Today, we are comparing GitHub and GitLab. Keep reading to be aware of the main differences between these code hosting platforms. On our channel, we share thoughts on recent developments in the tech industry. Follow us not to miss new blogs.
Software development projects are based on teamwork, all members should freely access code written by their colleagues. It is possible with services such as GitHub and GitLab, that allow documenting changes in code and uploading new versions.
Both these systems rely on Git. In a nutshell, Git is a system that stores code, tracks its changes in real time and synchronizes updates on local and cloud repositories. It’s not a particular service, rather a technology. If we take Git and GitHub, for example, GitHub is a service that uses Git but other services can use Git as well.
What is GitHub?
It is the largest Git based version control platform. Now, it hosts more than 38 million projects and it is most commonly used by open source communities.
What is GitLab?
Well, GitLab was founded in 2011 as an alternative to GitHub. Recently, teams have been actively switching to GitLab. Particularly due to GitLab’s seamless support of CI pipeline and docker.
Features of the two platforms
GitHub
- Repository branching and forking
- Pull and merge requests
- Base cloning
- Wiki support – which is a built-in tool for making and sharing version documentation.
GitLab
- Excellent interface and functionality in particular
- Extensive devops and CI/CD free functionality.
However accessing main functionality and performing fast pushes and merges can be a struggle.
Actually, GitHub and GitLab have similar functionality in issue tracking and automatically sending bug reports and user feedback. However, GitLab offers detailed documentation on how to import your data from other vendors while GitHub doesn’t provide much information. Also, export features are more restrictive in GitHub than in GitLab.
GitHub and GitLab Interfaces
In a summary of each platform interface, we define that GitHub interface has a lot of guides and tutorials and basic functionality can be accessed quickly. Everything’s minimalistic and easy to understand. GitLab has a very well organized interface but it still lacks interface guides and tutorials.
Popularity and Growth
- GitHub statistics say that currently, GitHub is used by 40 million users. According to the data released in january 2020, it is the biggest code repository and according to Google trends, the popularity of GitHub has been fairly consistent over the last two years.
- According to GitLab’s case study page, the tool is used by Drupal, Ticketmaster, BI Worldwide and other enterprises.
According to some sources, the service is used by 200-500 thousand organizations and developers.
As a summary for this article, we can say that the main difference between GitHub and get lab rests in their philosophy. GitHub is more focused on high availability and infrastructure performance while GitLab is focused on providing more features for a complete devops process.
This article was prepared by the EZtek team. EZtek helps top brands worldwide to innovate and accelerate digital transformation. We provide world-class enterprise software engineering, design and technology consulting services.
