Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

GitLab VS Substly

Compare GitLab VS Substly 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

Substly logo Substly

Substly brings transparency to software costs and licenses, enhances security, and saves time & money.
  • GitLab Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-17
  • Substly Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-02-02

Substly helps small and medium-sized companies reduce SaaS sprawl by providing an easily accessible overview and simplifying the processes around SaaS management.

The product offers enterprise-level features at an entry-level price; this tool provides insights into SaaS usage and helps identify user frustrations. It also helps optimize SaaS spending by providing alerts before renewals and eliminating spending on unused accounts. Additionally, it helps avoid unauthorized access to company data by improving employee off-boarding, allowing departments/teams to minimize SaaS sprawl and share an overview with other stakeholders.

Customers highlight the following four aspects of Substly’s product: - The overview and the control it leads to (regarding costs & who has access) - Great for showcasing status/costs internally - The simplicity of the system - Easy to get started (intuitive and short learning curve)

GitLab

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

Substly

$ Details
paid Free Trial €2.5 / Monthly (Essentials Plan)
Platforms
Browser
Release Date
2021 January
Startup details
Country
Sweden
City
Gothenburg
Founder(s)
Ola Stål
Employees
1 - 9

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.

Substly features and specs

  • AD Integrations & Extensions
    Integrate with Google Workspace or Entra ID to frequently sync new groups, users, services, and detect usage.
  • Financial Integrations
    Integrate with accounting systems such as Xero, Quickbooks, or Fortnox to automatically sync services from your supplier's list and import financial details.
  • Software & License Management
    Substly discovers SaaS apps used across your organization via Google Workspace/Microsoft Entra ID, our browser extensions, and financial data.
  • Cost Optimization
    Sync financial data to provide visibility into actual spending data, helping you stay on track with your budget.
  • Compliance & Security
    ) Incorporate your PII register, which includes data on services and user licenses, to streamline your GDPR compliance processes.

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

Substly videos

Explainer video

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to GitLab and Substly)
Code Collaboration
100 100%
0% 0
Subscription Management
0 0%
100% 100
Git
100 100%
0% 0
SaaS Management
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 Substly

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...

Substly Reviews

  1. Tobias Larsson
    · Business Developer at Founders Loft ·
    Keeping track of all subscriptions just got (much) easier

    We have a ton of Saas tools. Before using Substly they were scattered around. Now everything is in one place which has made it much easier for us, especially when we are off-boarding someone. Easy to overview and great value for the money.

    👍 Pros:    Easy to use|Great customer support|Great value for the money|Lower cost|Saves a ton of time|Great for collaboration
    👎 Cons:    Slack and teams notification
  2. magnus Orrebrant
    · marketing at Svenska Rovdjursföreningen ·
    better control of our saas spending

    Overview - gather everything in one place have improved the visibility of all our subscriptions, quick implementation, improved cost control, User friendly,

    👍 Pros:    Overall quality|Lower cost|Easy user interface|Short learning curve|Overview of cost spend
    👎 Cons:    None
  3. Richard Uddh
    · Sales Manager at FlexIT Distribution ·
    Best way to spend money, to save money!

    Using Substly has given us a better understanding of how we use our SaaS-apps and improved our ability to manage software licenses, resulting in better decision-making and cost savings. Substly's overview feature has been particularly helpful in this regard. Additionally, the offboarding feature has streamlined the process of removing software access for departing employees.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, GitLab seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 135 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 (135)

  • Cross-Compiling Haskell under NixOS with Docker
    I attended the AWS Summit 2025 in Singapore. I enjoyed the event. There were booths from various companies which I found interesting, such as GitLab and ClickHouse. More importantly, I got to meet very interesting people. - Source: dev.to / 1 day ago
  • GitLab: templates for Merge Requests
    GitLab is a well-established tool that hardly needs any introduction. This article is more like some notes to my future self. - Source: dev.to / 3 days ago
  • 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 / 26 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
View more

Substly mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Substly yet. Tracking of Substly recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing GitLab and Substly, 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.

Cledara - We help companies bring visibility and control to their ever-growing #SaaS stack.

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

Zylo - Zylo helps organizations optimize their SaaS investments by providing insights around Spend, Utilization, and User Feedback.

Gitea - A painless self-hosted Git service

Torii - SaaS Management Software.