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Git vs GitLab: What are the differences?
Git: Fast, scalable, distributed revision control system. Git is a free and open source distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency; GitLab: Open source self-hosted Git management software. 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.
Git can be classified as a tool in the "Version Control System" category, while GitLab is grouped under "Code Collaboration & Version Control".
"Distributed version control system", "Efficient branching and merging" and "Fast" are the key factors why developers consider Git; whereas "Self hosted", "Free" and "Has community edition" are the primary reasons why GitLab is favored.
Git and GitLab are both open source tools. Git with 27.9K GitHub stars and 16.1K forks on GitHub appears to be more popular than GitLab with 20.1K GitHub stars and 5.33K GitHub forks.
Netflix, Asana, and CircleCI are some of the popular companies that use Git, whereas GitLab is used by Ticketmaster, Citrix, and Electronic Arts. Git has a broader approval, being mentioned in 3891 company stacks & 4632 developers stacks; compared to GitLab, which is listed in 1219 company stacks and 1431 developer stacks.
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 Git
- Distributed version control system1.4K
- Efficient branching and merging1.1K
- Fast960
- Open source845
- Better than svn728
- Great command-line application368
- Simple306
- Free291
- Easy to use232
- Does not require server222
- Distributed27
- Small & Fast22
- Feature based workflow18
- Staging Area15
- Most wide-spread VSC13
- Disposable Experimentation11
- Role-based codelines11
- Frictionless Context Switching7
- Data Assurance6
- Efficient5
- Just awesome4
- Easy branching and merging3
- Github integration3
- Possible to lose history and commits2
- Compatible2
- Flexible2
- Team Integration1
- Light1
- Easy1
- Fast, scalable, distributed revision control system1
- Rebase supported natively; reflog; access to plumbing1
- Flexible, easy, Safe, and fast1
- CLI is great, but the GUI tools are awesome1
- It's what you do1
- Phinx0
Pros of GitLab
- Self hosted498
- Free425
- Has community edition335
- Easy setup239
- Familiar interface238
- Includes many features, including ci131
- Nice UI108
- Good integration with gitlabci81
- Simple setup54
- Has an official mobile app33
- Free private repository32
- Continuous Integration29
- Open source, great ui (like github)19
- Slack Integration15
- Full CI flow11
- Free and unlimited private git repos10
- User, group, and project access management is simple8
- Built-in CI7
- Intuitive UI7
- All in one (Git, CI, Agile..)7
- Both public and private Repositories4
- Integrated Docker Registry3
- Mattermost Chat client3
- Issue system3
- One-click install through DigitalOcean2
- Dockerized2
- Because is the best remote host for git repositories2
- Full DevOps suite with Git2
- Free private repos2
- Great for team collaboration2
- Unlimited free repos & collaborators2
- It's fully integrated2
- I like the its runners and executors feature2
- CI2
- So easy to use2
- It's powerful source code management tool2
- Excellent2
- Build/pipeline definition alongside code2
- Security and Stable2
- Low maintenance cost due omnibus-deployment2
- On-premises2
- Multilingual interface1
- Kubernetes integration with GitLab CI1
- Review Apps feature1
- Powerful software planning and maintaining tools1
- Groups of groups1
- Built-in Docker Registry1
- Beautiful1
- Wounderful1
- Opensource1
- Not Microsoft Owned1
- Many private repo1
- Published IP list for whitelisting (gl-infra#434)1
- The dashboard with deployed environments1
- HipChat intergration1
- Kubernetes Integration1
- Native CI1
- Powerful Continuous Integration System1
- It includes everything I need, all packaged with docker1
- Supports Radius/Ldap & Browser Code Edits0
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Cons of Git
- Hard to learn16
- Inconsistent command line interface11
- Easy to lose uncommitted work9
- Worst documentation ever possibly made7
- Awful merge handling5
- Unexistent preventive security flows3
- Rebase hell3
- When --force is disabled, cannot rebase2
- Ironically even die-hard supporters screw up badly2
Cons of GitLab
- Slow ui performance27
- Introduce breaking bugs every release7
- Insecure (no published IP list for whitelisting)5
- Built-in Docker Registry1
- Review Apps feature0