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Bitrise vs GitLab: What are the differences?
Introduction
In the world of software development, there are various tools and platforms available to help streamline the development process. Two popular tools in this space are Bitrise and GitLab. While both serve as vital components in the software development lifecycle, they differ in several key aspects. In this article, we will explore the key differences between Bitrise and GitLab.
Integration with other services: Bitrise provides extensive integration capabilities with various third-party services, such as GitHub, JIRA, Slack, and many more. This allows for seamless collaboration and improved workflow management. On the other hand, GitLab offers its own suite of integrated tools, including code repositories, issue tracking, continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD), and more. GitLab's all-in-one solution eliminates the need for integrating multiple services, making it a comprehensive platform for software development projects.
CI/CD capabilities: Bitrise focuses primarily on providing continuous integration and deployment capabilities. It offers a range of features tailored for mobile app development, including automatic code signing, Xcode version management, and support for various languages and frameworks. Meanwhile, GitLab offers a robust CI/CD pipeline solution that can handle various types of projects, not just limited to mobile apps. It allows for powerful customization and scalability, allowing developers to configure their own workflows with ease.
Pricing and availability: Bitrise offers a free plan with limited features, allowing developers to get started without any financial commitment. However, more advanced features and larger team sizes require a paid subscription. GitLab, on the other hand, provides a free and open-source Community Edition, which offers most of the essential features for smaller teams. It also offers various paid plans with additional enterprise-grade features, ideal for larger organizations.
Version control system: Bitrise heavily relies on external version control systems, such as Git or Mercurial, for managing source code. It integrates seamlessly with these systems, allowing developers to easily access and manage their repositories. GitLab, however, provides its own built-in version control system called GitLab Git. It offers all the functionalities of a modern distributed version control system within the GitLab platform.
Community and support: Bitrise has a vibrant community with active forums, blog posts, and tutorials, providing developers with a wealth of knowledge and guidance. They also offer dedicated support channels to help users with any issues they may encounter. GitLab, being an open-source platform, has a large and engaged community contributing to its development. It boasts an extensive documentation library, community forums, and professional support services, making it a reliable resource for developers.
Hosting options: While both Bitrise and GitLab offer cloud hosting options, Bitrise primarily operates as a cloud platform. This means that you don't have to worry about server maintenance or infrastructure management. GitLab, on the other hand, offers the flexibility of hosting either on the cloud or on-premises. This gives organizations the freedom to choose the deployment option that best suits their requirements and security policies.
In summary, Bitrise excels in mobile app development integration, simplicity, and ease of use, making it an ideal choice for teams focused on mobile app development. On the other hand, GitLab provides a comprehensive suite of tools, extensive customization options, and the flexibility of hosting options, making it suitable for a wide range of software development projects.
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 Bitrise
- Easy setup18
- Bitbucket Integration9
- Advanced Workflow configuration8
- Github Integration7
- Slack integration7
- Great tools for iOS and Android development5
- Friendly & Easy to use5
- Great support4
- Pricing by concurrency, not team size3
- Discounts for contributors2
- Fast Updates2
- Open Source2
- Fast Builds1
- Developer centric1
Pros of GitLab
- Self hosted508
- Free430
- Has community edition339
- Easy setup242
- Familiar interface240
- Includes many features, including ci137
- Nice UI113
- Good integration with gitlabci84
- Simple setup57
- Free private repository34
- Has an official mobile app34
- Continuous Integration31
- Open source, great ui (like github)22
- Slack Integration18
- Full CI flow14
- Free and unlimited private git repos11
- User, group, and project access management is simple10
- All in one (Git, CI, Agile..)9
- Built-in CI8
- Intuitive UI8
- Both public and private Repositories6
- Full DevOps suite with Git6
- Build/pipeline definition alongside code5
- CI5
- So easy to use5
- Integrated Docker Registry5
- It's powerful source code management tool5
- Issue system4
- Dockerized4
- Unlimited free repos & collaborators4
- Security and Stable4
- On-premises4
- It's fully integrated4
- Mattermost Chat client4
- Excellent4
- Great for team collaboration3
- Built-in Docker Registry3
- Low maintenance cost due omnibus-deployment3
- I like the its runners and executors feature3
- Free private repos3
- Because is the best remote host for git repositories3
- Not Microsoft Owned3
- Opensource3
- Groups of groups2
- Powerful software planning and maintaining tools2
- Review Apps feature2
- Kubernetes integration with GitLab CI2
- It includes everything I need, all packaged with docker2
- Multilingual interface2
- HipChat intergration2
- Powerful Continuous Integration System2
- One-click install through DigitalOcean2
- The dashboard with deployed environments2
- Native CI2
- Many private repo2
- Kubernetes Integration2
- Published IP list for whitelisting (gl-infra#434)2
- Wounderful2
- Beautiful2
- Supports Radius/Ldap & Browser Code Edits1
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Cons of Bitrise
Cons of GitLab
- Slow ui performance28
- Introduce breaking bugs every release8
- Insecure (no published IP list for whitelisting)6
- Built-in Docker Registry2
- Review Apps feature1
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