a different solution. I can't recall the name.

How was the initial setup?

The solution is very straightforward to set up. It's not very complex at all. My understanding is it quite easy to implement. However, I was not completely involved. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We pay a yearly licensing fee. The pricing is pretty low. It's not too expensive. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did not evaluate other solutions. We've always used GitLab.

What other advice do I have?

I'm not sure which version of the solution I'm using. 

I'd rate this product nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
System and Storage Engineer at Harsco Corporation
Real User
Provides or mandates quantitative code into the Master
Pros and Cons
  • "We like that we can create branches and then the branches can be reviewed and you can mesh those branches back. You can independently work with your own branch, you don't need to really control the core of other people."
  • "I would like to see static analysis also embedded in GitLab. That would also help us. If there's something that it does internally by GitLab and then that is already tied up with your pipeline and then it can tell you that you're coding is good or your code is not great. Based on that, it would pass or fail. That should be streamlined. I would think that would help to a greater extent, in terms of having one solution rather than depending on multiple vendors."

What is our primary use case?

We have a normal use case to build source code and our agenda and then try to deploy it. The deployment is not specifically automated, it is semi-automated. So it is normal. We create an artifact, try to build it, and then deploy it onto the application server. It's not fully automated. 

What is most valuable?

At this point, I think the features are declining. 

We like that we can create branches and then the branches can be reviewed and you can mesh those branches back. You can independently work with your own branch, you don't need to really control the core of other people. 

There could be more features in GitLab, but we are as of now not using the full-fledged feature set. 

Another good feature is the code review, which also helps us with peer review. It helps in giving part of the code and giving back whatever the branch that the developer is working on. It can then be merged once it is thoroughly reviewed. Those are certain things that I think are helpful from a developer's point of view. It provides or mandates quantitative code into the master.

What needs improvement?

We do reviews as I also work with some of the leadership teams. Leadership teams generally focus on statistics, metrics, or some sort of dashboard. They would like to have the ability to categorize these things. They would like to have a very high-level view. That would help. Someone who is not really a developer, but a leadership team. They are always interested in statistics or metrics features. That is something I would see imbedded into GitLab. That would help someone who is from the outside take a view and understand how qualitative the code is, because they cannot definitely dive in and look at the code, and they will not be able to understand all the details. At a high level, if they want to see and understand, at least they will have some confidence about how the projects are going on.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using GitLab for two years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is good. I never had any issues. Stability-wise, I'm comfortable with it. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability-wise it is very scalable as well. Based on the code volume, there is a scope for improvement. I never had issues with scalability.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support depends on licensing. We haven't reached out that frequently because it is stable and we don't see any issues. I don't recall anything that we had any particular challenge that we had to reach out immediately to GitLab and then get the answer quicker at any point in time.

How was the initial setup?

I wasn't here for the deployment but the deployment takes around 10 minutes. 

Only a few aspects will take close to five minutes. 

What other advice do I have?

I would rate GitLab an eight out of ten. 

GitLab provides some sort of static analysis part. That is what I understand, but I never tried it. I would like to see static analysis also embedded in GitLab. That would also help us. If there's something that it does internally by GitLab and then that is already tied up with your pipeline and then it can tell you that you're coding is good or your code is not great. Based on that, it would pass or fail. That should be streamlined. I would think that would help to a greater extent, in terms of having one solution rather than depending on multiple vendors.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Manager at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
A double-sided solution for both DevOps and version management
Pros and Cons
  • "I like that you can use GitLab as a double-sided solution for both DevOps and version management. It's a good product for working in these two areas, and the user interface makes it easy to understand."
  • "There was a problem with the build environment when we were looking at developing iOS applications. iOS build require Mac machines and there are no Mac machines provided by GitLab in their cloud. So to build for mobile iOS application, we needed to use our own Mac machine within our own infrastructure. If GitLab were to provide a feature such that an iOS application could also be built through GitLab directly, that would be great."

What is our primary use case?

I'm part of the application development team comprising 10-12 developers and I have used GitLab for configuration and version management. We have also used it for DevOps, but I have not been involved in the DevOps side. My work with GitLab involved basic version management (i.e. checking in, checking out, merging) and related features. 

I have also used GitLab for doing remote builds, which is when you check in and it triggers the build on the application remotely. For example, we have a YAML script that has been written for performing builds on GitLab automatically and when that script gets executed, it performs the builds and copies them to the destination folder. All of this gets triggered from GitLab.

What is most valuable?

I like that you can use GitLab as a double-sided solution for both DevOps and version management. It's a good product for working in these two areas, and the user interface makes it easy to understand.

What needs improvement?

There was a problem with the build environment when we were looking at developing iOS applications. iOS build require Mac machines and there are no Mac machines provided by GitLab in their cloud. So to build for mobile iOS application, we needed to use our own Mac machine within our own infrastructure. If GitLab were to provide a feature such that an iOS application could also be built through GitLab directly, that would be great.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used GitLab for two months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's stable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Once all the scripts are written, it becomes scalable. When an application gets deployed and people start using it, it's on the cloud and so it becomes scalable. All the applications that we design are deliberately written in such a way as to be scalable.

How are customer service and support?

We only used GitLab for a short duration, so there was not much scope or need for contacting technical support.

How was the initial setup?

The setup is straightforward to an extent because the part of GitLab that I was using for version management was similar to other tools that I have used such as Git and SVN. When I use GitLab, it's more or less the same process and workflow as these other tools, so there wasn't a big learning curve for me.

Our application was an accumulation of multiple applications, so there were multiple builds happening at any given time. GitLab would process the builds and it would take only a couple of hours for us to deploy the builds on the cloud.

The other thing is that the GitLab user interface is good, so it's easy to understand. You, yourself, can learn it simply by exploring and trying it out. Then there's a lot of help that is available on the GitLab website on how to use it. 

What about the implementation team?

For the implementation, we had a DevOps engineer who was the primary technical guy, and then the others were developers and related entities performing the development.

What was our ROI?

Personally, I can't say much about the return on investment because the licensing and costs and everything have been borne by our customer. We were just using it. But I think that the return on investment must be good, and it might be one of the reasons why the customer is using it for all their projects.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I'm not aware of the licensing costs because those were covered by the customer.

What other advice do I have?

I can certainly recommend GitLab. It's a good product and I would rate it an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
SCRUM Master at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Reliable with an excellent source-code repository and useful pipelines
Pros and Cons
  • "The stability is good."
  • "We'd like to see better integration with the Atlassian ecosystem."

What is our primary use case?

I work in PMO, and I standardize the workflows for scrum teams, AI teams, and kanban teams. If I have some scripting in Jira, and I need to save it in GitLab.

It is our source-code repository. It's used for the BI process, continuous integration, and continuous development. It's used for DevOps people. All of our IT people use GitLab.

What is most valuable?

The source-code repository is great. 

I really like the pipelines.

The stability is good. 

What needs improvement?

We'd like to see better integration with the Atlassian ecosystem. There needs to be better and native integration. That is really useful for us as Atlassian Jira has strong integration with Bitbucket, and Bitbucket is a computation of GitLab.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've used the solution for a long time. I've used this solution for one year at this company. However, I've used it for five or eight years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is always working. I haven't experienced problems with GitLab.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

My company is 100 people, however, my instance of IT people has 10,000 people in Jira. I work with a lot of developers.

How are customer service and support?

I've never used technical support. I can't speak to how helpful they are. 

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We changed Bitbucket for GitLab.

How was the initial setup?

I'm not the main of GitLab. I did not initially set up the product.

What was our ROI?

We've likely seen an ROI. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I don't deal with any licensing aspects of the solution. I can't speak about the exact costs. 

What other advice do I have?

We are customers and end-users. 

I'd rate the solution an eight out of ten. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Google
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
IT Software Architect at ANAC - Autorità Nazionale Anticorruzione
Real User
Scalable with knowledgable vendors and does not require lots of different third-party solutions
Pros and Cons
  • "We like that we can have an all-encompassing product and don't have to implement different solutions."
  • "We would like to generate document pages from the sources."

What is most valuable?

Overall, we've been very satisfied with the solution.

Our partner is very helpful if we need technical support. 

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

The solution can scale. 

What needs improvement?

We would like to generate document pages from the sources. Right now, we can't do that.

The testing could be better in that, for the code quality, now we use an external product and maybe the internal product could be more efficient.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been working with GitLab for two years on a simple installation. Now, we have upgraded it and we might go to the enterprise solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable. If you want to, you can move over to the enterprise version of the solution.

How are customer service and technical support?

We get our technical support via a partner and we have found them to be very helpful and responsive. We are happy with them. They work fine.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Previously, we used Jenkins and GitLab without the pipeline and the Runner.

How was the initial setup?

We have a partner that assisted in implementing the process for us.

What about the implementation team?

Our partner had assisted us in the initial setup process. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It's not part of my duties to cover licensing and pricing. I can't speak to any details in relation to the costs. 

What other advice do I have?

I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten. We've been very happy with the product.

We're a customer and an end-user. 

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free GitLab Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: March 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free GitLab Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.