Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

GitLab VS Harness

Compare GitLab VS Harness and see what are their differences

Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

GitLab logo GitLab

Create, review and deploy code together with GitLab open source git repo management software | GitLab

Harness logo Harness

Automated Tests For Your Web App
  • GitLab Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-17
  • Harness Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-24

GitLab

Release Date
2014 January
Startup details
Country
United States
State
California
Founder(s)
Dmitriy Zaporozhets
Employees
1,000 - 1,999

Harness

Website
harness.io
Release Date
2016 January
Startup details
Country
United States
State
California
Founder(s)
Jyoti Bansal
Employees
250 - 499

GitLab features and specs

  • Integrated DevOps Platform
    GitLab provides a single application for the entire DevOps lifecycle, which simplifies the workflow and reduces the need for multiple tools.
  • CI/CD Capabilities
    It offers powerful Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) features, enabling automated testing and deployment.
  • Self-Hosted and SaaS Options
    GitLab can be hosted on your own servers or used as a cloud-hosted service, providing flexibility depending on your needs.
  • Strong Security Features
    GitLab includes various security features such as code quality analysis, vulnerability management, and compliance management.
  • Robust Community and Support
    There is a large community and extensive documentation available, along with professional support options.

Possible disadvantages of GitLab

  • Complexity for New Users
    The extensive features and functionalities can be overwhelming for newcomers, requiring a steep learning curve.
  • Resource Intensive
    Self-hosting a GitLab instance requires substantial server resources, which can be costly.
  • Price
    While there is a free tier, the advanced features are part of the paid plans, which can be expensive for small teams or startups.
  • User Interface
    Some users find the interface less intuitive and harder to navigate compared to other platforms like GitHub.
  • Performance Issues
    Large repositories or high usage can sometimes lead to performance issues, especially on self-hosted instances.

Harness features and specs

  • Continuous Delivery Automation
    Harness provides robust continuous delivery automation, allowing teams to automate deployment processes, reduce errors, and improve the speed of releasing software.
  • Finance Efficiency
    Harness includes a cost management feature that helps organizations control cloud infrastructure costs by providing insights and optimizing resource usage.
  • Simplified CI/CD Pipelines
    It offers simplified CI/CD pipeline creation with an easy-to-use interface, which reduces the complexity and time required to set up these processes.
  • Advanced Security Features
    Integrates advanced security features, such as vulnerability scanning and role-based access control, ensuring that deployments meet security compliance requirements.
  • Smart Rollbacks
    Harness has the capability of smart rollbacks that enable teams to automatically revert to a stable version if a new deployment faces issues, minimizing downtime.

Possible disadvantages of Harness

  • Learning Curve
    There can be a significant learning curve for teams new to Harness, as understanding its full capabilities and integrating it into existing workflows can take time.
  • Cost
    Harness might represent a higher cost than some other CI/CD tools, which can be a concern for smaller businesses or teams with tighter budgets.
  • Complex Configurations
    Some users report that setting up complex configurations can require advanced technical expertise, potentially necessitating additional training or hiring.
  • Integration Limitations
    Although Harness integrates with various tools, there can be limitations or complexities in configuring and maintaining these integrations, especially with less common tools.
  • Dependence on Internet Connectivity
    As a cloud-based solution, Harness requires reliable internet connectivity, which might pose challenges for teams with unstable internet connections or strict data residency requirements.

Analysis of GitLab

Overall verdict

  • Yes, GitLab is generally considered a good platform, especially for teams looking for an integrated set of tools for software development and DevOps. Its features and flexibility make it a strong choice for many organizations.

Why this product is good

  • GitLab is a popular DevOps platform that provides a comprehensive suite of tools for software development, including version control, issue tracking, continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD), and more. It is valued for its open-source model, strong security features, user-friendly interface, and a wide range of integrations. GitLab's all-in-one approach allows teams to manage their entire DevOps lifecycle from a single application, which can help improve collaboration and efficiency.

Recommended for

    GitLab is well-suited for developers, DevOps engineers, project managers, and teams that require robust CI/CD capabilities, strong security features, and an open-source platform that can be self-hosted or used as a cloud service. It is particularly beneficial for organizations looking for a comprehensive solution to streamline their development workflows.

GitLab videos

Introduction to GitLab Workflow

More videos:

  • Review - GitLab Review App Working Session

Harness videos

How to FIT & CHOOSE a CLIMBING HARNESS w/ Black Diamond! VLOG

More videos:

  • Review - Best Climbing Harnesses - Top 7 Climbing Harness Reviews
  • Review - Best Dog Harness in 2019 - Top 5 Dog Harness Review

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to GitLab and Harness)
Code Collaboration
100 100%
0% 0
DevOps Tools
0 0%
100% 100
Git
100 100%
0% 0
Cloud Computing
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare GitLab and Harness

GitLab Reviews

  1. Reinhard
    · Boss at CLOUD Meister ·
    perfect for Freelancers!

The Top 11 Static Application Security Testing (SAST) Tools
GitLab’s in-context testing solution simplifies the development process by automating both application and infrastructure management on a single platform.Why We Picked GitLab: We like GitLab’s automation of testing and compliance across development workflows. Its in-context testing minimizes license costs and reduces the learning curve.
The Top 10 GitHub Alternatives
GitLab is a web-based DevSecOps (take that, Call of Duty) platform that allows software development teams to plan, build, and ship secure code all in one application. GitLab offers a range of features and tools to support the entire software development lifecycle, from project planning and source code management to continuous integration, delivery, and deployment.
The Best Alternatives to Jenkins for Developers
CI/CD GitLab, as a complete DevOps platform, provides an integrated CI/CD solution along with its other features. If your team is already using GitLab for controlling versions and managing projects, the addition of GitLab CI/CD can be very smooth. The offering in CI/CD by GitLab is quite customizable and it backs up many programming languages as well as application test...
Source: morninglif.com
Top 7 GitHub Alternatives You Should Know (2024)
Most of the listed alternatives offer free tier plans for individuals or small teams. Tools like GitLab and Bitbucket allow users to host unlimited repositories without cost.
Source: snappify.com
Best GitHub Alternatives for Developers in 2023
While GitLab features an extensive set of capabilities, this can also serve as a weakness since beginners may find the developer tool overwhelming to begin with. The user interface compounds this issue by being outdated and unintuitive. GitLab could benefit from more third-party integrations, and its performance tends to struggle when dealing with large repositories or CI/CD...

Harness Reviews

We have no reviews of Harness yet.
Be the first one to post

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, GitLab should be more popular than Harness. It has been mentiond 133 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

GitLab mentions (133)

  • India Open Source Development: Harnessing Collaborative Innovation for Global Impact
    Indian developers have embraced platforms like GitHub and GitLab, which serve as global meeting points for coding projects. Developer communities such as FOSSAsia and Open Source India regularly organize hackathons, webinars, and code sprints that bring together enthusiasts to tackle both local and global problems. - Source: dev.to / 21 days ago
  • Open Source Funding: Strategies, Case Studies, and Best Practices
    In this article, we explore funding methods that empower projects such as Red Hat, GitLab, and Blender. Our discussion focuses on overlaying robust financial models with community-led efforts while incorporating advanced technologies like blockchain and smart contracts for secure, transparent fund distribution. With clear definitions, tables, bullet lists, and real-world examples, we aim to provide a holistic view... - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • The Hidden Challenges of Building with AWS
    💡** My Take:** If you’re not ready to spend hours debugging AWS configurations, you might want to consider other cloud options, such as DigitalOcean or Gitlab for CI/CD. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • Understanding Open Source Developer Support Networks
    The foundation of OSS is its community. OSDSNs offer platforms like GitHub and GitLab that encourage communication and collaboration, creating a sense of belonging among developers. These platforms are essential for managing projects and enhancing motivation within the community. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Navigating the Financial Landscape of Open Source Projects
    The open core model involves offering a core open-source product while providing premium features as part of a separate, paid product. This model encourages community involvement by allowing free access to the foundational version. Meanwhile, it supports sustainability by charging for advanced features tailored to specific market needs. GitLab exemplifies this model, offering a free version alongside premium... - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
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Harness mentions (15)

  • DevOps in 2025: the future is automated, git-ified, and kinda scary but fun.
    Harness — AI-powered delivery pipelines. - Source: dev.to / 17 days ago
  • Best CI/CD for AWS services?
    Can check out our products at harness.io. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • How we moved from Artifactory and saved $200k p.a. Part 3 of 5 - The future is Advanced Artefacts
    Harness is our Continuous Delivery (CD) tool of choice. It provides a flexible template engine, that we were able to utilise to create templates that could be reused across our teams. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • How to Install Drone CI Server in Kubernetes
    Drone by Harness is a continuous integration service that enables you to conveniently set up projects to automatically build, test, and deploy as you make changes to your code. Drone integrates seamlessly with Github, Bitbucket and Google Code as well as third party services such as Heroku, Dotcloud, Google AppEngine and more. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Harness
    Does anyone have any opinion about the DevOps company Harness - harness.io? (they also have a defunct sub r/Harnessio/). How is the pay in India (Glassdoor and AmbitionBox gives very different figures). How is the work-life balance? In Glassdoor, it doesn't look good at all. If you are a current or ex-employee, would you advise rather to not join it? Source: almost 3 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing GitLab and Harness, you can also consider the following products

GitHub - Originally founded as a project to simplify sharing code, GitHub has grown into an application used by over a million people to store over two million code repositories, making GitHub the largest code host in the world.

Jenkins - Jenkins is an open-source continuous integration server with 300+ plugins to support all kinds of software development

BitBucket - Bitbucket is a free code hosting site for Mercurial and Git. Manage your development with a hosted wiki, issue tracker and source code.

Deployment.io - Deployment.io makes it super easy for startups and agile engineering teams to automate application deployments on AWS cloud.

Gitea - A painless self-hosted Git service

GitHub Actions - Automate your workflow from idea to production