Likelihood to Recommend 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.
Read full review RubyGems is a great packaging library primarily because of its verbose logging information and easy to navigate system architecture. We've dealt with artifactory systems in the past for Java and JavaScript, and RubyGems just makes it a lot easier to handle the packaging and deployment of our reusable libraries. We've noticed in the past that there are times where (if all 200+ teams) are releasing at a similar time that publishing the gems can lag, but that's fairly rare.
Read full review Pros 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. Read full review Seemless packaging Well documented Verbose error logs Active community support Quick security fixes/releases Read full review Cons 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. Read full review Lack of solid Windows support. Not great performance if lots of people release at the same time. Read full review Likelihood to Renew 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.
Read full review Usability 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!
Read full review Support Rating 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
Read full review RubyGems has strong community support and finding issues to errors is as simple as searching for the error message you're receiving (but usually the error is clear enough without having to bother with that). Honestly, the framework is simple enough that support isn't needed much, but it has been helpful to us in the past when we have needed it.
Read full review Alternatives Considered 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
Read full review RubyGems is easier to use and to troubleshoot issues overall. Sometimes when troubleshooting in other systems errors are masked and it takes a trained eye or a lot of time searching through Google trying to find out what it really means. RubyGems is very verbose and allows for quick troubleshooting of any deployment problems.
Read full review Return on Investment 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. Read full review Quick package hosting. Faster deployment process. Less troubleshooting needed during deployment. Read full review ScreenShots