While choosing a Git hosting platform for your next project, there are so much things to consider like collaborations, automations, cost of running workflows, integrations and security etc. In this article, you will learn about the pros and cons of the three best leading Git platforms: GitHub vs GitLab vs Bitbucket. Let’s get started.

1. GitLab

This is the leading competitor of GitHub. It is positioned as the most comprehensive DevSecOps platform. It is known for the breadth of its functionality that includes planning, development, packaging, release management, security, configuration, governance, and monitoring.

Benefits for team

Code review

Code review of GitLab is as good as GitHub. It even has a few extra offers. Its merge request (MR) is similar to GitHub’s pull request.

1. Its inline checklist is often used to break down work within MR.
2. Apart from completed reviews and passing tests or checks, GitLab allows requiring all discussion threads in MR to merge.
3. Review apps of changes provide automatic live preview made in merge which is helpful for UX developers and designers.
4. Code quality and complexity checks are available.

Extended project management

1. Boards that are to be tailored supports Kanban, Scrum, and Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)
2. Arranging work with iterations and milestones on time along with out-of-the-box burnup charts.
3. Multilevel epics to share projects.
4. Experimental support for the OKR
5. Workflows of tasks divided and handed over to multiple teams.

Security tools

1. It has Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) that helps in checking application tunning in live system for known vulnerabilities.
2. It consists of Container scanning to detect Docker images that contain vulnerabilities.
3. It has Infrastructure as Code (IaC) scanning which detects vulnerabilities in IaC configuration files for Terraform, AWS CloudFormation, Kubernetes and Ansible.

Roles other than developers

1. Includes test case management to create and maintain testing scenarios.
2. It enables coverage-guided Fuzz test. This is a technique that helps in sending random inputs to applications which reveal its unexpected behavior.
3. It allows you to upload design assets through design management. This enables designers to PMs, and engineers to collaborate on design together with only one source.
4. It previews changes in live application that helps in communication between designers, engineers and PMs.

Monitoring

1. It collects ad displays the performance metrics for apps during each merge.
2. The incident management feature helps in triage and views the alerts.
3. Schedule management on-call which helps with on-call responsibilities.

Drawbacks for team

Steep learning curve

It offers a range of features but with a steeper learning curve for new users as compared to GitHub alternatives.

Lack of extensions

GitLab’s strategy introduces and owns many integrations to enable the entire software development lifecycle. GitHub foster community automation with marketplace, unlike this, GitLab lacks in this area.

When to choose it?

Pick GitLab if you are looking for a hosting service which covers the broadest range of tools that are even out of the box. Or if you want to involve non-developer roles in collaboration between teams in just one workplace.

Also know: Top VS Code Extensions for Web Development

2. Bitbucket

It is the cloud-based Git platform maintained by Atlassian, a software company that provide collaboration tools to teams of all sizes.

Benefits for team

Bitbucket is the native component of Atlassian toolset, and its different feature is deep integration that includes:

1. Seeing branches, pull messages, and commit messages in context to Jira issues.
2. See relevant Jira projects within Bitbuckets.
3. Create new Jira issues in pull requests.
4. Automatic changes the state of Jira issues when pull requests are merged.

Drawbacks for team

1. It somehow stuck with conflicts of broader Atlassian product line and lacks breadth.
2. Its extensibility lacks compared to GitHub. In results, makes it more challenging to set up the development workflow.
3. Speaking of Bitbucket’s CI/CD tooling, it provides a set of technology-specific workflow, but there’s no way to extend it with community workflow.

When to choose it?

Bitbucket is a solid hosting service but not spectacular as GitLab or GitHub. Bitbucket’s seamless integration with Atlassian product especially with Jira makes it a best choice for those who use of lan to use these products.

Also know: Best AI Coding Tools 

3. GitHub

The most popular and commonly used cloud-based Git platform. It offers a user-friendly and UI for developers and regarded as go-to platform for collaborative software development.

Benefits for team

Flat learning curve

The world’s most used libraries and frameworks are maintained by GitHub. Millions of developers have a good history with GitHub including contributions via PRs, filing issues and being involved. This ensures almost flat learning curves for new users with available features in leading public repositories.

Excellent code review

One can create a draft of PR or work-in-progress and discussions before requesting formal review. If code owners are defined in repositories, GitHub assign reviewers automatically. Depending upon repositories configuration and automation, each PR requires:

1. One or more review before merging.
2. Test suits or various automatic status checks to complete.
3. Various apps available that help in automatic checks for code coverage and code quality
4. For busy repositories, it provides merge queues to facilitate the multiple waiting PRs.

History and code exploration

GitHub allows you to do:

1. Navigation of any file history.
2. Use the blame view to see the total changes contributed to particular lines.
3. Search for codes, documents, and issues across the GitHub.
4. Read files using rich syntax highlighting.

Automation and marketplace

1. GitHub actions enable integration and delivery processes with code-based workflow.
2. This marketplace makes thousands of apps and community actions available to shape CI workflows.
3. It provides hosted runners based on Linux, Windows, or MacOS and allows you to connect to your self-managed runners.

Drawbacks for team

Too developer focused

One of the limitations is that it doesn’t provide dedicated support to non-developers’ roles, like quality assurance or design.

Controlled by Microsoft

Additionally, despite being developer-oriented, it is probably not ideal for teams that prefer using open-source tools whenever possible.

When to choose it?

GitHub is an excellent choice for teams of any size of a vast ecosystem and supportive community. It may not be the best choice for large teams with collaborations or any team that has a formal framework.

As you learn here about all the platforms mentioned, choosing one of them might be difficult but at the same time, easy if compared correctly. Pick that one Git platform which