Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!
Atlassian Stash vs GitLab: What are the differences?
Introduction:
Atlassian Stash and GitLab are both popular tools used for version control and collaboration in software development projects. While they share similarities in terms of functionality, there are several key differences between the two platforms. This article will highlight the main distinctions between Atlassian Stash and GitLab.
Deployment and Hosting: Atlassian Stash is primarily designed to be deployed on-premises, allowing organizations to have complete control over their repositories and infrastructure. On the other hand, GitLab offers both on-premises deployment as well as a cloud-hosted version, providing users with the flexibility to choose the hosting option that best suits their needs.
Scalability and Team Size: GitLab is known for its scalability and ability to handle large enterprise projects with thousands of users. It provides robust support for high availability, clustering, and load balancing, making it ideal for organizations with a large number of developers. In contrast, while Atlassian Stash can handle smaller team sizes effectively, it may not be as suitable for larger projects with extensive collaboration requirements.
Built-in CI/CD: GitLab stands out with its comprehensive built-in continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) capabilities. It offers a complete DevOps platform, allowing developers to automate the entire software development lifecycle from code testing to deployment. Atlassian Stash, however, lacks the integrated CI/CD features that GitLab provides, requiring users to integrate with external CI/CD tools for similar functionality.
Third-party Integration Ecosystem: GitLab has a rich ecosystem of integrations and extensions that seamlessly integrate with other popular tools and services. It offers a wide range of plugins, allowing users to connect GitLab with project management tools, issue trackers, and other developer tools. While Atlassian Stash does offer integrations, the breadth and depth of the integration ecosystem in GitLab are often more extensive.
Container Registry: GitLab includes a built-in container registry that allows users to store and manage Docker images within their repositories. This feature simplifies the process of packaging and deploying applications in containers and streamlines the overall development workflow. Atlassian Stash, unfortunately, does not provide a built-in container registry, necessitating the use of additional tools for container management.
Pricing Model: When it comes to pricing, GitLab offers a free, open-source version with many essential features included. It also provides several paid tiers with additional features and support options for enterprise customers. Atlassian Stash, on the other hand, follows a traditional licensing model, where users need to purchase licenses based on the number of users. This can make GitLab a more cost-effective option, particularly for small to medium-sized organizations.
In summary, Atlassian Stash and GitLab have distinct differences. While Atlassian Stash provides more control over infrastructure and licensing options, GitLab offers superior scalability, integrated CI/CD, a broader third-party integration ecosystem, and a built-in container registry. These differences make GitLab a compelling choice for organizations that prioritize scalability, automation, and extensive collaboration capabilities.
Do you review your Pull/Merge Request before assigning Reviewers?
If you work in a team opening a Pull Request (or Merge Request) looks appropriate. However, have you ever thought about opening a Pull/Merge Request when working by yourself? Here's a checklist of things you can review in your own:
- Pick the correct target branch
- Make Drafts explicit
- Name things properly
- Ask help for tools
- Remove the noise
- Fetch necessary data
- Understand Mergeability
- Pass the message
- Add screenshots
- Be found in the future
- Comment inline in your changes
Read the blog post for more detailed explanation for each item :D
What else do you review before asking for code review?
Using an inclusive language is crucial for fostering a diverse culture. Git has changed the naming conventions to be more language-inclusive, and so you should change. Our development tools, like GitHub and GitLab, already supports the change.
SourceLevel deals very nicely with repositories that changed the master branch to a more appropriate word. Besides, you can use the grep linter the look for exclusive terms contained in the source code.
As the inclusive language gap may happen in other aspects of our lives, have you already thought about them?
One of the magic tricks git performs is the ability to rewrite log history. You can do it in many ways, but git rebase -i
is the one I most use. With this command, It’s possible to switch commits order, remove a commit, squash two or more commits, or edit, for instance.
It’s particularly useful to run it before opening a pull request. It allows developers to “clean up” the mess and organize commits before submitting to review. If you follow the practice 3 and 4, then the list of commits should look very similar to a task list. It should reveal the rationale you had, telling the story of how you end up with that final code.
Out of most of the VCS solutions out there, we found Gitlab was the most feature complete with a free community edition. Their DevSecops offering is also a very robust solution. Gitlab CI/CD was quite easy to setup and the direct integration with your VCS + CI/CD is also a bonus. Out of the box integration with major cloud providers, alerting through instant messages etc. are all extremely convenient. We push our CI/CD updates to MS Teams.
Gitlab as A LOT of features that GitHub and Azure DevOps are missing. Even if both GH and Azure are backed by Microsoft, GitLab being open source has a faster upgrade rate and the hosted by gitlab.com solution seems more appealing than anything else! Quick win: the UI is way better and the Pipeline is way easier to setup on GitLab!
At DeployPlace we use self-hosted GitLab, we have chosen GitLab as most of us are familiar with it. We are happy with all features GitLab provides, I can’t imagine our life without integrated GitLab CI. Another important feature for us is integrated code review tool, we use it every day, we use merge requests, code reviews, branching. To be honest, most of us have GitHub accounts as well, we like to contribute in open source, and we want to be a part of the tech community, but lack of solutions from GitHub in the area of CI doesn’t let us chose it for our projects.
Pros of Atlassian Stash
Pros of GitLab
- Self hosted508
- Free431
- Has community edition339
- Easy setup242
- Familiar interface240
- Includes many features, including ci137
- Nice UI113
- Good integration with gitlabci84
- Simple setup57
- Has an official mobile app35
- Free private repository34
- Continuous Integration31
- Open source, great ui (like github)23
- Slack Integration18
- Full CI flow15
- Free and unlimited private git repos11
- All in one (Git, CI, Agile..)10
- User, group, and project access management is simple10
- Intuitive UI8
- Built-in CI8
- Full DevOps suite with Git6
- Both public and private Repositories6
- Integrated Docker Registry5
- So easy to use5
- CI5
- Build/pipeline definition alongside code5
- It's powerful source code management tool5
- Dockerized4
- It's fully integrated4
- On-premises4
- Security and Stable4
- Unlimited free repos & collaborators4
- Not Microsoft Owned4
- Excellent4
- Issue system4
- Mattermost Chat client4
- Great for team collaboration3
- Free private repos3
- Because is the best remote host for git repositories3
- Built-in Docker Registry3
- Opensource3
- Low maintenance cost due omnibus-deployment3
- I like the its runners and executors feature3
- Beautiful2
- Groups of groups2
- Multilingual interface2
- Powerful software planning and maintaining tools2
- Review Apps feature2
- Kubernetes integration with GitLab CI2
- One-click install through DigitalOcean2
- Powerful Continuous Integration System2
- It includes everything I need, all packaged with docker2
- The dashboard with deployed environments2
- HipChat intergration2
- Many private repo2
- Kubernetes Integration2
- Published IP list for whitelisting (gl-infra#434)2
- Wounderful2
- Native CI2
- Supports Radius/Ldap & Browser Code Edits1
Sign up to add or upvote prosMake informed product decisions
Cons of Atlassian Stash
Cons of GitLab
- Slow ui performance28
- Introduce breaking bugs every release9
- Insecure (no published IP list for whitelisting)6
- Built-in Docker Registry2
- Review Apps feature1