GitHub vs GitLab – GitHub and GitLab sound similar and they offer something similar: source code management and git-based hosting. Where are the differences?
Through GitHub and GitLab, you can manage and host your source code, alone or in a team, for free or as a subscription. We show you the main differences and why you should use one or the other platform.
- Basic idea of both platforms
- The biggest differences
- And the operation?
- Decision support
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Table of Contents
Basic idea of both platforms
Similar to the names, so is the offer of GitHub and GitLab. In advance: Unless you develop yourself, but especially GitHub know as a download source for software, you can make any difference. This works equally well on both platforms and is basically just a minor side effect of the actual performance spectrum.
Both platforms provide the foundation for Git-based source code management (SCM). You can work on both platforms equally directly in the browser, in the terminal with Git itself, or in virtually any Git environment, such as IDEs and code editors. Both variants allow free private and public repositories. Both offer tools for working in teams, integration with third-party software and hundreds of advanced features across multiple cost models.
If you are looking for the best platform for a large-scale project with hundreds of developers, a global infrastructure and a given framework, you will not get around a detailed evaluation. In addition, the differences in detail are too numerous and also distributed on complex subscription models. GitLab itself offers a good starting point in a detailed feature comparison . Of course, this is to be treated with caution, but at least GitLab is fair enough to list here also features that exist only in the GitHub competition.
If, on the other hand, you only want to host your private tools and scripts on one of the platforms, or if you want to run public projects without a lot of IT management, you can compare the free offers quite reasonably.
The biggest differences
The most obvious difference is certainly in size and operator: GitHub is almost monopolist, at least as far as the free repositories are concerned, and by far the most well-known SCM portal. In addition, GitHub now belongs to Microsoft, GitLab.com is operated by GitLab Inc. And even the sheer size offers advantages: The probability of finding users and contributors (“employees”) is increasing, third-party repositories are (still) easier to link to their own projects, confidence in longevity is growing Google Code) and there are also more developers working on the platform and on specific third-party software. Overall, this also means that GitHub is considered the more stable, performant system.
GitLab controls this with features: Any number of free repos were for a long time a unique feature of GitLab, only a few months ago, GitHub has followed suit. And even today GitHub has more limitations than GitLab. For example, both providers have the concept of protected branches, that is, branches that only designated users are allowed to work on. For GitHub, however, this only works for public repos, and for GitLab it also works for private repos. Even more dramatic is the limitation of a maximum of three developers per private repo. If, for example, you would like to manage an application for your sports club with four colleagues in a private repo, you would have to switch to the minimum subscription for 7 USD per month at GitHub (which would also make protected branches possible).
At a professional level, for example, the topic of Continuous Integration / Continuous Deployment (CI / CD) should be mentioned: GitLab offers the corresponding tools by default, but GitHub requires them to be retrofitted via third-party software. Even more prominently is the topic of user management: GitHub allows role-based rights management only from the team version, which costs 9 USD per month and developers, while it is standard at GitLab. One can not really say that GitLab generally does more than GitHub, but at least in the free area this tendency is clearly visible.
And the operation?
You will find many sources that give the GitLab interface in the browser better usability – but this is clearly in the eye of the beholder, because the differences are not so great now either. With one huge exception: GitHub’s surface is set to a fixed size, while GitLab scales well and offers much more desktop space. As far as creating and modifying code directly in the browser, GitLab is also clearly ahead, because here you get a real small IDE, while GitHub provides only a minimalist text editor.
However, as soon as you do not want to use the platforms in the browser, but through IDEs or editors on your desktop, the world looks very different. Both platforms can be integrated in many IDEs simply via a URL and the user data and once done, you get from GitHub and GitLab actually nothing at all – they are then almost only simple storage locations. At least, when it comes to the basics, say the git functionalities. However, in doubt, GitHub is more often found here as a standard option in third party software – the advantage of the more popular platform mentioned above.
If the whole subject of Git, SCM and GitHub / GitLab is completely new to you, you need to get used to both systems equally. As a major decision criterion, the usability is certainly not good.
Decision support
If you want to keep it short, you have to make comparisons and tend to express it tendentially: GitLab offers in the free area more features and a rounder overall package out-of-the-box and the cheaper contracts in the enterprise segment. GitHub on the other hand scores with infrastructure / performance and enormous market power.
Whether for beginners, the larger GitHub community or GitLabs more important to out-of-the-box tools, everyone has to decide for themselves. Anyone who plans to do more will have to do a point-by-point comparison with both providers anyway. And also with third-party software and integration: Both platforms can be expanded with hundreds of functions, so that ultimately could be done with both pretty much anything imaginable.
Finally, one should not forget that both platforms are not resting at all. For example, GitLab’s standard container registry is often called a major advantage over GitHub. Although this is basically correct, but there is the same concept synonymous with GitHub, but currently still as a beta with its own registration .
Truly, the choice is probably only in two cases: GitLab, if you want to run a free private repository with as few restrictions as possible. And GitHub, if you want to promote a worldwide open-source project with the widest possible dissemination.
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