The version control tool your team deserve
Tags: review, git, github, gitlab
Published: 2020-04-15 18:11:00

Since there are many solutions for us to choose out there, We will focus primary on the two most popular of them known as **GitLab** and **GitHub**.

How many of us actually thought that these two platforms were related? Honestly... They share many things in common, starting with the fact that they are both version control manager tools. But, each one of them offers a set of specific features that make them stand out from the rest.
One of these  platforms (**GitHub**) has recently granted some of its premium features for free. Cool, right? But how does this new bundle compares to a robust existing solution such as **GitLab**?

The main goal of this article is to give you enough insight to be able to make a choice for yourself/team that will suit your needs.
If you go over to https://github.com/pricing you will see a range of plans and features available in each one of them. Let's take a closer look at the free plan:
<ul>
<li>Unlimited public/private repositories</li>
<li>Unlimited collaborators</li>
<li>2,000 Actions minutes/month Free for public repositories</li>
<li>500MB of GitHub Packages storage Free for public repositories</li>
<li>Community Support</li>
</ul>
If you scroll further down you will see a bunch of other features. Some of them include:
<ul>
<li>Protected branches</li>
<li>Code owners</li>
<li>Multiple pull requests assignees</li>
<li>Repository insights</li>
<li>Required reviews</li>
</ul>
But pay attention, as some of them are only available on public repositories. And if privacy is one of your (or team) concerns, then these might not be as much appealing as they seem. Otherwise, if keeping the code public is not an issue for you (or team), then you could profit of a lot of features without spending a penny.

For Gitlab pricing and features, go over at: https://about.gitlab.com/pricing/ 
There you will automatically realize that besides offering the same common features seen previously in the free plan, you also get a large choice of other useful tools such as:
<ul>
<li>Support for multiple kubernetes clusters</li>
<li>Export issues in .csv files</li>
<li>Java, npm, .NET, and other repositories to make it easier to publish packages</li>
<li>Preview your changes with review apps</li>
<li>And more...</li>
</ul>
We will not define the term *DevOps* here, but **GitLab** also offers a set of useful *DevOps* tools that can make your (team) software development cycle a lot easier and more transparent. These tools include but are not limited to:
<ul>
<li>*DevOps* score</li>
<li>Auto *DevOps*</li>
<li>Performance testing</li>
<li>Cluster monitoring</li>
<li>Logging</li>
<li>Audit management accross *DevOps* Lifecycle</li>
</ul>
Although these features are not necessarily all included in the free plan, if you are willing to spend a few bucks to improve your (team's) workflow, **GitLab** is the platform you want to turn to since, these last features are not available on GitHub.
We will not go over the details of the entreprise plans. But they offer more flexibility and support. If you know another exciting version control manager tool that offers any feature not listed here, feel free to add it down!