CircleCI vs GitLab comparison

CircleCI and GitLab are both solutions in the Build Automation category. CircleCI is ranked #13 with an average rating of 6.7, while GitLab is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.3. CircleCI holds a 3.5% mindshare in BA, compared to GitLab’s 9.0% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of CircleCI users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 97% of GitLab users who would recommend it.

CircleCI

Read 9 CircleCI reviews

1,158 Views
1,112 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

GitLab

Read 91 GitLab reviews

17,819 Views
3,742 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

CircleCI

GitLab

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 11, 2025

CircleCI and GitLab compete in the continuous integration and development space. GitLab has an advantage with its comprehensive features, while CircleCI benefits from more favorable pricing and support.

Features: CircleCI is notable for container-based builds, easy integration with BitBucket, and artifact storage. Its automation workflows are robust, particularly for third-party applications, making it valuable for continuous delivery. GitLab, however, offers built-in version control, CI/CD, and versatile security testing, providing an all-inclusive DevOps platform. Its code review capabilities, branching features, and dashboard interface streamline the development process.

Room for Improvement: CircleCI could enhance its documentation and expand integration libraries to support broader functionalities similar to GitLab's capabilities. Improvements in resource management and broader third-party application support would also be beneficial. GitLab could refine its user interface for new users, enhance its existing features beyond their basics, and address any scalability challenges to handle larger enterprises more efficiently.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: GitLab boasts seamless deployment with comprehensive documentation and community support. This setup aids in quicker troubleshooting and streamlined processes. CircleCI, recognized for its simplicity, provides fast setup times, making it ideal for rapid deployments and offering efficient customer service support.

Pricing and ROI: CircleCI's pricing structure is attractive due to lower initial setup costs, offering high ROI for projects needing quick scalability. It provides significant value with its efficient cost-to-service ratio. Although GitLab is initially more expensive, it offers a substantial return for projects requiring comprehensive features and long-term scalability. This pricing approach justifies the cost for its all-encompassing contributions to DevOps solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed CircleCI vs. GitLab Report (Updated: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

CircleCI vs. GitLab

February 2026

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Helped 881,707 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

CircleCI

Ranking in Build Automation

13th

Average Rating

6.8

Reviews Sentiment

5.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

AI Software Development (203rd)

GitLab

Ranking in Build Automation

1st

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Security Tools (8th), Release Automation (2nd), Static Application Security Testing (SAST) (5th), Rapid Application Development Software (9th), Software Composition Analysis (SCA) (4th), Enterprise Agile Planning Tools (2nd), Fuzz Testing Tools (2nd), DevSecOps (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Build Automation category, the mindshare of CircleCI is 3.5%, up from 3.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of GitLab is 9.0%, down from 17.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Build Automation Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
GitLab	9.0%
CircleCI	3.5%
Other	87.5%

Build Automation

Featured Reviews

RahulArora

Global Head - DevOps and AIOps Startegist at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

Automated CI/CD pipelines have transformed deployment speed and collaboration for my teams

CircleCI offers fast parallel builds, easy integration with GitHub, and the ability to deploy applications on Kubernetes pods, which are amazing features. Fast parallel builds and GitHub integration have definitely helped my team reach faster time to market for our applications. Previously, our deployment used to take a couple of hours when doing it manually, but with CircleCI pipeline, our hours-long job has been converted to a couple of minutes. Its simplicity, fast pipeline execution, and strong GitHub and GitLab integrations are definitely unique advantages I discovered while using CircleCI. Time saved is one of the key aspects I have seen since using CircleCI. I have noticed fewer deployment errors, and it has helped me with easy debugging. Time saved is directly proportional to the cost and effort saved. CircleCI has positively impacted my organization by integrating directly with my Git repositories as a fully managed SaaS platform. CircleCI has a great impact on my team's collaboration and communication, with around 25 to 40 developers and DevOps engineers using it daily across multiple repositories and environments, helping us use it at scale. CircleCI has significantly increased our release frequency and deployment speed compared to before I started using it. CircleCI improves security for my organization by enforcing automated checks in the pipeline and securely managing secrets through environment variables while providing auditable deployments. CircleCI integrates seamlessly with my DevOps toolchain by connecting directly to GitHub, container registries, and my cloud platform AWS, allowing the entire CI/CD flow from code commit to deployment and monitoring with minimal manual effort.

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BasilJiji

System Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees

Role-based workflows have transformed daily deployments and improve team collaboration

GitLab has role-based access control, so when a team member needs to make a code change, they cannot directly apply it to the environment but must put in a merge request. Once a senior reviews the code and approves it, then it is implemented across the environment, making it safer and allowing everyone to experience the process. The best features GitLab offers are version control and automation, which are the major things that stand out to me. When it comes to access, the login is very smooth, with just one login integrated with our Okta, allowing everyone to log in easily. Deployments become much easier, and that is how GitLab helps. The automation features make my work easier because we use a tool called AWX, which is connected to GitLab. Whenever we run a job on AWX, it directly checks the code and uses it. Since the code is not preserved locally but kept in the cloud, it is safe and nobody can tamper with it. When it comes to safety, that is a major thing. Automation features allow the code to be accessed from any tools we use, so the jobs we run are helping tremendously and doing their work perfectly. For pipeline tasks, we have created a significant amount of pipelines, which are all hosted in GitLab. Running the pipelines has become much easier, and they are doing a perfect job, helping tremendously in our day-to-day activities. GitLab has positively impacted my organization because previously we stored code locally on servers, leading to many risks. Since GitLab came into our environment, our integration and deployments became much easier, helping our work become much smoother. Improvements from GitLab have led to better team collaboration because when several people are working, they can all edit the code and submit it as a merge request, and once approved, it reflects directly to the main branch. Many can work at the same time. When it comes to deployments, deploying has become much faster since we started using GitLab, and even if errors occur, we can spot them easily and troubleshoot, which has helped tremendously.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The solution offers continuous integration and continuous delivery."

"Some of the most valuable features include container-based builds, integration with Bit Bucket and being able to store artifacts."

"CircleCI has positively impacted the organization, as it has been used for many years and serves as the main source for application deployment."

"It's a stable product."

"The automation workflow in CircleCI related to third-party applications is very good and allows standardization of applications."

"Enables us to detect exactly which build failed and why, and to push multiple builds to our production environment at a very fast rate."

"The ability to automate the build process in a seamless way and run workflows effortlessly. It supports parallel builds so it can scale well. Also, it covers the basics of any build and integration tool, including email notifications (especially when tests are fixed), project insights, etc."

"CircleCI has significantly reduced build and deployment times, saving substantial engineering hours and effort for me, which has directly improved my productivity and release velocity, reflecting incredible ROI."

More CircleCI pros

"This product is always evolving, and they listen to the customers."

"The user interface is really good so that helps with huge teams who need to collaborate."

"The most valuable features of GitLab are the review, patch repo, and plans are in YAML."

"The most valuable aspects of GitLab are the ability to create branches, merge branches, and compare branches to resolve code conflicts."

"Everything is easy to configure and easy to work with."

"We like that we can have an all-encompassing product and don't have to implement different solutions."

"The most valuable feature of GitLab is its convenience. I am able to trace back most of my changes up to a far distance in time and it helps me to analyze and see the older version of the code."

"The most valuable functionality of GitLab, for me, is the DevOps. Besides the normal source control based on Git, I find the Auto DevOps features most important in the solution."

More GitLab pros

Cons

"There needs to be some improvement in the user interface of CircleCI."

"The solution’s pricing could be better."

"Billing is a mess."

"I rated CircleCI six out of ten because I think they need more transparency in pricing, as there are instances of unclear network data transfer and storage costs related to caching and workspaces."

"Integration with Microsoft Azure is one area for improvement. Azure is growing in its user base, and supports various cloud infrastructure components such as Service Fabric, App Service, etc. Some of Azure’s deployment models (like Kudu) require a steep learning curve, but if CircleCI would come up with such features (deployment to App Service) out of the box, it would be amazing."

"A return on investment with CircleCI has not been observed, and no relevant metrics such as time saved or fewer employees needed can be shared."

"I believe debugging complex pipelines and managing credits can sometimes be challenging, especially for large workflows, so these areas can be improved."

"I have encountered issues with the deployment of CI/CD pipelines, especially dealing with variable environments."

"I would like to see better integration with project management tools such as Jira."

"The self-hosted version of GitLab is not very stable when under load. It slows down and requires restarts every few days."

"The pricing model of GitLab is an issue for me."

"I believe GitLab can be improved by making integration with other platforms a little easier."

"The tool should include a feature that helps to edit the code directly."

"Expand features to match other tools such as a static code analysis tool so third-party integrations are not required."

"We'd like to see better integration with the Atlassian ecosystem."

More GitLab cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of CircleCI could be less expensive."

"We are using the open-source version."

"I don't mind the price because I use the free version."

"The solution is based on a licensing model that includes technical support and is paid annually."

"As I work in a vast enterprise, I'm unsure about the licensing cost for GitLab. It's the management team that takes care of that."

"GitLab is comparatively expensive, but it provides value because it's feature-rich."

"The initial setup cost is excellent and you can add the premium features later."

"I'm not sure if they have some kind of discount. I've been negotiating with them on prices before, and I believe they weren't too happy to give discounts, but list prices are $19 per user, per month for Premium and $99 per user, per month for Ultimate. So, the difference between Premium and Ultimate is a bit bigger, and in most companies, you need to build some type of business case."

"The solution's pricing is acceptable."

More GitLab pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

University

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

12%

Government

11%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	2
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	6

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	36
Midsize Enterprise	10
Large Enterprise	46

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for CircleCI?

There is not much experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing because that is managed by the legal team.

See all answers

What needs improvement with CircleCI?

CircleCI's Orbs are not as easy to use as they could be. If CircleCI implemented a function approach similar to GitHub Actions, it would be significantly better. CircleCI could be improved if it co...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering CircleCI?

For others looking into using CircleCI, study thoroughly about CircleCI's Orbs because they are quite complicated. The overall review rating for CircleCI is 6 out of 10.

See all answers

What do you like most about GitLab?

I find the features and version control history to be most valuable for our development workflow. These aspects provide us with a clear view of changes and help us manage requests efficiently.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for GitLab?

The setup cost was moderate and not very high. For GitLab SaaS, the initial setup cost was minimal, while self-managed GitLab involved infrastructure, VM storage backups, runner configuration, and ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with GitLab?

A pain point I have encountered with GitLab is that large GitLab-ci.yml files become hard to read and maintain. YAML syntax is strict, and errors are easy to make, while debugging pipeline logic ca...

See all answers

Comparisons

Tekton vs CircleCI

Compared 11% of the time

GitHub Actions vs CircleCI

Compared 9% of the time

TeamCity vs CircleCI

Compared 8% of the time

Buildkite vs CircleCI

Compared 7% of the time

Jenkins vs CircleCI

Compared 6% of the time

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Microsoft Azure DevOps vs GitLab

Compared 49% of the time

GitHub CoPilot vs GitLab

Compared 4% of the time

SonarQube vs GitLab

Compared 3% of the time

Tekton vs GitLab

Compared 3% of the time

TeamCity vs GitLab

Compared 3% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

CircleCI

February 2026

Download CircleCI product report

Buyer's Guide

GitLab

January 2026

Download GitLab product report

Also Known As

No data available

Fuzzit

Overview

CircleCI is a continuous integration and delivery platform that automates software development, streamlining the process for engineers and developers. It's valued for its ability to enhance development speed while maintaining high software quality.

Known for its robust CI/CD capabilities, CircleCI supports a wide range of programming languages and integrations, allowing teams to build and deploy code with efficiency and reliability. Its flexibility and automation features help teams quickly adapt to changing project requirements. CircleCI's cloud-based architecture ensures scalability and accessibility, making it an attractive option for modern development environments.

What are CircleCI's key features?

Continuous Integration: Automates code integration with testing to catch errors early.
Continuous Deployment: Simplifies the process of deploying code to production environments.
Customizable Workflows: Offers flexibility in defining build, test, and deployment stages.
Parallel Execution: Speeds up builds by running multiple tasks at once.
VCS Integration: Seamlessly integrates with platforms like GitHub and Bitbucket.

What benefits can users expect when using CircleCI?

Increased Efficiency: Streamlines development workflows, reducing the time to market.
Improved Code Quality: Early error detection through automation increases overall quality.
Scalability: Ability to handle growing workloads as development needs evolve.
Enhanced Collaboration: Facilitates teamwork through shared visibility and control over development processes.

In tech-driven industries, CircleCI enables efficient software development pipelines. Its ability to run automated tests and manage deployments effectively is particularly beneficial in fast-paced, innovation-driven fields like fintech, mobile app development, and SaaS platforms. Offering tools that meet high-demand environments, it supports teams in delivering timely and quality software products.

CircleCI

GitLab offers a secure and user-friendly platform for CI/CD pipeline management, code repository control, and collaboration, enhancing development speed and efficiency. It facilitates automation with extensive customization and tool integration, ideal for DevOps processes.

GitLab supports source code management, version control, and collaborative development. It's frequently used in CI/CD processes to automate builds and deployments while integrating DevOps practices. GitLab allows companies to manage repositories, automate pipelines, conduct code reviews, and maintain development lifecycles. The platform supports infrastructure and configuration management, enabling efficient code collaboration, deployment automation, and comprehensive repository handling. Many organizations commit and deploy developed code using GitLab's capabilities.

What are GitLab's most valuable features?

CI/CD Pipeline Management: Streamlines development through automated testing and deployment.
User-Friendly Interface: Ensures ease of collaboration and task automation.
Code Merging and Branching: Facilitates smooth code integration and version control.
Security Platform: Provides strong security features for safe development.
Tool Integration: Enhances functionality with diverse tool integration.

What benefits should users evaluate?

Development Speed: Accelerates processes through automation.
Collaboration Ease: Simplifies team interactions and workflow.
Customization Options: Offers extensive personalization for specific needs.
Comprehensive Documentation: Provides detailed guidance for users.
Secure Platform: Maintains integrity with robust security features.

In specific industries, GitLab serves as a backbone for source code management and CI/CD implementation. Companies leverage its capabilities for infrastructure management and deployment automation, thus streamlining project delivery timelines. Its ability to handle configuration management and code repositories effectively aids in maintaining development lifecycles, making it a preferred choice for organizations committed to enhancing their DevOps practices.

GitLab

Sample Customers

Shopify, Zenefits, Concur Technologies, CyberAgent

1. NASA 2. IBM 3. Sony 4. Alibaba 5. CERN 6. Siemens 7. Volkswagen 8. ING 9. Ticketmaster 10. SpaceX 11. Adobe 12. Intuit 13. Autodesk 14. Rakuten 15. Unity Technologies 16. Pandora 17. Electronic Arts 18. Nordstrom 19. Verizon 20. Comcast 21. Philips 22. Deutsche Telekom 23. Orange 24. Fujitsu 25. Ericsson 26. Nokia 27. General Electric 28. Cisco 29. Accenture 30. Deloitte 31. PwC 32. KPMG

Buyer's Guide

CircleCI vs. GitLab

February 2026

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