Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Keycloak VS GitLab

Compare Keycloak VS GitLab 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.

Keycloak logo Keycloak

Open Source Identity and Access Management for modern Applications and Services.

GitLab logo GitLab

Create, review and deploy code together with GitLab open source git repo management software | GitLab
  • Keycloak Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-03-20
  • GitLab Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-17

GitLab

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

Keycloak features and specs

  • Open-Source
    Keycloak is an open-source identity and access management solution, which means it is free to use and has a community-driven support system. This can lead to lower costs and more flexibility compared to proprietary solutions.
  • Feature-Rich
    Keycloak offers a comprehensive set of features including single sign-on (SSO), multi-factor authentication (MFA), user federation, identity brokering, and social login. This makes it suitable for a wide range of use cases.
  • Customizability
    With Keycloak, you can customize the authentication and authorization processes through its extensible architecture, allowing for the addition of custom features and integrations.
  • Integration Capability
    Keycloak supports integration with various protocols such as OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, and SAML, making it versatile for integrating with different platforms and services.
  • Active Community
    Keycloak has an active and growing community of developers and users who contribute to its improvement and provide support, resources, and shared knowledge.

Possible disadvantages of Keycloak

  • Complexity
    Keycloak can be complex to set up and configure, especially for users who are not familiar with identity and access management concepts. This may require additional time and expertise.
  • Resource-Intensive
    Running Keycloak can be resource-intensive, requiring more CPU and memory compared to simpler authentication solutions. This may necessitate higher infrastructure costs.
  • Learning Curve
    The learning curve for Keycloak can be steep for new users due to its wide range of features and configuration options. Ample time might be required to fully understand and utilize its capabilities.
  • Documentation Quality
    While Keycloak has extensive documentation, some users find it to be insufficiently detailed or difficult to navigate, which can impede the setup and troubleshooting process.
  • Maintenance
    Operating a Keycloak instance involves ongoing maintenance tasks such as updates, security patches, and backups, which can be time-consuming and require dedicated resources.

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.

Analysis of Keycloak

Overall verdict

  • Overall, Keycloak is widely regarded as a good choice for organizations looking for a comprehensive and flexible identity management solution. It is especially praised in environments where open-source software is preferred or where customization and scalability are important.

Why this product is good

  • Keycloak is considered a robust open-source identity and access management solution that provides features like single sign-on (SSO), user federation, identity brokering, and social login. It is designed to secure applications and services with minimum effort and supports various standard protocols, such as OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, and SAML 2.0. It also offers a customizable interface and extensive integration capabilities, making it a versatile choice across different industries.

Recommended for

  • Organizations in need of a scalable identity and access management solution
  • Developers seeking an open-source, customizable platform
  • Businesses looking to implement SSO and secure applications quickly
  • Enterprises requiring integration with various identity providers and social media networks
  • Teams preferring a solution that supports industry-standard authentication protocols

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.

Keycloak videos

What is Keycloak and what are the main features | DevNation Live

More videos:

  • Review - Keycloak Overview
  • Review - Easily Secure Your Front and Back End app with Keycloak

GitLab videos

Introduction to GitLab Workflow

More videos:

  • Review - GitLab Review App Working Session

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Keycloak and GitLab)
Identity And Access Management
Code Collaboration
0 0%
100% 100
Identity Provider
100 100%
0% 0
Git
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using Keycloak and GitLab. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Reviews

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

Keycloak Reviews

12 User Authentication Platforms [Auth0, Firebase Alternatives]
You can integrate Keycloak with your applications to have a single-sign-in and single-sign-out experience. Moreover, one can activate social logins without any modification in code. Additionally, it allows user authentication via existing OpenID Connect or SAML 2.0
Source: geekflare.com
10+ Open-source Single-Sign On (SSO) Solutions
Keycloak is a free, open-source identity and access management system with highly configurable Single-Sign-On (SSO) support.
Source: medevel.com
10 Best Auth0 Alternatives and Similar Platforms
Keycloak may be quite beneficial because it provides a built-in method for syncing with databases, such as LDAP or Active Directory, when your users already are registered on. If you use Social Login for social platforms such as Facebook, Keycloak might be a great tool for your organization.
Top 5 Open Source Single Sign-On Software In the Year 2021
KeyCloak is another free software that is based on OpenID Connect, OAuth2.0, and SAML2.0. It provides SSO capabilities across web applications and web services. Above all, this open source software provides integrations with LDAP and Active Directory. There is a logical user interface where users can manage roles, permissions, and sessions. Moreover, this free solution...
IAM: A comparison of open-source tools
/ Digitalberry news / IAM: A comparison of open-source toolsIAM: A comparison of open-source toolsWhy use an Identity Provider (IdP)?Comparative study of Identity Providers (IdP)1. Our teamโ€™s first choice: Keycloak2. In second place of our comparative study: Gluu3. Special mention: FusionAuthDiscover our expertiseContact our experts

GitLab Reviews

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

The Top 11 Static Application Security Testing (SAST) Tools
GitLabโ€™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 GitLabโ€™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...

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, GitLab seems to be a lot more popular than Keycloak. While we know about 144 links to GitLab, we've tracked only 4 mentions of Keycloak. 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.

Keycloak mentions (4)

  • Beyond the login page
    Most of the time nowadays, I prefer offloading this to an identity provider, using OpenID Connect or soon Federated Credential Management (FedCM), even if that means shipping an identity provider as part of the deliverables (I generally go with Keycloak, with keycloak-config-cli to provision its configuration). I'm obviously biased though as I work in IT services, developping software mainly for... - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Okta Says Hackers Stole Data for All Customer Support Users
    Yet another breach of Okta... Why are companies not running something like keycloak [1] themselves? Are administrative/maintenance costs too high or is it plausible deniability? [1] https://keycloak.org. - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • I built a ready-to-use auth server with TypeScript and Express.js
    I'd stick with a solution like https://keycloak.org in that instance. Source: over 3 years ago
  • Authelia is an open-source authentication/authorization server with 2FA/SSO
    A few more projects in this space: - Keycloak (you won't get fired for picking this)[0] - CloudFoundry's UAA[1] - Gluu [2] - Keratin [3] - OpenUnison [4] - Dex[5] - Netlify's GoTrue[6] All of these solutions are a bit different but here are some of the axes: - Whether or not they function as an OAuth provider - Whether they're centered around application-user-login (email + password) or application auth (OAuth) or... - Source: Hacker News / over 5 years ago

GitLab mentions (144)

  • Git and Unity: A Comprehensive Guide to Version Control for Game Devs
    We use GitHub here as an example, but there are also other hosts you could explore like GitLab and BitBucket. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • Proudly Found Elsewhere
    Expertise. The SaaS provider is declaring: "I am good at XYZ; I can deliver it better than any of my competitors, and I constantly work to improve how I deliver it." Who do you think can better run GitLab, your already overworked Operations team, or GitLab itself? - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • What Is Static Code Analysis and How Does It Work
    Integration Capabilities: How easily does it plug into your daily workflow? Look for deep integrations with your IDE, source control (like GitHub or GitLab), and especially your CI/CD pipeline. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • Navigating the NVIDIA Tech Ecosystem
    Connect your GitLab account for seamless version control. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • Web Check CI: Catch Browser Compatibility Issues Before They Break Production
    Web Check CI stands out because it is the first CI/CD module of its kind available for GitLab! It's built on Google's Baseline initiative, the new standard for web platform compatibility. Instead of guessing which features are safe to use, developers get authoritative answers based on real browser support data. - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

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

Auth0 - Auth0 is a program for people to get authentication and authorization services for their own business use.

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.

OneLogin - On-demand SSO, directory integration, user provisioning and more

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

AuthAnvil - AuthAnvil software is an integrated identity and access management tool designed to help IT managers service their networks, infrastructure network, and ensure that devices are safe and secure at all times. Read more about AuthAnvil.

CircleCI - CircleCI gives web developers powerful Continuous Integration and Deployment with easy setup and maintenance.