GitHub vs GitLab

GitHub and GitLab differ mainly in that GitHub is a code collaboration-focused platform, while GitLab is a DevSecOps solution.

GitHub has 100M users compared to 30M on GitLab. GitHub is more popular with developers and open-source projects, while GitLab is favored by enterprises.

GitHub is closed-source, while GitLab offers an open-source version.

Deployment Options

GitLab offers two deployment options:

1. SaaS: Fully managed by GitLab, which is suitable for customers who want to consume it as a service.
2. Self-Managed: A software instance that is managed by the customer, which is suitable for customers who seek control of deployment. This option is typically installed in the public cloud.

Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD): CI/CD

Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD) pipelines automate tasks of building, testing, and deploying changes to the application.

CI/CD features are very similar between GitHub and GitLab:

• GitHub Actions, which was introduced in August 2019, provides 2,000 free Linux machine minutes per month for private repositories on free accounts, with limits of 1,000 minutes for Windows and 200 minutes for macOS. However, users can self-host a runner to avoid these limits.

• GitLab CI/CD, on the other hand, only offers 400 free minutes for private repositories and does not provide any shared runners with macOS. Like GitHub, GitLab also allows users to self-host runners that are not subjected to minute-limits.

GitLab's Auto DevOps

A big differentiator for GitLab is the Auto DevOps feature.

Auto DevOps provides a predefined CI/CD configuration that helps you automatically detect, build, test, deploy, and monitor applications. It can be a big time saver because you don't have to write all the YAML files from scratch.

Integrations

GitHub Integrations

GitHub integrations are tools and services that connect with GitHub to complement and extend your workflow. They include:

• GitHub Apps: These offer granular permissions and request access to only what the app needs. They also offer specific user-level permissions that each user must authorize individually when an app is installed or when the integrator changes the permissions requested by the app.
• OAuth Apps: You can install a preconfigured GitHub App, if the integrators or app creators have created their app with the GitHub App manifest flow. You can also create a GitHub App with simplified configuration if you build your app with Probot.
• GitHub Marketplace Apps: You can find an integration to install or publish your integration in GitHub Marketplace. It contains both GitHub Apps and OAuth Apps.
• Third-Party Tools: Some integrations may be purchased directly from integrators. As an organization member, if you find a GitHub App that you'd like to use, you can request that an organization approve and install the app for the organization.

GitLab Integrations

GitLab integrations enable organizations to enhance their DevSecOps platform by connecting to third-party applications and services.

The four types of GitLab integration are:

• Host Runners: Allows for the deployment of containerized applications and registering of runners with a GitLab instance, both hosted on external infrastructure.
• Host GitLab Server: Easy deployment of a self-managed GitLab server using the Omnibus installer on GCP, AWS, Azure, or Oracle Cloud.
• Integrate with Development Cycle: Utilize APIs and webhooks to listen for events and push/pull data to integrate with CI/CD pipelines.
• Deep Application Integration: Leverage tools like GPT and Browser Performance Test to thoroughly test integrations in a production-like environment before deploying them into production.

Planning, tracking, and project management

GitHub Project Management Tools

GitHub has a range of project management features to help developers plan and organize their work. These features include:

GitLab Project Management Tools

GitLab offers a comprehensive DevSecOps platform with features to support Agile planning and project management. These include:

Security

GitHub Security Features

GitHub provides several features that ensure the security of applications and code. These include:

• Secure at every step: With GitHub, developers can stay ahead of security issues and leverage the expertise of the security community to securely use open source.
• Code Scanning: Get accurate and actionable security reviews within the developer workflow when pushing code. Pull requests will show any potential vulnerabilities for easy fixes before they make it onto main.
• Dependency Monitoring: Easily view changes in pull requests and monitor dependencies for known vulnerabilities with automated pull requests.
• Secret Detection: GitHub watches repositories for secrets issued by 45+ leading secret providers and notifies users if found.
• Secure Foundation: Configure role-based access, auditing, and permissions to turn security best practices into better development processes. Collaborate with the Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF).
• Security Community: Contribute to open source code scanning queries written by GitHub and other leading security researchers, as well as report any issues you find.

GitLab Security Features

GitLab provides a range of security features to help developers deliver secure applications and maintain license compliance. These include:

• Static Application Security Testing (SAST): Scans the application source code and binaries to spot potential vulnerabilities before deployment. Results are shown in-line with every merge request.
• Secret Detection: Checks for credentials and secrets in commits.
• Code Quality: Automatically analyzes source code to surface issues.
• Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST): Analyzes running web applications for known runtime vulnerabilities. Tests can be run outside of CI/CD pipelines by utilizing on-demand DAST scans.
• API Security: Focuses on testing and protecting APIs. It runs against a live API or a Review App to discover vulnerabilities.
• Fuzz Testing: Uses arbitrary payloads instead of well-known ones to increase chances to get results.
• Dependency Scanning: Analyzes external dependencies for known vulnerabilities on each code commit.
• Container Scanning: Checks Docker images for known vulnerabilities.
• License Compliance: Identifies software licenses being used if they are not within policy.

Code Review Tools

GitHub Code Review Tools

GitHub code review tools make it easy to collaborate and refine your source code. These features help teams ensure only high-quality changes are merged into their projects:

• Pull Requests: Start a new feature or propose a change to existing code with pull requests, where you can discuss implementation details before committing the change.
• Diffs: Preview changes in context with your code side-by-side so you can easily spot differences.
• History: Browse commits and comments related to pull requests in an intuitive timeline view.
• Blame: See what a file looked like before a particular change by tracing the evolution of its contents over time.
• Comments: Leave detailed comments on code syntax and structure within pull requests.
• Review Requests: Invite collaborators to review proposed changes within the same interface.
• Reviews: Bundle comments into one cohesive review and specify which ones are required changes or just suggestions.
• Conflicts Resolution: Resolve simple merge conflicts directly on GitHub without leaving the interface.
• Permissions & Protected Branches: Limit who can push to branches and enforce checks with permission settings and protected branches.
• Codecov, Codacy, Coveralls & GitColony: Automated tools for adding extra polish to team’s code, such as automated code reviews for better software deliverability and coverage reports for debugging.

GitLab Code Review Tools

GitLab provides a comprehensive set of code review tools to ensure high-quality code and seamless collaboration among developers. These features include:

• Merge Request: Every code review starts with a merge request where team members, reviewers and approvers can collaborate. A diff view shows changes alongside the original code and comments allow for clarifying questions or discussion on the changes.
• Code Controls: To enforce only high-quality code, controls are implemented in the merge request such as setting code owners, defining approval rules and requiring multiple approvers for critical backend changes.
• Code Quality Reports: Code quality reports help developers identify issues directly in the merge request along with showing violations in the diff view.
• Analytics: Analytics helps analyze patterns and trends related to code reviews so teams can make improvements quickly.

Web IDE

Both GitHub and GitLab offer web development environments:

• GitHub Codespaces is a cloud-hosted development environment that lets you to customize your project for use with GitHub. When creating a codespace, you can choose from a selection of virtual machine types, ranging from 2 cores and 8 GB RAM to 32 cores and 64 GB RAM, as well as adjust storage space options. You can connect to your codespace from the browser, Visual Studio Code, JetBrains Gateway, or GitHub CLI and begin working within the Docker container.

• GitLab Web IDE is a development environment that enables users to edit, review and merge files. It was introduced in GitLab version 15.7 as a beta feature and is available by default on GitLab.com. Users have access to VS Code-powered tools such as partial search results, a source control panel, file navigation, and more.

AI Programming Tools

• GitHub Copilot is an AI-powered pair programming tool that speeds up the coding process. It uses the OpenAI Codex to suggest code and entire functions in real-time, right from your editor. You can simply convert natural language prompts into coding suggestions for dozens of languages. GitHub Copilot is also available as part of GitHub Codespaces.

• GitLab Tabnine is an AI-powered code completion technology that integrates with GitLab repositories. The platform allows users to connect their private team model to their GitLab repository, where it will be built, tested, and uploaded. This AI integration gives developers access to personalized suggestions based on the codified best practices of the team.

GitHub is more popular than GitLab for personal use.

GitHub offers more storage, more CI/CD minutes per month, and lets you work with the unlimited number of contributors.

Here's a full comparison of features for GitLab and GitHub free plans:

GitLab is a complete DevOps platform delivered as a single application for collaboration between Development, Security, and Ops teams.

The philosophy of using GitLab as a single tool to manage all aspects of the software development lifecycle, from version control to deployment and project management.

GitLab surpasses GitHub actions with its advanced auto-devops and CI/CD pipelines. It has a strong enterprise focus, evident through its inclusion of security scanning, infosec policies, deployments, and feature flags. The platform's impressive documentation and monthly releases further cement its superiority.

GitHub Enterprise

GitHub Enterprise Cloud offers an enterprise product plan (SaaS) for large businesses and teams. It provides authentication with SAML single sign-on, support for 50,000 minutes of GitHub Actions runtime for CI/CD workflows, and 50GB of storage for shared components and containers.

Here's a full list of main features under GitHub's Enterprise plan:

GitLab Enterprise

GitLab Enterprise is the most comprehensive DevSecOps platform for enterprises. It enables organizations to collaborate across their organization, ship secure code faster and drive business results.

GitLab provides a unified toolchain that allows teams to iterate quickly and innovate together, minimizing complexity and risk.

Organizations can use the platform’s integrated suite of SCM, CI, CD and CS&C features to reduce costs and deliver better software faster. Features such as agile planning, automated software delivery, continuous security and compliance, value stream management and high availability ensure public sector organizations remain reliable, compliant and secure.

Here's a full list of main features under GitLab's Ultimate plan: