Supports daily deployments with streamlined workflows and could improve pipeline startup time
What is our primary use case?
GitLab serves as my main DevOps platform for managing our repository and code base, as well as for pipeline integration of our system.
We maintain all our projects in GitLab with separate folders for project files, and we use GitLab to manage our projects. We also use GitLab pipeline to deploy in our dev environment, QA environment, and production, as well as for creating patches.
How has it helped my organization?
GitLab has positively impacted my organization by being faster than other platforms and providing the best user interface and features. Creating merge requests is easy, and it makes it simple to use for new joiners.
What is most valuable?
GitLab's best features are its built-in CI/CD and pipeline integration, which can be easily connected to AWS or other deployment platforms. The CI/CD pipeline integration is the most valuable aspect for me, and it also provides an easy user interface to create merge requests, merge, and create branches.
The CI/CD pipeline integration has helped my workflow by allowing us to use the .gitlab-ci.yml file to integrate and write our pipeline codes, where we include build jobs, test jobs, and deploy jobs directly with our AWS for S3 using CI/CD variables for push.
In GitLab pipelines, both manual and automatic integration are offered for the pipeline runner, and pipeline logs are provided, which are very useful for DevOps engineers and developers for debugging.
What needs improvement?
GitLab can be improved by being more responsive in the UI and offering better pricing for premium features, which would be useful for small startups. While GitLab's CI/CD is powerful, it is somewhat complex in certain aspects.
It would be better if the GitLab and Jira integration were more flexible and easier to integrate with Jira for task management in the future.
For how long have I used the solution?
Since I joined my company, we have been using GitLab for our repo maintenance, so I have been using it for more than two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
In my experience, GitLab is stable; however, sometimes it takes much time to start the runner and gets stuck in a pending situation, possibly due to traffic issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
GitLab handles growing workloads and users well, and its scalability is good, but the downtime issue is a concern because it sometimes takes too long to start the runner.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Earlier, I did my personal projects using GitHub before I joined my current organization, which uses GitLab, and that is the reason for switching. I personally prefer GitLab over GitHub because it is user-friendly and easy to work with.
My current organization started with GitLab.
What other advice do I have?
I would advise others looking into using GitLab that it is a perfect platform for organization-level repository management and pipeline CI/CD features are very useful and easy to use.
I have shared everything I feel and noted the pros and cons of GitLab as a user. Overall, I rate GitLab positively, giving it a seven out of ten because I have been using GitLab for more than two and a half years and have not faced many difficulties. However, in some cases, I got stuck with runners getting delayed to run, which can be annoying.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
GitLab: The All-in-One Solution for Developers
What do you like best about the product?
GitLab offers everything a developer needs to manage their projects. I find it easy to share code, review my recent changes, and it also helps me identify issues introduced by other developers.
What do you dislike about the product?
As of now i dont find something that i don't like about gitlab.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
It helps me to manage projects
Help me with CI/CD
Help me to review code pushed by other dev.
i can easily maange projects
A Developer’s Best Friend
What do you like best about the product?
GitLab is pretty straightforward to use for day-to-day development work. Setting it up and getting CI/CD running doesn’t take much effort, which I really appreciate. Having everything in one place — code, issues, and pipelines — makes working with the team smoother. Also, whenever we’ve reached out, the support team has been quick and helpfull.
What do you dislike about the product?
Since GitLab offers so many features, it can feel a bit overwhelming when you’re just starting out. Also, I’ve noticed that performance can slow down a little when working with larger repositories, but it’s not a big issue once you get used to the workfloww
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
As an Android developer, GitLab helps me keep everything organized in one workflow — code reviews, issue tracking, and CI/CD builds for different app flavors. It makes collaboration with backend and QA teams much smoother, and automated pipelines save a lot of time during testing and releases. Overall, it’s helped us ship updates faster and with fewer headaches.
Robust CI/CD Features, But Community Support Needs Improvement
What do you like best about the product?
The platform offers a wide variety of features that support and advance our CI/CD practice.
What do you dislike about the product?
The community and support leave something to be desired. There are problems that have been reported by numerous users over the years, yet they still have not been addressed.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Version control and CI/CD are the key features that enable us to deliver better software more quickly.
GitLab: Powerful All-in-One DevOps, but Can Be Heavy for Small Teams
What do you like best about the product?
GitLab is an all-in-one DevOps platform that brings everything — from code hosting and CI/CD pipelines to issue tracking and security — under one roof. The best part is its seamless CI/CD integration, which makes automating builds, tests, and deployments incredibly easy. Its Merge Request workflows, inline code reviews, and visibility into pipelines help teams collaborate efficiently. The user interface is clean, intuitive, and works great for both small teams and enterprise-scale projects.
What do you dislike about the product?
While GitLab is powerful, it can feel heavy for smaller projects. The initial setup for CI/CD runners and permissions can be a bit complex, especially for new users. Occasionally, pipeline execution speed slows down for larger repos, and the pricing for premium tiers can be high for startups. Also, the UI could load faster when dealing with large numbers of issues or merge requests.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
GitLab helps us manage the entire software development lifecycle in one place. It solves the problem of switching between multiple tools for version control, CI/CD, and issue management. With GitLab, our workflows are more streamlined — code reviews, deployments, and monitoring happen within the same platform. This has improved collaboration across teams, reduced development time, and given us better visibility and control over releases.
Easy and Fun
What do you like best about the product?
There are many useful features, such as Milestones, Groups, Workspaces, and 2Do-s, among others. I also appreciate the user interface. All the members of our small team were able to handle the implementation easily. While working on a side project, we used it frequently, and it never felt disruptive or annoying—which is something we really appreciate.
What do you dislike about the product?
Actually we used GitLab for small team and all was perfect - so we didn't faced with difficulties or something to dislike.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
GitLab provided our team with a seamless environment to spark ideas, begin coding, deploy, and test, all while quickly receiving clear results for our MVP. During this fast-paced and hectic period, using GitLab made the entire process feel smooth and efficient.
GitLab review by Jannatul
What do you like best about the product?
GitLab CI/CD is seamlessly integrated and not an afterthought. Its flexibility allows for YAML-based pipeline configurations, making it adaptable to a variety of workflows. This results in fast, customizable pipelines that are effective for tasks ranging from simple builds to complex, multi-stage deployments.
What do you dislike about the product?
The sheer number of features and options can feel overwhelming, particularly for teams that are new to GitLab or DevOps. Additionally, GitLab offers limited built-in granularity when it comes to permission settings, especially in comparison to tools like GitHub Enterprise or Bitbucket.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
GitLab manages both our infrastructure and application deployments efficiently, with built-in security checks ensuring everything runs smoothly. We have also been able to integrate it seamlessly with various cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, and GCP.
Very Efficient and Structured Solution for the whole Workflow from Management to Deployment
What do you like best about the product?
It started out with a very minimalistic approach, but over time, they have consistently enhanced their features and addressed bugs with better support for customer satisfaction. The platform is now easier to use and less complicated. It also integrates with all the popular mailing, communication, collaboration, and alerting applications. We use it for all our work tracking and releasing. Very easy to implement and build upon.
What do you dislike about the product?
Still has less features compared to peers. But it has everything we really need.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
It can be integrated seamlessly with all the popular apps for coding, releasing, testing and alerting logs and all the management workflows too.
DevOps Operations are Easy
What do you like best about the product?
Source Code Management, Issue Tracking and Project Management are self hosted process.
What do you dislike about the product?
Costing is too high,Roadmaps are undefinable.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Currently we are storing our Source code inside the Gitlab, and easy to use by command prompt.
Gitlab is strong & cool open-source alternative of Github
What do you like best about the product?
The all-in-one setup is probably its biggest win. You get Git repos, CI/CD, issue tracking, and project management in one place. No jumping between tools. The CI/CD pipeline system is solid once you get it running. The YAML config gives you good control, and the built-in runners work well for most projects. Issue tracking integrates nicely with merge requests. You can link branches to issues automatically, which keeps things organized. GitLab's pretty straightforward to get running. The community edition has good forum support, and paid tiers get direct help. Once your team gets used to it, GitLab becomes the everyday tool for everything.
What do you dislike about the product?
The interface can feel cluttered. There's a lot going on, and finding what you need sometimes takes too many clicks.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Less context switching between tools like Jira, Jenkins, GitHub. Faster setup for new projects because the CI/CD and repo are ready from day one. Easier for the whole team to stay aligned since planning and development are connected. Saves time and reduces errors because everything is integrated and automated in one workflow.
