--- title: "GitLab Reviews, Pros and Cons - 2026 Software Advice" description: "Reviews of GitLab. Learn how real users rate this software's ease-of-use, functionality, overall quality and customer support. Talk to our advisors to see if GitLab is a good fit for you!" source_url: "https://www.softwareadvice.com/project-management/gitlab-profile/reviews/" page_type: "reviews" language: "en" --- 1 million+ businesses helped. Get advice Get Free Advice [Home](https://www.softwareadvice.com/) / [AI Code Generator Software](https://www.softwareadvice.com/category/4781-ai-code-generator/) / [GitLab](https://www.softwareadvice.com/project-management/gitlab-profile/) / GitLab Reviews Software Advice offers objective insights based on verified user reviews and independent product and market research. When our advisors match you to a software provider, we may earn a referral fee. [Overview](https://www.softwareadvice.com/project-management/gitlab-profile/) Reviews [Alternatives](https://www.softwareadvice.com/project-management/gitlab-profile/alternatives/) # GitLab User Reviews ## Reviews summary - Overall rating: 4.6/5 - Total reviews: 1,226 ### Secondary ratings - Ease of use: 4.4/5 - Customer support: 4.2/5 - Value for money: 4.5/5 - Functionality: 4.6/5 ### Rating distribution - 5 stars: 790 reviews (64%) - 4 stars: 391 reviews (32%) - 3 stars: 38 reviews (3%) - 2 stars: 3 reviews (0%) - 1 star: 4 reviews (0%) ### Most mentioned pros - We use GitLab as our main repository hosting and deployment server, it kinda bridges the gap between engineering and QA workflows. - You get source code management, issue tracking, and CI/CD pipelines that are built in, all tied together inside one single interface, and yeah it feels like a huge productivity push. - Being able to lock down branches, spin up runners to automate code quality checks , and then track deployments automatically, gives us huge security and that calm peace of mind. ### Most mentioned cons - The user interface can feel kind of overwhelming and cluttered, especially when you’re trying to move through those deeply nested settings or while reviewing a complex Merge Request. - GitLab feature-heavy UI often feels cluttered and overwhelming, making me stuggling a bit with navigation inside app - Sometimes it feels a bit cluttered, and simple things can take a few extra clicks to find. ## GitLab customer reviews Showing reviews 1-25 of 1,226 (page 1). ### Overtaken Github - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Samuel H. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Financial Services - Company size: 201-500 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 12 months - Reviewed: August 2026 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Very positive, given Githubs recent performance I would put Gitlab as one of the best SCM systems, and it's CI/CD integration is unmatched. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros It's syntax is very extendable and there's very little that it cannot do. the YAML anchor templating is extremely useful #### Cons I think the cloud hosted option is not as good as the self-hosted version for some reason, and feature releases seem quite slow --- ### The most complete DevOps platform for modern engineering teams - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Information Technology and Services - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 2 years - Reviewed: January 2026 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. GitLab is our day-by-day driver for development. It has successfully replaced several applications that we used to have before. It provides functionality for managing the whole lifecycle, starting from code commit to production deployment. It is reliable, robust, and a crucial part for DevOps adoption in our organization. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros The native CI/CD pipelines are absolutely amazing. Having an entire pipeline in one YAML file in version control is a breeze when it comes to automation of processes in comparison to Jenkins. The All-in-One approach is absolutely amazing. Having code, issues, and a container registry all in one interface is a huge help to us. #### Cons The User Interface can be intimidating to a new user. There are so many menu options and configuration parameters that it takes a little bit of time to navigate through to get to what you are looking for. Furthermore, if you are hosting it on your own system, it can also be a bit resource-intensive (RAM/CPU-intensive). #### Reasons for switching to GitLab The main reason we made the switch to GitLab is because of the full-stack DevOps functionality that it provides. This means that we'll be able to have our code repository, CI/CD system, and container registry contained within one service. No longer will we have to use GitHub and a third-party CI service. The full-stack CI/CD system provided by GitLab is more developed. --- ### A solid project management platform with a great free tier - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Anilu M. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Program Development - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: Used weekly for more than 2 years - Reviewed: July 2026 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. I believe GitLab has room for improvement in its user interface. While it is highly functional, it could provide more visual dashboards and reporting for project timelines, progress percentages, and overall project status. This would make it easier to present project updates to executives and improve the overall user experience. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros GitLab is a robust platform for managing software development projects. It offers a high level of flexibility and a wide range of features that can adapt to projects of different sizes and complexities. One of its biggest advantages is the availability of a free tier, which is ideal for startups or companies that want to evaluate the platform before investing in a paid plan. --- ### Strong all-in-one platform for development workflows - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Parsa G. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Information Technology and Services - Company size: 201-500 employees - Product usage: Used weekly for less than 2 years - Reviewed: July 2026 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros It brings source control, CI/CD, and task tracking into one place. It makes development workflows easier to manage and gives teams better visibility across code, builds, and delivery. #### Cons The interface can feel dense at times, especially for newer users. Some workflows are not as intuitive as they could be, and performance can occasionally feel a bit heavy. --- ### Great Git platform with all the basics you need - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Marvin S. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Computer Software - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 2 years - Reviewed: May 2026 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Overall I'm happy with gitlab it delivery the base functionality of a git platform very well, I would just stay away from the AI premium features. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 3/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros High quality very easy to use git platform. Love the CI integrations, the web interface is great for reviewing changes and even making smaller changes. #### Cons Unfortunately the AI features we tried for the free 30 days were very lackluster and felt (feb 2026) very slapped on and not really usable, or if they were maybe we didn't invest enough time into it. But what I tried to use the chat for either failed completely, or was so low quality it was unusable. #### Reasons for switching to GitLab We changed our whole setup and Gitlab was just more established in our team --- ### Suitable for large deployments, and always improving. - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Roke B. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Defense & Space - Company size: 10000+ employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: September 2025 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. My interactions with staff at their issue tracker are generally very positive, although they are at times slow to respond, and a little apathetic about finer details. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros It allows users and organisations to organise their repositories into (hierarchical) directories, unlike Forgejo and GitHub. Additionally, like Forgejo, but unlike GitHub, it provides an issue tracker, which is moderated. #### Cons SAAS GitLab's spam detection is aggressive when modifying Snippets containing significant amounts of content. Additionally, although it provides a useful issue tracker, and public forum for personal issues (and GitHub has recently reduced the level of support that its agents are meant to provide), GitLab offers no private, personal (account) support. #### Reasons for switching to GitLab GitLab's core is FOSS, and it provides an issue tracker. --- ### Experience with gitlab - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: sirjan b. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Information Technology and Services - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 12 months - Reviewed: June 2025 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Overall, my experience with GitLab has been great. I’ve been using it since the beginning of my career, and it’s always felt reliable and developer-friendly. While there isn’t a huge difference between GitLab and GitHub feature-wise, GitLab really shines when working within a closed group or an organization. The built-in CI/CD, project management tools, and permission handling make it an excellent choice for team-based workflows. That said, one challenge I’ve faced—especially from a startup perspective—is that some essential features are limited in the free version. For instance, group member limits and restrictions around branch protection rules can become a bottleneck when you're trying to scale a small team with good practices. It would definitely help if GitLab offered a bit more flexibility in its free tier for early-stage teams. Still, despite these limitations, GitLab remains a strong, all-in-one DevOps platform that I’ve enjoyed working with. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros I've been using GitLab since the start of my career, and honestly, it's just so good. While there isn’t a huge difference between GitLab and GitHub in terms of core functionality, GitLab really stands out when you're working within a closed group or using it in an organization. The built-in CI/CD, issue tracking, and permission controls make it incredibly smooth for team collaboration and managing private repositories efficiently. For internal projects and streamlined workflows, GitLab has been my go-to #### Cons While GitLab offers a lot of great features, one thing that can be limiting—especially for startups—is that many essential features are locked behind the paid tiers. For example, creating a group and being able to add only a few members in the free version feels a bit restrictive when you're trying to scale a small team. Similarly, features like advanced branch protection rules, which are quite important for maintaining code quality and workflows, aren't fully available in the free plan. It would be great if GitLab could offer more flexibility for early-stage teams who rely on these core features to build solid development practices. #### Reasons for choosing GitLab Whenever I need to create organization and manage my code base and repo I use gitlab and whenever I need to work on group and organization I use gitlab --- ### Great tool to manage full application from code to deployment - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: richard l. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Education Management - Company size: 10000+ employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: May 2025 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. A bit of learning curve at the beginning but it's mostly because it's more than what we used to have (just source control) #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros fully compatible with what we know already in git. Has so many nice features for pipeline, Continuous integration, environment variables etc. #### Cons Maybe sometimes it's not intuitive to find things like variables (under settings , then CI CD), but it's ok really #### Reasons for switching to GitLab have everything in one place to simplify the workflow --- ### Best git provider for most commercial use cases - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Information Technology and Services - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: February 2025 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 3/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Multiple edition that can fit your project/company needs (e.g. free SaaS edition, self-hosted community edition, Enterprise). Great developer ergonomics, with plenty of customisations that fulfill all complex development/enterprise requirements. #### Cons Not as good for community features (e.g. public open-source projects, developer profile) compared to Github, which also gets a bit more publicity. #### Reasons for choosing GitLab Has the right mix of features and investor ergonomics, while priced reasonably. Also very flexible with community edition deployments. #### Reasons for switching to GitLab Switched to Gitlab for internal projects, as well as publishing some open source projects from our internal repos. We use a mix of self-hosted Gitlab Community Edition, and the enterprise edition for client facing / core workflows. --- ### Amazing amazing amazing - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Computer Software - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: November 2025 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros I love gitlab, it has a lot of features and even for private and personal projects it is completely free, amazing! #### Cons Nothing, really! It's amazing. Maybe, the only thing I would like to see, is improvements in the CI like having a marketplace for actions. #### Reasons for switching to GitLab GitLab offers private repositories and other features that weren't available on their competitors --- ### Great features, but a bit cluttered - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Umut Ö. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Information Technology and Services - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: December 2024 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Overall, Gitlab is solid for managing projects. CI/CD is great, but the interface could use some simplification. It works well once you get used to it #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 3/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 2/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros I like the all in one setup Gitlab offers, CI/CD, issue tracking are built in, which makes project managing easier #### Cons The interface feels cluttered at times, and some features are hard to find. Its not always as intuitive as Id like #### Reasons for switching to GitLab Community Edition, and built-in features that may or may not cost extra on Github --- ### Great self hosted alternative to Github - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Computer Software - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: September 2025 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros A brilliant self hosted alternative to using Github and it even includes some user management features that Github is lacking. Great CI configuration setup too. #### Cons Not much really, very simple to use and setup. We used the self hosted version so can't speak for the managed instances. --- ### A GitLab review - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Matthias Y. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Computer Software - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: Used daily for less than 6 months - Reviewed: May 2026 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered I started selfhosting it for school projects and I like having full control over it and it just works for organizing teams. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 3/5 - Customer support: 3/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros I like that it's not as closed as other platform like GitHub, we can selfhost it to take more control ver it. #### Cons Of course, there are some (simple) features that are only reserved to the paid plans, even for selfhosting. GitLab is in the middle between GitHub and fully opensource alternatives like Gitea. But it's a good compromise. #### Reasons for switching to GitLab To see something new and more open source --- ### GitLab is great and underrated - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Samer A. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Computer Software - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: Used monthly for more than 2 years - Reviewed: February 2026 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. I use it for checking on the companies and developers that are more concentrated in it, instead of GitHub and save the related work there. A long time ago, when I used to have continuous development events, I preferred them on GitHub Actions or other platforms. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 3/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 3/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros It includes the version control and change tracking capabilities, which are managed by git in addition to the CI/CD, which helps automate the work. And all of that is for free. which is great. #### Cons Sometimes I find it complex to use, so I prefer GitHub much more and do not have it as my main version control website or software. --- ### Truly very useful software - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Steven M. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Management Consulting - Company size: 5001-10000 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 2 years - Reviewed: April 2025 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. It is a software that facilitates the entire open-source process, providing an opportunity for interaction for people with minimal knowledge. However, with GitLab, you can learn more. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 3/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros It has been an open-source, easy-to-implement project management software that can be used for DevOps. GitLab allows integration with third-party tools and services, improving its functionality and adaptability to different development workflows. #### Cons Sometimes, integrations with other platforms can be a long or time-consuming process to execute correctly. --- ### Very complete product - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Filippo V. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Information Technology and Services - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 12 months - Reviewed: May 2025 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered I am very satisfied with Gitlab, my team needs some time to get used to it after gitlab, but I am sure they will #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros It has a lot of features that lacks in Github or in competiting tools. I also like the possibility to self-host it. #### Cons Sometimes it is not trivial to find all the needed functions #### Reasons for switching to GitLab Essentially we switch for pricing reasons --- ### A Powerful All-in-One DevOps Platform - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Gary T. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Information Technology and Services - Company size: 10000+ employees - Product usage: Used weekly for more than 2 years - Reviewed: May 2025 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. I’ve found it to be a powerful and comprehensive DevOps platform that brings everything from source control and issue tracking to CI/CD and security scanning into a single interface. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros GitLab provides a single application for the entire DevOps lifecycle — from planning to CI/CD, security, and monitoring — reducing the need for multiple tools. #### Cons Large repositories or self-hosted instances can suffer from slow performance, especially when using the web interface or running complex pipelines. --- ### Must have for DevOps and IT focus organizations - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Antonio P. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Logistics and Supply Chain - Company size: 10000+ employees - Product usage: Used weekly for less than 6 months - Reviewed: July 2025 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Great tool, overall does what should, only behind GitLab. It brings a lot of strengths in coding and collaborative IT development, with few minors. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros DevOps capabilities, codes review and collaboration functionalities, codes storage and issue tracking, security and open code possibilities which enhance productivity and IT practices. #### Cons Facing sometimes slowdowns and performance issues, administration settings and UI which is not top notch. Most relevant cons is social side which is less strong than Gitlab, limiting community. --- ### Decent code managment - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Keith T. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Computer Software - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: Used weekly for more than 2 years - Reviewed: April 2025 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. It was used pretty often in my class, but I don't see myself using this on my own personal projects. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros I like that GitLab is very similar to how GitHub functions, so using this was pretty easy. #### Cons The service would be down quite frequently and faced a couple of errors. --- ### A great alternative to Gitlab - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Andrew M. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Computer Software - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: March 2025 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. A great alternative to Github, especially with the option to self-host. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 3/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros The vertical integration of the whole software development cycle. #### Cons The pricing is a bit steep, the UI could do with some improvement --- ### GitLab is a must have - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Food & Beverages - Company size: 10000+ employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: February 2025 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros GitLab is a great tool for developers to store, share and collaborate. #### Cons GitLab uses an AI that can be greatly improved. --- ### Gitlab is Good - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Griffin L. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Computer Software - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: Used weekly for less than 2 years - Reviewed: February 2025 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. It was pretty good, they had many features others didn't #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros The ease of management and cloud capabilities #### Cons It's a little confusing for brand new users #### Reasons for choosing GitLab It's better for my use case at this time --- ### The best git host for teams - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Edgar H. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Information Technology and Services - Company size: 1001-5000 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: December 2024 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros The ease of use and the gitlab ci. Also, discussions can be created on pull requests easily for collaboration #### Cons I can’t think of anything I disliked about gitlab --- ### Best Git Code repository management tool - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: vignesh n. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Computer Software - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 12 months - Reviewed: January 2025 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Great tool for code repository code control system #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 3/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros Best tool i love this and enjoyed much for code checkin and checkout and code commit and trace code logs #### Cons I like the web version of gitlab much so nothing least about it --- ### Gitlab review - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Jason Y. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Computer Software - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used weekly for less than 12 months - Reviewed: March 2025 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros I really liked the UI which makes it easy to navigate and find features. #### Cons There should be more guides that teaches people how to bets use the platform. ## More reviews [Next reviews](https://www.softwareadvice.com/project-management/gitlab-profile/reviews/?page=2) --- GitLab Reviews, Pros and Cons - 2026 Software Advice