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Azure DevOps vs GitLab: What are the differences?

Comparison between Azure DevOps and GitLab

Azure DevOps and GitLab are both widely used platforms for DevOps and source code management. While they serve similar purposes, there are several key differences between the two.

  1. Integration with other Microsoft tools: Azure DevOps is tightly integrated with other Microsoft tools such as Visual Studio and Azure cloud services. This allows for seamless integration and collaboration between different Microsoft products, making it a preferred choice for organizations heavily invested in the Microsoft ecosystem. On the other hand, GitLab is more open-source oriented and provides integration with a broader range of tools and platforms.

  2. Pricing model: Azure DevOps offers a flexible pricing model where users are charged based on the number of users and the services utilized. This allows organizations to scale their usage and costs according to their needs. GitLab, on the other hand, follows a subscription-based pricing model where users pay for a set number of users and features. This can be beneficial for organizations with a fixed budget and predictable usage.

  3. Deployment options: Azure DevOps provides both cloud-based and on-premises deployment options. Users can choose to use the Azure DevOps cloud service or install Azure DevOps Server on their own infrastructure. This offers flexibility and control over where the code and infrastructure reside. On the other hand, GitLab primarily focuses on a cloud-based offering, although it does provide options for self-hosting and on-premises deployment.

  4. Built-in CI/CD functionality: Both Azure DevOps and GitLab offer built-in CI/CD functionality for automating the build, test, and deployment processes. However, Azure DevOps offers a more mature and comprehensive CI/CD pipeline with features like release management, test planning, and reporting. GitLab, on the other hand, provides a simpler and lightweight CI/CD offering suitable for smaller teams and projects.

  5. Community and ecosystem: GitLab has a vibrant and active open-source community with many community-contributed integrations and extensions. This allows for a wide range of customization options and integrations with other tools. Azure DevOps, while not as open-source focused, benefits from the extensive Microsoft ecosystem, with integrations and support for various Microsoft technologies.

  6. Version control system: Azure DevOps primarily uses Git as its version control system, offering all the capabilities and advantages of Git. On the other hand, GitLab provides native support for both Git and Mercurial version control systems. This provides flexibility for organizations accustomed to using Mercurial or those with existing repositories in Mercurial.

In summary, Azure DevOps offers a deep integration with Microsoft tools, flexible pricing options, both cloud-based and on-premises deployment choices, mature CI/CD capabilities, and benefits from the Microsoft ecosystem. GitLab, on the other hand, is more open-source focused, provides a simpler CI/CD offering, has a vibrant community and ecosystem with flexible version control system choices.

Decisions about Azure DevOps and GitLab
Weverton Timoteo

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?

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Weverton Timoteo

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?

See more
Weverton Timoteo

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.

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Kamaleshwar BN
Senior Software Engineer at Pulley · | 8 upvotes · 700.1K views

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.

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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!

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Nazar Atamaniuk
Shared insights
on
DeployPlaceDeployPlaceGitHubGitHubGitLabGitLab

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.

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Pros of Azure DevOps
Pros of GitLab
  • 56
    Complete and powerful
  • 32
    Huge extension ecosystem
  • 27
    Azure integration
  • 26
    Flexible and powerful
  • 26
    One Stop Shop For Build server, Project Mgt, CDCI
  • 15
    Everything I need. Simple and intuitive UI
  • 13
    Support Open Source
  • 8
    Integrations
  • 7
    GitHub Integration
  • 6
    Cost free for Stakeholders
  • 6
    One 4 all
  • 6
    Crap
  • 6
    Project Mgmt Features
  • 5
    Runs in the cloud
  • 3
    Agent On-Premise(Linux - Windows)
  • 2
    Aws integration
  • 2
    Link Test Cases to Stories
  • 2
    Jenkins Integration
  • 1
    GCP Integration
  • 508
    Self hosted
  • 431
    Free
  • 339
    Has community edition
  • 242
    Easy setup
  • 240
    Familiar interface
  • 137
    Includes many features, including ci
  • 113
    Nice UI
  • 84
    Good integration with gitlabci
  • 57
    Simple setup
  • 35
    Has an official mobile app
  • 34
    Free private repository
  • 31
    Continuous Integration
  • 23
    Open source, great ui (like github)
  • 18
    Slack Integration
  • 15
    Full CI flow
  • 11
    Free and unlimited private git repos
  • 10
    All in one (Git, CI, Agile..)
  • 10
    User, group, and project access management is simple
  • 8
    Intuitive UI
  • 8
    Built-in CI
  • 6
    Full DevOps suite with Git
  • 6
    Both public and private Repositories
  • 5
    Integrated Docker Registry
  • 5
    So easy to use
  • 5
    CI
  • 5
    Build/pipeline definition alongside code
  • 5
    It's powerful source code management tool
  • 4
    Dockerized
  • 4
    It's fully integrated
  • 4
    On-premises
  • 4
    Security and Stable
  • 4
    Unlimited free repos & collaborators
  • 4
    Not Microsoft Owned
  • 4
    Excellent
  • 4
    Issue system
  • 4
    Mattermost Chat client
  • 3
    Great for team collaboration
  • 3
    Free private repos
  • 3
    Because is the best remote host for git repositories
  • 3
    Built-in Docker Registry
  • 3
    Opensource
  • 3
    Low maintenance cost due omnibus-deployment
  • 3
    I like the its runners and executors feature
  • 2
    Beautiful
  • 2
    Groups of groups
  • 2
    Multilingual interface
  • 2
    Powerful software planning and maintaining tools
  • 2
    Review Apps feature
  • 2
    Kubernetes integration with GitLab CI
  • 2
    One-click install through DigitalOcean
  • 2
    Powerful Continuous Integration System
  • 2
    It includes everything I need, all packaged with docker
  • 2
    The dashboard with deployed environments
  • 2
    HipChat intergration
  • 2
    Many private repo
  • 2
    Kubernetes Integration
  • 2
    Published IP list for whitelisting (gl-infra#434)
  • 2
    Wounderful
  • 2
    Native CI
  • 1
    Supports Radius/Ldap & Browser Code Edits

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Cons of Azure DevOps
Cons of GitLab
  • 8
    Still dependant on C# for agents
  • 5
    Half Baked
  • 5
    Many in devops disregard MS altogether
  • 4
    Not a requirements management tool
  • 4
    Jack of all trades, master of none
  • 4
    Capacity across cross functional teams not visibile
  • 3
    Poor Jenkins integration
  • 2
    Tedious for test plan/case creation
  • 1
    Switching accounts is impossible
  • 28
    Slow ui performance
  • 9
    Introduce breaking bugs every release
  • 6
    Insecure (no published IP list for whitelisting)
  • 2
    Built-in Docker Registry
  • 1
    Review Apps feature

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What is Azure DevOps?

Azure DevOps provides unlimited private Git hosting, cloud build for continuous integration, agile planning, and release management for continuous delivery to the cloud and on-premises. Includes broad IDE support.

What is GitLab?

GitLab offers git repository management, code reviews, issue tracking, activity feeds and wikis. Enterprises install GitLab on-premise and connect it with LDAP and Active Directory servers for secure authentication and authorization. A single GitLab server can handle more than 25,000 users but it is also possible to create a high availability setup with multiple active servers.

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What companies use Azure DevOps?
What companies use GitLab?
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Blog Posts

What are some alternatives to Azure DevOps and GitLab?
Jenkins
In a nutshell Jenkins CI is the leading open-source continuous integration server. Built with Java, it provides over 300 plugins to support building and testing virtually any project.
GitHub
GitHub is the best place to share code with friends, co-workers, classmates, and complete strangers. Over three million people use GitHub to build amazing things together.
AWS CodePipeline
CodePipeline builds, tests, and deploys your code every time there is a code change, based on the release process models you define.
Jira
Jira's secret sauce is the way it simplifies the complexities of software development into manageable units of work. Jira comes out-of-the-box with everything agile teams need to ship value to customers faster.
Visual Studio
Visual Studio is a suite of component-based software development tools and other technologies for building powerful, high-performance applications.
See all alternatives