GitLab vs Harness comparison

GitLab and Harness are both solutions in the Build Automation category. GitLab is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.6, while Harness is ranked #10 with an average rating of 7.7. GitLab holds a 16.6% mindshare in BA, compared to Harness’s 6.6% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of GitLab users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Harness users who would recommend it.

GitLab

Read 82 GitLab reviews

6,080 Views
4,974 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

Harness

Read 3 Harness reviews

2,131 Views
1,455 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

GitLab

Harness

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 5, 2025

GitLab and Harness compete in the software development domain. GitLab has the upper hand with its all-encompassing DevOps platform offering, contrasting with Harness's specialization in continuous delivery automation.

Features: GitLab delivers an integrated set of tools covering version control, continuous integration and delivery, and robust project management. Harness sets itself apart with its focus on simplifying continuous delivery, featuring automated rollbacks, feature flags, and insights into deployment efficiency.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: GitLab provides both self-managed and cloud-hosted deployment options, valued for flexibility and detailed documentation. Harness opts for a managed service, prioritizing simplicity in continuous delivery and offering responsive customer support.

Pricing and ROI: GitLab is more budget-friendly initially, offering a comprehensive DevOps solution that appeals to cost-conscious businesses. Harness, with potentially higher setup costs, aims to deliver long-term ROI by optimizing delivery processes through automation and efficiency gains.

To learn more, read our detailed GitLab vs. Harness Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

GitLab vs. Harness

March 2025

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Helped 845,040 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

GitLab

Ranking in Build Automation

1st

Ranking in Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

7th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Security Tools (9th), Release Automation (2nd), Rapid Application Development Software (12th), Software Composition Analysis (SCA) (5th), Enterprise Agile Planning Tools (2nd), Fuzz Testing Tools (2nd), DevSecOps (3rd)

Harness

Ranking in Build Automation

10th

Ranking in Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

31st

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Cost Management (15th)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Build Automation category, the mindshare of GitLab is 16.6%, down from 18.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Harness is 6.6%, up from 4.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Build Automation

Featured Reviews

Gaurav Chandel

AWS DevOps/ Site Reliability Engineer at Tata Consultancy

Boosted productivity with automated pipelines and seamless collaboration

There are some challenges with repository file management as GitLab may struggle to manage larger files. Improvements could be made regarding size management and file partitioning. Also, the UI has remained the same for a couple of years and could benefit from an update with AI features and better customization.

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Linwei Yuan

Software Engineer at Citi

Streamline microservices deployment with integrated execution pipelines and comprehensive monitoring

Harness integrates all functions like execution pipelines, environment checks, and log monitoring in one place. It is very convenient since we have many microservices, so having one platform for all of them is beneficial. The dashboard allows me to monitor all core services' deployment status in one place, making it easier to find bugs and check logs.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable features of GitLab are ease of use and highly intuitive UI and performance."

"We use the Git repository and tagging feature. We are a product-based company and use this solution to move to a forward or backward tag."

"GitLab offers a good interface for doing code reviews between two colleagues."

"The most important features of GitLab for us are issue management and all the CI/CD tools. Another aspect that I love about GitLab is the UI."

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

"The scalability is good."

"I recommend GitLab for DevOps engineers."

"I like GitLab's security and SAS tools."

More GitLab pros

"Harness integrates all functions like execution pipelines, environment checks, and log monitoring in one place."

"It's a highly customizable DevOps tool."

"Harness starts integrating with organizations, making everything automated without the need for manual interruption."

"Harness integrates all functions like execution pipelines, environment checks, and log monitoring in one place, making it convenient."

Cons

"GitLab can improve the integration with third-party applications. It could be made easier. Additionally, having API control from my application could be helpful."

"The solution could be faster."

"The integration and storage capabilities could be better."

"It would be really good if they integrated more features in application security."

"It's more related to the supporting layer of features, such as issue management and issue tracking. We tend to always use, for example, Jira next to it. That doesn't mean that GitLab should build something similar to Jira because that will always have its place, but they could grow a bit in those kinds of supporting features. I see some, for example, covering ITSM on a DevOps team level, and that's one of the things that I and my current client would find really helpful. It's understandably not going to be their main focus and their core, and whenever you are with a company that needs a bit more advanced features on that specific topic, you're probably still going to integrate with another tool like Jira Service Management, for example. However, some basic features on things like that could be really helpful."

"GitLab should enhance its GitOps capability as they are currently using FluxCD, however, Argo CD is better and offers more features. GitLab should work on improving their user interface for GitOps as it is lagging behind."

"I would like more Agile features in the Premium version. The Premium version should have all Agile features that exist in the Ultimate version. IBM AOM has a complete Agile implementation, but in GitLab, you only have these features if you buy the Ultimate version. It would be good if we can use these in the Premium version."

"I would like configuration of a YML file to be done via UI rather than a code file."

More GitLab cons

"I prefer the previous less compact UI version of Harness, which showed more details on the screen."

"When integrating Harness with more than twenty applications in one place, it becomes less stable, causing improvements to be necessary."

"There's also room for improvement in debugging pipeline issues, which can sometimes become complex."

"Even with automation, there's a requirement for manual change requests for approvals."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"My company uses the free version of GitLab, which is GitLab Community Edition. There is a licensed version also available for GitLab."

"Regarding pricing, I would rate GitLab as moderately priced, maybe around a seven or eight out of ten. It could be more flexible for clients but generally offers good value."

"We are using the free version of GitLab."

"It seems reasonable. Our IT team manages the licenses."

"In terms of the pricing for GitLab, on a scale of one to five, with one being expensive and five being cheap, I'm rating pricing for the solution a four. It could still be cheaper because right now, my company has a small team, and sometimes it's difficult to use a paid product for a small team. You'd hope the team will grow and scale, but currently, you're paying a high license fee for a small team. I'm referring to the GitLab license that has premium features and will give you all features. This can be a problem for management to approve the high price of the license for a team this small."

"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."

"This is an open-source solution."

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

More GitLab pricing and cost advice

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

26%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

34%

Computer Software Company

13%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

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 pricing of GitLab is reasonable, aligning with what I consider to be average compared to competitors.

See all answers

What needs improvement with GitLab?

Certain features in Jira are not available in GitLab, such as the functionality to have weights at the milestone and epic levels. Hopefully, these features will be resolved with work items in GitLa...

See all answers

What do you like most about Harness?

It's a highly customizable DevOps tool.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Harness?

Previously, when deploying a version that had been deployed successfully before, it sometimes failed upon trying again, which seems to be an intermittent issue about stability. I prefer the previou...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Harness?

I used Harness for CICD, and it served as the release platform that our team used for Java applications. We do Java microservices, and we used it to deploy them.

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 29% of the time

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SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) vs GitLab

Compared 8% of the time

AWS CodePipeline vs GitLab

Compared 6% of the time

Tekton vs GitLab

Compared 5% of the time

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Compared 20% of the time

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Compared 15% of the time

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Compared 13% of the time

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Compared 8% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

GitLab

March 2025

Download GitLab product report

Buyer's Guide

Build Automation

March 2025

Download Harness product report

Also Known As

Fuzzit

Armory

Overview

GitLab is a complete DevOps platform that enables teams to collaborate and deliver software faster.

It provides a single application for the entire DevOps lifecycle, from planning and development to testing, deployment, and monitoring.

With GitLab, teams can streamline their workflows, automate processes, and improve productivity.

GitLab

Harness offers a comprehensive toolset for automating deployment processes and enhancing software update efficiency. It's lauded for its CI/CD capabilities, feature flagging, and real-time deployment monitoring. Key features include an intuitive UI, secret management, and robust rollback functionalities, all contributing to improved productivity and reduced errors in DevOps environments.

Harness

Sample Customers

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

Linedata, Openbank, Home Depot, Advanced

Buyer's Guide

GitLab vs. Harness

March 2025

Free Report: GitLab vs. Harness

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