Apache Archiva vs. GitLab

Well suited for small organizations to medium-sized teams/organizations. Apache Archiva is well suited for:

• It acts as a central repository/proxy of the artifacts generated and used by the teams.
• It provides control on which open source repositories can be utilized by the team.
• Saves network bandwidth by reducing outbound traffic.

Apache Archiva is less appropriate for organizations where immediate support/bug resolutions are required.

Incentivized

We started to use GitLab for hosting git source code repositories of our projects only but slowly we started to use it to store container images, packages, dependency proxy as well infrastucture registry and it is now well suited for Continuous Integration in our projects, It wasn't that good in Continuous Deployment before 12.0 version but after 12.0 it is amazingly good for Continuous Deployment as well since it keeps deployment information in a well organized manner which can be configure in ci yaml configuration.

Incentivized

• It's an open source project and therefore saves cost.
• It allows exchange of artifacts/libraries between different teams.
• It allows managing internal and external repositories with ease.

Incentivized

• GitLab excels in managing code versions, allowing easy tracking of changes, branch management, and merging contributions.
• It helps maintain code stability and reliability, saving time and effort in the development or research workflow.
• Powerful code review features, enabling collaboration and feedback among team members.
• Robust project management features, including issue tracking, kanban boards, and milestones.

Incentivized

• Muti-tenancy was hard to achieve.
• UI can be improved. Its seems bit dated.
• It is a bit tricky to setup.

Incentivized

• CI variables management is sometimes hard to use, for example, with File type variables. The scope of each variable is also hard to guess.
• Access Token: there are too many types (Personal, Project, global..), and it is hard to identify the scope and where it comes from once created.
• Runners: auto-scaled runners are for the moment hard to put in place, and monitoring is not easy.

Incentivized

Gitlab is the best in its segment. They have a free version, they have open-source software, they provide a good service with their SaaS product, they are a fully-remote company since the beginning (which means they are fully distributed and have forward-thinking IMO). I would certainly recommend them to everyone.

Incentivized

I find it easy to use, I haven't had to do the integration work, so that's why it is a 9/10, cause I can't speak to how easy that part was or the initial set up, but day to day use is great!

Incentivized

At this point, I do not have much experience with Gitlab support as I have never had to engage them. They have documentation that is helpful, not quite as extensive as other documentation, but helpful nonetheless. They also seem to be relatively responsive on social media platforms (twitter) and really thrived when GitHub was acquired by Microsoft

Incentivized

• Apache Archiva is a great choice for organizations with a limited budget.
• Alternatives are expensive to acquire Archiva comes offers REST API(s) which allows the creation of customized UI.
• With Apache Archiva, it is easy to manage the remote proxy repositories.
• RBAC helps with managing user access to the repository.
• Configuration can be achieved using UI and stored in archiva.xml.
• Backup of configuration is quite simple.

Incentivized

GitLab is easily the preferred tool when it comes to versioning and source control. With other tools the UI often feels outdated and clunky leading to inefficiency and confusion. With some of the sleeker tools such as GitKraken, while the aesthetic is pleasing, the experience is plagued by a lack of support, lack of optional plugins, and a plethora of bugs that cause unnecessary legwork to resolve. GitLab is the best of both aesthetic and functionality

Incentivized

• The impact of Apache Archiva on ROI has been positive. Since it is open source. It is free.
• It has allowed teams to store artifacts centrally, thus leading to a reduced need for multiple servers
• Security audits can be easily performed on the artifacts.

Incentivized

• We were able to streamline our project's codebase which made us very organised and laid out a proper plan for development.
• Our deployment and infra pipelines are well structured now making our process 10x faster.
• We are more focused into project building rather infra, as infra is totally on autopilot mode. Which has enabled us to grow our ROI by records.

Incentivized