GitLab CI/CD Tool Overview | TechRepublic.com

GitLab CI/CD is a DevOps automation tool that helps software developers automate the steps of building, testing, and deploying code, and improves productivity, security, and quality throughout the software development lifecycle.

In this review, we’ll break down GitLab CI/CD by its features, pricing, pros, and cons to help you determine if it’s the right tool for your development needs. And to give you an option when shopping, we present some of the best GitLab CI/CD alternatives.

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An overview of GitLab CI/CD

GitLab It started in 2011 as an open source project to help a team of programmers collaborate. It has since grown into a full-fledged DevSecOps platform with over 30 million registered users, helping developers deliver secure and compliant software faster and more efficiently.

GitLab CI/CD falls under the huge GitLab umbrella and is one of the core feature sets of the DevSecOps platform, which was finally added years after the company started.

Features of GitLab CI/CD

GitLab CI/CD has a number of features that developers can use to automate their software development lifecycle. Here are some of the key elements of CI/CD tools that can help you make your SDLC on-demand and repeatable without a lot of manual input:

• Auto DevOps.
• ChatOps.
• Testing browser performance.
• Load performance testing.
• Connection to external storage.
• Interactive web terminals.
• Review the applications.
• Unit test reports.
• Docker containers.
• Function indicators.
• Code quality.
• License compliance.
• Container scanning.
• Dependency checking.
• Safety test reports.

Auto DevOps GitLab is a collection of preconfigured services and integrations that together support software delivery. The service first recognizes the programming language. It then creates and runs default processes through CI/CD templates to help build and test your application. From there, you can configure and configure your deployments to transition from staging to production Review the applications to preview the changes in each branch.

ChatOps allows developers to interact with CI/CD tasks via Slack and similar chat services. With ChatOpsprogrammers can run CI/CD jobs, see job output, collaborate with team members, and more in one place.

GitLab CI/CD has a browser performance test and a load performance test. The former allows developers to quickly see how pending code changes affect browser performance, while the latter shows how upcoming code changes affect server performance.

It is not necessary to move the entire project to GitLab. Connect to an external repository like GitHub, Bitbucket Cloud, etc. and enjoy the benefits of GitLab CI/CD without any hassle. CI/CD tool features continue with interactive web terminals that you can open to debug running jobs and Review the applicationsa collaboration tool that provides an environment for previewing code changes.

GitLab CI/CD has unit test reports that highlight test errors in merge requests. It allows CI/CD jobs to run in separate Docker containers and has de-risking feature flags for deploying new application features in small batches. The Code quality The feature analyzes code quality and complexity to simplify code and minimize maintenance License compliance The feature checks project dependencies for their licenses.

GitLab CI/CD features container and dependency scanning, which checks for known vulnerabilities, and security test reports, which check for vulnerabilities such as data leakage, DoS attacks, and unauthorized access.

GitLab CI/CD pricing

GitLab has three pricing tiers that software developers can choose from. It also has a free 30-day trial for the best deal – a Final plan – without a credit card. It’s worth noting that GitLab is a comprehensive DevSecOps platform. GitLab’s CI/CD tool is just one part of a huge feature set, and that’s only if you don’t start with Premium plans to make advanced CI/CD features available.

Here are the GitLab pricing tiers:

• Free: No cost with limited features.
• Premium: $24 per user, per month. It is billed for $285.36 per year.
• Final: $99 per user, per month. It is billed for $1,188 per year.

GitLab Free The plan provides all the basics for individual developers, such as five users per namespace, 5 GB of storage, 10 GB of transfer per month, and 400 compute units per month.

GitLab Premium designed for development teams who want to increase team coordination and productivity. It offers advanced CI/CD via external templates, federated trains, CI/CD to external repo and a pipeline dashboard. Other GitLab Premium highlights Enterprise Agile design, code suggestions, 50GB of storage, 100GB of transfer per month, and 10,000 compute units per month.

GitLab Final offers organization-wide planning, compliance and security. Pay $99 per user, per month, and you’ll get 250GB of storage, 500GB of transfer per month, 50,000 compute units per month, vulnerability management, container auditing, static application security testing, and more.

All plans incl Free, allows you to bring your own GitLab CI runners. you know Learn more about GitLab pricing here.

Benefits of GitLab CI/CD

GitLab CI/CD has several benefits that make it an attractive choice for developers looking for an automation tool to increase productivity and efficiency:

• Flexibility.
• Safety.
• Code quality.
• Easy to handle.

The biggest advantage of GitLab CI/CD is its flexibility. The CI/CD tool works with all the most popular languages ​​and frameworks and can be adapted to the specific needs of the development team. GitLab CI/CD is also secure for its container and dependency scanning features, security test reports, etc.

The quality of development code can also be improved with GitLab CI/CD. THE Code quality The feature ensures that code is concise, readable, and as low-maintenance as possible, and the tool helps coders catch bugs and other issues before they go live. And while GitLab CI/CD has tons of features, one of the most important is that the tool is easy to use.

Disadvantages of GitLab CI/CD

Despite its features and advantages, GitLab has some disadvantages worth mentioning:

• Lanya interface.
• Scalability.
• Complexity with larger projects.
• Price.

Where to patch GitLab CI/CD? Some say that while the interface is intuitive, it can feel a bit sluggish at times. Scaling can be difficult for development teams working on larger projects, and while primarily user-friendly, GitLab CI/CD can become more complex for larger projects. And if you want to unlock the most important features of GitLab CI/CD, you have to upgrade to one of the paid plans, which can destroy the budget of smaller teams.

Alternatives to GitLab CI/CD

GitLab CI/CD has some competition in the CI/CD tools market. Here are some of the most popular GitLab CI/CD alternatives.

Jenkins

If your development team doesn’t mind a complex setup, open source Jenkins can be the ideal GitLab CI/CD alternative. In addition to being free and providing access to over 1,800 plugins, Jenkins is fully customizable.

You can read about Jenkins and its services in the Jenkins CI/CD tool overview.

GitHub Actions

If you prefer GitHub over GitLab, GitHub Actions doesn’t know anything. GitLab’s CI/CD alternative is a more affordable option that’s ideal for developers who want to build, test, and deploy directly from GitHub. GitHub Actions has a free plan, and the team plan starts at $3.67 per user per month.

Check out what GitHub Actions has to offer here.

Travis CI

Travis CI is a GitLab CI/CD alternative that’s easy to set up and maintain if you choose one of the cloud-hosted options, which start at $64 per month. Travis CI also has a self-hosted enterprise option for teams looking for peak performance, scalability, and versatility. Its multilingual build matrix supports more than 30 coding languages, and the CI/CD tool requires one-third less code than its competitors.

Learn more about Travis CI here.

Final thoughts on GitLab CI/CD

While GitLab CI/CD isn’t the only such tool, it’s a solid choice for development teams looking to automate with a user-friendly, flexible, and secure solution.