Gitlab: Features and Benefits for Developers

Do you want to know what GitLab is? The first thing to keep in mind is that this system will help you maximize your organization’s performance, as it enables software to work quickly and efficiently while reinforcing security and compliance.

This tool allows all teams in your organization to collaboratively plan, build, secure, and deploy software to drive results more quickly.

However, before diving into the world of what is GitLab, it’s important to understand what Git is and its relation to GitLab.

What is Git? 

Git is an open-source software for version control, released in 2005. Git’s features are based on the confirmation of new changes, branching, merging, and comparing previous versions. It is efficient and straightforward, recording all modifications made to a project and storing the information in a repository, also enabling collaborative work among development teams, making it more effective and fluid.

What is GitLab?

GitLab is a Git repository hosting service that allows you to connect and manage applications collaboratively. This tool allows for total control over groups and projects, enabling the tracking of the current and historical status of developments. This way, you can access all modifications made by the involved teams, along with other relevant information.

Through GitLab, you can manage groups, people, and the permissions you want users to have within the groups or projects they belong to. Considering that GitLab is free software that you can download and install on any server, it will allow you to use it on your device, professionally, and on your organization’s computers at no cost.

How does GitLab work? 

This tool works from the projects where the code to be edited is stored in digital files, i.e., repositories. The project directories contain all the contents and files of a software project, such as JavaScript, HTML, CSS, or PHP, among others.

Version Control

You can meticulously track every change in the code, ensuring that every modification, addition, or deletion is documented and reversible. This is essential, for instance, when you need to undo a change that caused errors in the application.

Project Management

GitLab also functions as a great repository for project management. Here, you can create and track tasks, set and achieve milestones, and resolve issues that arise along the way. This is particularly useful for keeping everyone on the team aware of the project's progress and ensuring all goals are met on time.

Collaborative Tool

As a collaborative platform, GitLab facilitates communication and joint work among team members or even between several teams. You can discuss changes in the code, share ideas, and make collective decisions in a centralized environment, reducing misunderstandings and improving team efficiency.

Task Automation

In terms of automation, it becomes an indispensable tool for continuous integration (CI) and continuous deployment (CD). This means you can automate tests and deployments, ensuring that each version of the software works correctly before its release and is deployed smoothly.

Code Security

Security is a priority. The platform allows the implementation of security systems that protect the privacy and integrity of the code. This is crucial for projects that handle sensitive data or that simply require high-security standards to comply with regulations or internal policies.

Documentation and Logging

It can also function as a kind of wiki for your development projects. Each phase of development and every change between versions are thoroughly documented, allowing any team member or new members to quickly understand the current state of the project and its historical evolution.

Advantages of GitLab 

GitLab is emerging as the most used system in its category, and the reasons are clear. These are some of its advantages:

• It enables complete project management that easily adapts to business needs

• It is easy to configure and manage

• It reduces work times

• It promotes cooperation among teams, increasing efficiency

• Incident control and error notifications

• Security in processes

• It can import existing repositories

• It features a simple and intuitive web interface

GitLab vs. GitHub: What are the differences? 

If you have heard about GitLab, you have also heard about GitHub, its "direct competitor." Despite the main similarity in their common Git base, there are some notable differences between GitLab and GitHub. One of the main factors is, for example, the enormous number of GitHub users. It is the platform that has more developers working on it and updating it continuously. Does that mean it is better? Of course not, there are key differences between the two, which we will see below:

1. Authentication Levels: In the case of GitLab, you have the option to modify and set permissions based on roles. However, in GitHub, you can only decide who gets read/write access to your repository.

2. Import and Export: GitLab provides detailed documentation on how to import data from different providers. On the other hand, GitHub lacks detailed documentation for most Git repositories.

GitLab allows exporting project uploads, wikis, project repositories, service configurations, snippets, labels, milestones, and more for data export. However, GitHub is more restrictive in terms of exporting from its repositories.

At first glance, GitLab is more organized and clear thanks to its well-structured user interface, making it easier and more intuitive to handle. In GitLab, elements are not only listed but can also be organized and managed in a desktop view.

Another major advantage over GitHub is that GitLab’s user interface (UI) is scalable and can flexibly adapt to the screen size, while GitHub only offers a fixed standard size.

As you can see, GitLab offers a comprehensive framework that facilitates project and team monitoring, using project management tools to provide numerous functions that will facilitate team collaboration, such as project wikis or system maintenance tools.