GitHub vs GitLab

Today, Git has become the backbone of modern software development. It can be overwhelming for developers and project managers to select the appropriate version control system while initiating the development process. This blog will help prevent that dilemma and guide you in the decision-making process. 

In this blog, we’ll explain Git, introduce cloud-based project management tools, and compare GitHub and GitLab, covering their features, advantages, disadvantages, similarities, and differences.

1. What is Git, and What are Cloud-based Git Repositories?

Git is an open-source distributed version control system (VCS) that allows developers collaborate on and manage software projects of any size. It tracks changes, lets you revert to earlier versions, and restores code because it captures snapshots whenever the source changes, even for small edits. Work is organized into branches, each branch represents a line of development. Branches are isolated from one another so changes on one branch do not affect work on other branches or production until those changes are intentionally merged. 

GitHub and GitLab are highly adopted cloud-based Git repositories that provide git hosting services. These platforms allow users to host and manage Git repositories through a web-based interface, enabling centralized storage and collaboration on code.

2. What is GitHub?

GitHub, built on open-source software, is a web-based platform that provides a cloud-hosted Git repository service. It was developed in 2008 using the Ruby programming language by Chris Wanstrath, Tom Presto Warner, and P.J. Hyett. In 2018, GitHub was acquired by Microsoft. GitHub includes built-in CI/CD features. 

2.1 Features of GitHub

• Extensive Community Support: As it is open-source, GitHub has a large user community contributing to tutorials, documentation, and other resources. 
• Branching: You can create any number of branches to work on different versions of a project simultaneously. There is a default branch called main or master.
• Issues: Issues are used for task management as they can be assigned to the members working on a project with specific labels for categorisation and linking issues to pull requests.
• Actions: GitHub Actions is a CI/CD platform integrated with GitHub to automate workflows.
• Repositories: A repository is a storage container that stores all the project files and a record of the changes made to those files. 

2.2 Pros and Cons of GitHub

Let’s discuss some benefits and drawbacks of GitHub:

1. Advantages

• Robust Project Management: GitHub provides effective project management tools such as issue tracking, milestones, labels, and project boards.
• User-friendly Interface: The intuitive design makes it easy for developers to navigate and manage repositories.
• Integration Ecosystem: GitHub supports many third-party integrations, allowing teams to connect tools across the development lifecycle.
• Free Public Repositories: Developers can publish public repositories at no cost, making it a cost-effective option for open-source projects. 
• CI/CD Workflows: The built-in CI/CD solution, GitHub Actions, enables automation of testing, builds, and deployments.

2. Disadvantages

• Limited Self-hosting Options: GitHub doesn’t offer self-hosting, which can be a limitation for organizations that want full control over their infrastructure.
• No Built-in Code Quality Tools: GitHub lacks built-in, comprehensive code-quality analysis tools, so developers often rely on third-party services. 
• Limited Free Private Repositories: GitHub offers a limited number of free private repositories for some account types, which can be a drawback for small teams and individual developers. 

3. What is GitLab?

GitLab is an all-in-one cloud-based DevOps platform for every stage of the SDLC, introduced in 2011. It not only hosts Git repositories but is also an integrated CI/CD platform with pipelines defined in simple YAML configuration files. GitLab shifted its service hosting from Microsoft Azure to the Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

3.1 Features of GitLab

• Auto DevOps: You can deploy your application with minimal configuration; GitLab can automatically detect project settings and configure pipelines.
• Integrated Container Registry: GitLab includes a secure, private Docker registry that integrates directly with your CI/CD pipelines, simplifying container management.
• GitLab Pages: It provides an easy way of hosting static websites directly from a GitLab repository using static site generators such as Gatsby, Harp, Jekyll, and others.
• Gitlab CLI: You can use the terminal or the glab CLI to perform operations such as assessing the progress of a pipeline, assigning and managing issues, and generating shell completion scripts.
• Fuzz Testing: GitLab supports fuzz testing for applications written in C/C++, Python, Java, and other languages to assess an application’s behavior under unexpected inputs. 

3.2 Pros and Cons of GitLab

Let’s discuss some benefits and drawbacks of GitLab:

1. Advantages

• Free Private Repositories: The free plan of GitLab provides access to multiple private repositories, benefiting small- and medium-scale projects with limited budgets.
• Self-hosted Options: GitLab can be self-hosted, allowing organisations to run the platform on their own servers to better protect data privacy and security.
• Security and Compliance: Security is supported from the beginning through features such as container scanning, static and dynamic code analysis, code review tools, and integration that promotes DevOps best practices.
• High Customizability: You can customize GitLab to meet project requirements, for example, you can define roles with specific permissions or control pipeline visibility. 
• On-call Schedule Management: GitLab’s incident management features include on-call scheduling, which facilitates efficient incident response by automatically assigning responsibility based on the defined schedules and rotations.

2. Disadvantages

• Limited Integration Support: GitLab lacks extensive integration options when compared to other version control systems, such as GitHub.
• Slower Interface: Users often report that the UI of GitLab is slower than other VCS platforms.
• Learning Curve: Mastering the full range of features, especially for those new to integrated DevOps practices and continuous integration/delivery capabilities, and advanced project-management tools, can require a significant learning curve.

4. Tabular Comparison: GitHub vs GitLab

GitHub vs GitLab platforms are often compared in terms of popularity, community support, and enterprise adoption, with each serving different user groups and organisational needs.

5. Key Similarities between GitHub and GitLab

As the name indicates, GitHub and GitLab use the Git version control system. But this is not the only common thing between them. What else are the similarities? Let’s read below: 

5.1 Collaboration and Project Management

GitLab and GitHub are highly effective project management platforms that offer integrated tools for collaboration and code review, capabilities that are essential in modern software development. Both systems provide immediate visibility into changes and facilitate discussions on pull/merge requests, which helps smooth the process of implementing changes and reviewing diffs. This functionality helps identify errors and can improve the security and quality of the software application. 

GitHub Marketplace provides a collection of third-party apps and extensions that can enhance project workflows and automation. Similarly, GitLab supports a structured hierarchy for issues, enables the assignment of developers to issues and merge requests, and includes visualisation tools for monitoring project progress.

5.2 Git Based Version Control

Both GitLab and GitHub use the Git version-control system for coordinated software development. The basic commands like merge, pull, branch, and fork are common in both platforms. One user-interface difference is that GitLab calls pull requests “merge requests.” 

5.3 Free Plan with Unlimited Repositories

Both platforms offer free plans to access unlimited private and public repositories, making them accessible for small teams and freelancers. While access to advanced management, security, and compliance features is limited in the free versions, this is typically a greater concern for enterprise users. Thus, the free plans are a significant advantage, providing significant scope for experimentation and development without incurring additional costs.

5.4 Continuous Integration (CI)

GitLab, being a dedicated DevOps platform, offers comprehensive continuous integration and continuous-delivery features such as canary and incremental deployments, feature flags, and built-in CI/CD pipelines. Whereas GitHub did not provide CI capabilities in the beginning, but after a while, it released GitHub Actions. GitHub Actions lets you write your own CI pipelines as well as use others through their marketplace. 

5.5 Static Website Hosting

GitHub provides GitHub Pages, and GitLab offers GitLab Pages to host static websites. Therefore, there is no need to buy third-party, sometimes expensive, deployment services for hosting static websites. 

6. Key Differences between GitHub and GitLab

The following are the seven significant differentiating factors between GitHub and GitLab you must know to select the right platform for hosting Git repositories.

6.1 User Interface and Experience

• GitHub: It has a simple and approachable UI that makes it accessible to both new and experienced developers. It also includes social features such as following developers and starring repositories. 
• GitLab: GitLab’s interface is designed to accommodate the comprehensive DevOps feature set and advanced project management needs. It provides in-depth insights and analytics for project visibility throughout the development process.

6.2 Continuous Integration

• GitHub: GitHub Actions is a separate but well-integrated component of the GitHub ecosystem. It offers flexibility, but may require explicit configuration for complex workflows. It also works with third-party tools like CircleCI or TravisCI.
• GitLab: GitLab has native CI/CD tools built directly into the repository and integrated into the entire software development lifecycle. It offers a more tightly integrated, out-of-the-box CI/CD solution that typically requires less reliance on external tools.

6.3 GitHub Flow vs GitLab Flow

• GitHub: GitHub Flow emphasises development speed and is suitable for rapid development projects or an Agile development approach. Developers can create multiple branches for different features and then merge all of them into the main branch. The main branch can be deployed at any time, allowing teams to roll back to previous versions under any expected circumstances. 
• GitLab: Unlike GitHub, GitLab Flow emphasises a reliable, staged development cycle. Rather than merging feature branches directly into the main or production branch, feature branches are typically merged into intermediate branches (for example, staging or pre‑production), where they are tested and validated before being promoted to production.

6.4 Complete Platform vs Marketplace

• GitHub: GitHub is not a complete platform that includes every feature and functionality within its core offering. It has a variety of free and paid options, with a current count of 374 paid apps. You can add the required functionality by accessing it from their market, which consists of more than 800 integrations and applications. 
• GitLab: It is a complete packaged platform for you to develop applications without heavy reliance on third-party applications. However, it allows you to integrate with over thirty apps and platforms like Gmail, Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Jira. 

6.5 Self-hosted Installation for a Private Server

• GitHub: GitHub does not provide an option to self-host its core platform on the free plan; self‑hosting requires a GitHub Enterprise plan. 
• GitLab: It provides the capability for users to host a private instance of the GitLab platform on their own virtual machines. This self-hosting option is available even with GitLab’s free plan. Hence, your organisation will have complete control over its data. You are flexible in implementing your own security measures.

6.6 Pricing and Deployment Options

• GitHub: GitHub provides free accounts that include unlimited public repositories with full features and unlimited private repositories with a limited feature set. Paid plans offer expanded features and scale based on user count. GitHub’s enterprise options provide advanced security and compliance features for larger organisations. 
• GitLab: The pricing model of GitLab is more flexible than GitHub’s. It offers both cloud-hosted and self-hosted options across different levels. If you want extensive customisation of the development environment or must meet strict data-sovereignty requirements, you can self-host the free Community Edition (CE).

6.7 Open Source

• GitHub: Since Microsoft acquired GitHub in 2018, the platform has evolved into a commercial platform and focuses more on enterprise-level features and services. However, this shift has not ended GitHub’s support for open-source projects; it continues to support them. 
• GitLab: GitLab prioritises open-source principles by providing a self-hosted version that grants users the ability to modify its source code. This inherent flexibility makes GitLab a preferred choice for developers seeking comprehensive control over their codebase and development workflows.

7. Final Thoughts

Git is the fundamental version control software, while GitHub and GitLab are web-based platforms that leverage Git to provide hosted repositories and a broader range of features for managing and collaborating on software development projects. The choice between GitHub vs GitLab often depends on specific project needs, team size, security requirements, and the desired level of integrated DevOps tooling.

FAQs

Which is better, GitLab or GitHub?

Both platforms have their own set of unique features and advantages. It’s completely the project and team requirements as to which one should be selected. 

Does Amazon use GitLab or GitHub?

Amazon uses GitLab.

Does Netflix use GitHub?

Yes, the popular OTT platform, Netflix, uses GitHub.