Hello all!
I recently found out about GitLab (and Docker, Vagrant, Emmet and a whole bunch of tools I should absolutely use).
I'm curious about GitLab. How is it different from GitHub? Any new features or such?
Gitlab and Github share the same purpose - git repository management with extensive features like code reviews, issue tracking, activity feeds, wikis, protected branches, etc.
There are some differences between the two services though:
WIP to a merge request title will prevent anyone from merging it. Github on the other hand is way more popular and widely used than GitLab. One of the most used libraries and frameworks are shared there.
Two months ago, a group of open source maintainers wrote an open letter to Github, in the form of a repository, where they issued some of the most needed features Github lacked at that moment. The open letter easily got public attention, but most importantly, it got Github staff attention too. From this day on, things are getting better for the Github users. The features, requested in the dear-github letter were implemented and new improvements were introduces, like GPG signature verification, abusive users blocking, squash commits directly from Github, improved code review tools, emojis in pull requests, issues and comments and the list goes on.
Github and GitLab are both great services with their pros and cons. My advice is to try them both and find which one suits you best.
Developed on the basis of Git version control system, GitLab is one of the best web platforms for hosting project source codes. Although GitLab is similar to GitHub in terms of functionality, it seems to be a better choice for teamwork than its famous counterpart and GitLab features may be different somewhat.GitLab exists in two forms. The first one is SAAS - website with open registration, and the second one is an individual solution GitLab Community Edition. They both can be perfectly customized to any service.
Read also about GitLab pros and cons in the article GitHub vs BitBucket vs GitLab: Developers' Research
Denny Trebbin
Lead Fullstack Developer. Experimenting with bleeding-edge tech. Irregularly DJ. Hobby drone pilot. Amateur photographer.
GitLab is a great alternative to GitHub.
The feature list grows each week. GitLab offers unlimited private and public repositories on gitlab.com. GitLab can be installed locally on your own or self-managed servers in two different flavors - a free (CE) community edition and a paid (EE) enterprise edition. The community edition packs all features necessary for a successful management of your software development process. Features like SCM, Wiki, Issues, task, Jira integration, a CI runner, release management, big files in git, binary attachments (shared between SCM and CI - something like your portable JRE or mini Linux distribution image, etc.), etc. If it's still not enough then your hosted GitLab (CE) and (EE) as well as gitlab.com, offer a public REST API to read, update, insert, and delete data.