Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Azure DevOps VS GitLab

Compare Azure DevOps VS GitLab and see what are their differences

Azure DevOps logo Azure DevOps

Visual Studio dev tools & services make app development easy for any platform & language. Try our Mac & Windows code editor, IDE, or Azure DevOps for free.

GitLab logo GitLab

Create, review and deploy code together with GitLab open source git repo management software | GitLab
  • Azure DevOps Landing page
    Landing page //
    2024-05-21
  • GitLab Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-17

GitLab

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

Azure DevOps features and specs

  • Comprehensive Suite
    Azure DevOps offers a complete suite of tools for DevOps practices including Azure Repos, Azure Pipelines, Azure Boards, Azure Test Plans, and Azure Artifacts, making it a one-stop solution.
  • Scalability
    Azure DevOps is highly scalable, catering to organizations of all sizes—from small startups to large enterprises.
  • Integrations
    Seamlessly integrates with numerous third-party tools and services, as well as other Microsoft products like Azure, making it highly flexible.
  • Customization
    Offers extensive customization options such as personalized dashboards, customized pipelines, and tailor-made workflows to suit specific project needs.
  • Cloud-Agility
    Being a cloud-based service, it offers the benefits of easy access, regular updates, and reduced need for maintenance.
  • Security
    Provides robust security features including role-based access control, auditing, and compliance with various industry standards.
  • Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD)
    Supports end-to-end CI/CD processes, making it easier to automate builds, tests, and deployments.
  • Community and Support
    Large community of users and strong support from Microsoft, offering plenty of resources for troubleshooting and getting help.

Possible disadvantages of Azure DevOps

  • Complexity
    The rich feature set can be overwhelming for new users, requiring a steep learning curve.
  • Cost
    Can be expensive for small teams and organizations, particularly if advanced features and higher user limits are required.
  • Azure Dependency
    While it integrates well with other cloud providers, the full potential of Azure DevOps is best realized when used in conjunction with other Azure services.
  • Performance
    Users have reported occasional performance issues, particularly with complex pipelines or large repositories.
  • Limited Offline Capabilities
    As a cloud-based service, Azure DevOps offers limited capabilities when offline access is needed.
  • Usability
    Some users find the interface to be less intuitive compared to other DevOps tools in the market, requiring additional training and adaptation.

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 Azure DevOps

Overall verdict

  • Azure DevOps is a robust and versatile platform for managing software development. It is widely regarded as a strong choice for organizations seeking an integrated, end-to-end solution for DevOps practices. Its rich feature set and flexibility make it suitable for a wide array of projects and teams.

Why this product is good

  • Azure DevOps is considered good for several reasons. It provides a comprehensive suite of tools for managing the entire software development lifecycle, supporting continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD), version control, project management, and collaboration. It integrates well with other popular development tools and services, including those from Microsoft and third parties. The platform is highly scalable, secure, and reliable, making it suitable for both small teams and large enterprises. Additionally, Azure DevOps supports multiple programming languages and frameworks, providing flexibility for diverse development needs.

Recommended for

  • Software development teams of all sizes
  • Organizations adopting DevOps practices
  • Enterprises looking for a scalable and secure platform
  • Teams requiring integration with other Microsoft services
  • Projects needing support for multiple programming languages and frameworks
  • Development environments that benefit from a comprehensive ALM solution

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.

Azure DevOps videos

Agile with Visual Studio Team Services

More videos:

  • Review - Introduction to Azure DevOps
  • Review - The Top 5 BEST VSTs of 2018
  • Review - Visual Studio Team Services vs Team Foundation Server
  • Review - Should You Buy Purity VST still ? "Top 5 BEST VSTs of 2020"
  • Review - Azure DevOps Project, is it Worth it?
  • Review - Pull Requests in Azure DevOps
  • Review - Git with Visual Studio Team Services

GitLab videos

Introduction to GitLab Workflow

More videos:

  • Review - GitLab Review App Working Session

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Azure DevOps and GitLab)
Project Management
39 39%
61% 61
Code Collaboration
22 22%
78% 78
Git
24 24%
76% 76
Software Development
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using Azure DevOps 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 Azure DevOps and GitLab

Azure DevOps Reviews

Top 7 GitHub Alternatives You Should Know (2024)
Azure DevOps is a cloud-based platform from Microsoft that offers a suite of tools and features for the entire software development lifecycle.
Source: snappify.com
Top 10 Most Popular Jenkins Alternatives for DevOps in 2024
Azure Pipelines tightly integrates with GitHub to display pipeline statuses in your PRs, run jobs automatically in response to repository events, and automatically deploy your projects. The solution is also extensible with custom tasks and integrations, making it a good fit for teams that need to retain Jenkins’ customization capabilities but want a managed service that’s...
Source: spacelift.io

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...

Social recommendations and mentions

GitLab might be a bit more popular than Azure DevOps. We know about 134 links to it since March 2021 and only 99 links to Azure DevOps. 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.

Azure DevOps mentions (99)

  • The Pain That Is GitHub Actions
    Although, I never saw a public announcement of this discontinuation, ADO is kind of abandoned AFAICT and even their landing page hints to use GitHub Enterprise instead [1]. [1] https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/products/devops. - Source: Hacker News / 2 months ago
  • Top 17 DevOps AI Tools [2025]
    Azure DevOps is a comprehensive set of tools and services provided by Microsoft. It is one of the most used DevOps AI tools when integrated with Azure’s AI and machine learning services. This integration enhances CI/CD processes, test automation, and infrastructure management. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Azure Container Instances vs Sliplane
    By default ACI deploys containers from a registry, which means if you want to setup a CI/CD pipeline, you need to configure some addional services like Azure Container Registry to store your images and Azure DevOps to build your images. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • The Hidden Costs of Poor Code Quality: Why Testing Matters
    Microsoft's Azure DevOps team saw 80% fewer customer-reported bugs in 6 months with automated testing. - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
  • Effective Software Development Workflow: From Idea to Delivery
    Azure DevOps: Comprehensive CI/CD by Microsoft for software delivery. - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
View more

GitLab mentions (134)

  • 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 / 1 day 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 / 24 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
View more

What are some alternatives?

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

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

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.

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

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

Travis CI - Simple, flexible, trustworthy CI/CD tools. Join hundreds of thousands who define tests and deployments in minutes, then scale up simply with parallel or multi-environment builds using Travis CI’s precision syntax—all with the developer in mind.

Gitea - A painless self-hosted Git service