5 ms·

> "Right now GitLab.com is really slow and frequently down. This is because of fast growth in 2015. We are working to improve it in the first quarter in 2016. F

by arihant 11y ago

> "Right now GitLab.com is really slow and frequently down. This is because of fast growth in 2015. We are working to improve it in the first quarter in 2016. For now please consider downloading GitLab and using it on-premise for a fast experience." Is this a joke? I mean for people looking for free private Git hosting, there is Bitbucket. This statement is like saying "free, but not really, really." The fact is if I want hosted Git hosting from Gitlab, I cannot reliably get it without paying at least $390 upfront for their EE plan. Too much smokescreen, too less actually on offer.

levlaz 11y ago
Have you tried using BitBucket?
- sleepychu 11y ago
  I have, were you just saying you think it's bad?
- pmontra 11y ago
  I did. Some customers of mine use it (free tier if possible) for their private projects. My assesment: * issue management is better than GitHub's one but for very simple needs (90% of the repositories?) GitHub is enough and BitBucket is needlessly complicated (don't even talk about Jira). * repository navigation is worse (finding the repositories themselves can be difficult if you land on the wrong page) * wiki/pages are probably the same * access control and general management is better * pull request... I don't know. Our teams are small and normal communication plus git merge are enough.
- yaworsk 11y ago
  I use it for personal, small scale repos where i just want to have the repo online and available across machines. Having the free, hosted tier is invaluable to me as a single developer. That said, I've also used it in a paid, hosted environment supporting a team of 10. Again, our needs weren't overly complex and the integration with team software like Jira and Confluence were great (as can be I suppose, given the complexity of both tools). I'm actually surprised there isn't more of a discussion around bitbucket and the cost of hosting smaller, private repos. Do most just dislike bitbucket or are you hosting bigger projects with multiple contributors which requires Github / gitlab services?
- agentgt 11y ago
  We use BitBucket extensively at my company for two reasons: Mercurial support and Unlimited private repositories. The mercurial support is great because of legacy code (I finally have come to admit that Git is superior for most purposes). The unlimited private repositories is great because we make loads of projects. I came from so many companies that would have this giant monolithic tree of tangled dependencies because they would check everything into one project. I fear this with GitHub's pricing model. I find BitBucket's dashboard useless. It used to be decent but they changed it some years back. BitBucket's security was sort of disturbing as well but I believe they have added 2 factor authentication. I will say that Atlassian's Jira used to be the best bug tracking but I have found that in the last couple of years it has become a complete bloated pig that is overly complex and slow. The hosted Jira is so awful that we contemplated just using BitBucket for bugs. We eventually switched to Youtrack and are loving it.
pkd 11y ago
Bitbucket allows only 5 contributors for free private repos. Gitlab allows unlimited. That is the major point of distinction, imo. Especially for medium sized projects.
- agentgt 11y ago
  Yes but Bitbucket has unlimited private repositories. So if your company has lots of projects compared to lots of people Bitbucket's pricing model is better.
  - DouweM 11y ago
    GitLab.com is completely free, and has both unlimited private repositories and unlimited collaborators!
    - elbear 11y ago
      The difference is that Bitbucket offers unlimited private repos for free.
      - DouweM 11y ago
        I edited my comment to point out that the same is the case with GitLab.com. (I should've been more specific)
    - agentgt 11y ago
      Ignoring the name... are there any plans to make GitLab Mercurial capable? We still have Mercurial repositories and still sort of like Mercurial.
      - sytse 11y ago
        We'll not support Mercurial like we support Git, doing both would limit us to the features that are supported in both.
    - arihant 11y ago
adam-a 11y ago
I think they mean you can download the free community edition and host that. Why do you feel you need to pay for the EE version?
- arihant 11y ago
  If I have to host myself, why won't I simply host Git? The point of these services is peace of mind. If I'm managing on-prem, it kind of kills the point.
  - dingo_bat 11y ago
    You get a lot of extra features. Also, I suppose you'd get a lot of things just working, as opposed to plain git.
- hobs 11y ago
  While I dont agree with the GP, from the phrasing its clear they mean that the project would be hosted on Gitlab's servers. In my opinion its nice to have the ability to host it yourself and it was the primary feature attracting me to GL, followed by it looking user friendly for a few people I am working with who are not shell people, and what finally sold me is they clearly have a team which is focused on making the product better.
DouweM 11y ago
GitLab Community Edition is fully open source and completely free: https://about.gitlab.com/features/#community https://about.gitlab.com/features/#community
- arihant 11y ago
  I said if I wanted hosted option, then their only reliable option is $390 onboarding. Which is true. If I must go on-prem, then I might just use git directly? Meanwhile at Github, $7 gives me hosted private repos. It's free on Bitbucket if I limit collaborators. The biggest selling point of these services is peace of mind and knowing someone is taking care of the code when I sleep. Otherwise, Git has always been a FOSS.
  - profmonocle 11y ago
    > If I must go on-prem, then I might just use git directly? Definitely. There's not much you can do with self-hosted GitLab that you can't do with pure git. GitLab just makes it easier, IMO. The main reason my company uses it is to restrict the master branch to certain people - doable with pure git, less effort with GitLab. There's no reason we couldn't use GitHub for this (wouldn't cost much for a team our size), but my company prefers on-prem whenever practical for various reasons. Self-hosted GitLab doesn't fit all the same uses as GitHub (I wouldn't use it for personal projects), but when it does fit it's great to have.
    - arihant 11y ago
      True. There is no denying that on-prem Gitlab has its uses. Maybe not for me, but I can respect that. The point I was making in the original comment was that Gitlab has absolutely no options without heavy onboarding that is hosted as well as reliable. I wasn't really undercutting their on-prem, just pointing out that comparisons with Github are heavily misplaced.
      - jobvandervoort 11y ago
        As said in other threads above, we are aware of the shortcomings of GitLab.com, but working very hard to resolve these [0]. Setting up your own instance is not hard [1], but we're also offering managed hosted instances on GitHost.io nowadays. If you're still in the middle, you could use the one-click deploy options from providers such as Digital Ocean, Cloud 66 and AWS images [2]. [0]: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/operations/issues/42 https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/operations/issues/42 [1]: https://about.gitlab.com/downloads/ https://about.gitlab.com/downloads/ [2]: https://about.gitlab.com/aws/#uw2 https://about.gitlab.com/aws/#uw2

by arihant 11y ago

levlaz 11y ago

Have you tried using BitBucket?

sleepychu 11y ago
I have, were you just saying you think it's bad?
pmontra 11y ago
I did. Some customers of mine use it (free tier if possible) for their private projects. My assesment: * issue management is better than GitHub's one but for very simple needs (90% of the repositories?) GitHub is enough and BitBucket is needlessly complicated (don't even talk about Jira). * repository navigation is worse (finding the repositories themselves can be difficult if you land on the wrong page) * wiki/pages are probably the same * access control and general management is better * pull request... I don't know. Our teams are small and normal communication plus git merge are enough.
yaworsk 11y ago
I use it for personal, small scale repos where i just want to have the repo online and available across machines. Having the free, hosted tier is invaluable to me as a single developer. That said, I've also used it in a paid, hosted environment supporting a team of 10. Again, our needs weren't overly complex and the integration with team software like Jira and Confluence were great (as can be I suppose, given the complexity of both tools). I'm actually surprised there isn't more of a discussion around bitbucket and the cost of hosting smaller, private repos. Do most just dislike bitbucket or are you hosting bigger projects with multiple contributors which requires Github / gitlab services?
agentgt 11y ago
We use BitBucket extensively at my company for two reasons: Mercurial support and Unlimited private repositories. The mercurial support is great because of legacy code (I finally have come to admit that Git is superior for most purposes). The unlimited private repositories is great because we make loads of projects. I came from so many companies that would have this giant monolithic tree of tangled dependencies because they would check everything into one project. I fear this with GitHub's pricing model. I find BitBucket's dashboard useless. It used to be decent but they changed it some years back. BitBucket's security was sort of disturbing as well but I believe they have added 2 factor authentication. I will say that Atlassian's Jira used to be the best bug tracking but I have found that in the last couple of years it has become a complete bloated pig that is overly complex and slow. The hosted Jira is so awful that we contemplated just using BitBucket for bugs. We eventually switched to Youtrack and are loving it.

pkd 11y ago

Bitbucket allows only 5 contributors for free private repos. Gitlab allows unlimited. That is the major point of distinction, imo. Especially for medium sized projects.

agentgt 11y ago
Yes but Bitbucket has unlimited private repositories. So if your company has lots of projects compared to lots of people Bitbucket's pricing model is better.
- DouweM 11y ago
  GitLab.com is completely free, and has both unlimited private repositories and unlimited collaborators!
  - elbear 11y ago
    The difference is that Bitbucket offers unlimited private repos for free.
    - DouweM 11y ago
      I edited my comment to point out that the same is the case with GitLab.com. (I should've been more specific)
  - agentgt 11y ago
    Ignoring the name... are there any plans to make GitLab Mercurial capable? We still have Mercurial repositories and still sort of like Mercurial.
    - sytse 11y ago
      We'll not support Mercurial like we support Git, doing both would limit us to the features that are supported in both.
  - arihant 11y ago

adam-a 11y ago

I think they mean you can download the free community edition and host that. Why do you feel you need to pay for the EE version?

arihant 11y ago
If I have to host myself, why won't I simply host Git? The point of these services is peace of mind. If I'm managing on-prem, it kind of kills the point.
- dingo_bat 11y ago
  You get a lot of extra features. Also, I suppose you'd get a lot of things just working, as opposed to plain git.
hobs 11y ago
While I dont agree with the GP, from the phrasing its clear they mean that the project would be hosted on Gitlab's servers. In my opinion its nice to have the ability to host it yourself and it was the primary feature attracting me to GL, followed by it looking user friendly for a few people I am working with who are not shell people, and what finally sold me is they clearly have a team which is focused on making the product better.

DouweM 11y ago

GitLab Community Edition is fully open source and completely free: https://about.gitlab.com/features/#community https://about.gitlab.com/features/#community

arihant 11y ago
I said if I wanted hosted option, then their only reliable option is $390 onboarding. Which is true. If I must go on-prem, then I might just use git directly? Meanwhile at Github, $7 gives me hosted private repos. It's free on Bitbucket if I limit collaborators. The biggest selling point of these services is peace of mind and knowing someone is taking care of the code when I sleep. Otherwise, Git has always been a FOSS.
- profmonocle 11y ago
  > If I must go on-prem, then I might just use git directly? Definitely. There's not much you can do with self-hosted GitLab that you can't do with pure git. GitLab just makes it easier, IMO. The main reason my company uses it is to restrict the master branch to certain people - doable with pure git, less effort with GitLab. There's no reason we couldn't use GitHub for this (wouldn't cost much for a team our size), but my company prefers on-prem whenever practical for various reasons. Self-hosted GitLab doesn't fit all the same uses as GitHub (I wouldn't use it for personal projects), but when it does fit it's great to have.
  - arihant 11y ago
    True. There is no denying that on-prem Gitlab has its uses. Maybe not for me, but I can respect that. The point I was making in the original comment was that Gitlab has absolutely no options without heavy onboarding that is hosted as well as reliable. I wasn't really undercutting their on-prem, just pointing out that comparisons with Github are heavily misplaced.
    - jobvandervoort 11y ago
      As said in other threads above, we are aware of the shortcomings of GitLab.com, but working very hard to resolve these [0]. Setting up your own instance is not hard [1], but we're also offering managed hosted instances on GitHost.io nowadays. If you're still in the middle, you could use the one-click deploy options from providers such as Digital Ocean, Cloud 66 and AWS images [2]. [0]: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/operations/issues/42 https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/operations/issues/42 [1]: https://about.gitlab.com/downloads/ https://about.gitlab.com/downloads/ [2]: https://about.gitlab.com/aws/#uw2 https://about.gitlab.com/aws/#uw2