GitLab vs VMware Tanzu Platform comparison

GitLab and VMware are both solutions in the Build Automation category. GitLab is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.6, while VMware is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.7. Additionally, 97% of GitLab users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of VMware users who would recommend it.

GitLab

Read 84 GitLab reviews

5,610 Views
4,770 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

VMware Tanzu Platform

Read 22 VMware Tanzu Platform reviews

356 Views
275 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

GitLab

VMware Tanzu Platform

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 9, 2025

GitLab and VMware Tanzu Platform compete in the cloud and development tools space. GitLab appears to hold an advantage in repository and CI/CD pipeline management, whereas VMware Tanzu excels in Kubernetes and VMware integration.

Features: GitLab offers powerful repository tools, CI/CD pipeline, and integration capabilities, allowing for effective branch management and code reviews. VMware Tanzu Platform excels in Kubernetes cluster management and integrates seamlessly with VMware infrastructure, enhancing microservices and container orchestration with strong integration across virtualization, networking, and storage components.

Room for Improvement: GitLab struggles with integration beyond Kubernetes, lacking compatibility with platforms such as AWS, ETS, and Jira. Improvements are also needed in documentation and reporting features. VMware Tanzu needs better customization, visibility, and integration with non-VMware products, as well as reduced costs and enhanced disaster recovery options.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: GitLab supports deployments across public, private, and hybrid clouds, benefiting from a large user community despite less responsive direct support without paid tiers. VMware Tanzu supports hybrid and multi-cloud deployments, with support experience influenced by knowledge of the VMware ecosystem and licensing terms. Both products emphasize the need for in-house expertise for effective management.

Pricing and ROI: GitLab offers a free version and paid licenses, proving cost-effective for small teams but expensive for some organizations. Its automation enhances ROI. VMware Tanzu's pricing is higher, fitting larger enterprises comfortably within VMware's ecosystem, and is known for enterprise-grade integration and scalability at a higher premium.

To learn more, read our detailed GitLab vs. VMware Tanzu Platform Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

GitLab vs. VMware Tanzu Platform

April 2025

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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

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Security Tools (9th), Release Automation (2nd), Static Application Security Testing (SAST) (7th), Rapid Application Development Software (11th), Software Composition Analysis (SCA) (5th), Enterprise Agile Planning Tools (2nd), Fuzz Testing Tools (2nd), DevSecOps (3rd)

VMware Tanzu Platform

Ranking in Build Automation

13th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

PaaS Clouds (12th), Cloud Management (24th), Development Platforms (3rd), Container Management (3rd), Service Mesh (7th), Agile and DevOps Services (2nd)

Featured Reviews

Rohit Kesharwani

Manager, Engineering at 7-Eleven

Improved agility and time to market with CI/CD enhancements

The CI/CD pipelines in GitLab ( /products/gitlab-reviews ) are highly valuable. Another important feature is the single source of repository, allowing efficient repository management and source code management. GitLab provides manageability by allowing us to manage source code effectively through separate repositories. Additionally, GitLab enables the creation of individual CI/CD pipelines for each repository, making software more agile. By integrating GitLab as a DevOps platform, we have enhanced agility, improved our time to market, and different teams can work collaboratively on various projects.

Read full review

DarshanChaudhari

Solutions Architect Hybrid Cloud Practice US/Europe at Tech Mahindra Limited

Empowers seamless connectivity and integration through APIs while offering robust auto-scaling

I am involved in IT services and we provide a solution to customers. We work with VMware, Nutanix, OpenShift, and Microsoft Hyper-V The Tanzu platform is highly available, scalable, and flexible. It offers native services for autoscaling and integrations through APIs, allowing seamless…

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 dashboard and interface make it easy to use."

"We like that we can create branches and then the branches can be reviewed and you can mesh those branches back. You can independently work with your own branch, you don't need to really control the core of other people."

"If you want to maintain your issues in GitLab and raise your book of work and features, then GitLab is a great tool for collaboration and integration with code deployment and CICD pipelines."

"A user friendly solution."

"The merging feature makes it easy later on for the deployment."

"The solution has an established roadmap that lays out its plans for upgrades over the next two to three years."

"As a developer, this solution is useful as a repository holder because most of the POC projects that we have are on GitLab."

"It's a great toolbox where the CI/CD pipeline is the fundamental component, but there are so many other features that you can pull from, which makes it a very powerful tool. My current client is using AWS, and they can, of course, use AWS CodePipeline, but GitLab is much more mature than that, and it also gives you the freedom to decide to go to another platform or have a multi-cloud strategy and things like that. That freedom for me is also very valuable."

More GitLab pros

"VMware Tanzu Mission Control has many valuable features, such as ease of use and customization."

"The most valuable feature of VMware Tanzu Mission Control is the management functionality of the cluster life cycle. Additionally, the solution integrates well with other vendors, such as Velero for backups and Sonobuoy for compliance. Additionally, it works well in multi-cluster environments."

"The solution is integrated very well with a lot of other systems. Also, its GUI is very good."

"The observability platform and end-to-end service portal provided by Tanzu are the most valuable features."

"The Day 2 operations support is the most vital feature"

"The most important feature of Tanzu Mission Control is its integration with the other products, especially with ESX and vSAN. This is a strong part of Tanzu Mission Control. In other solutions, such as OpenShift or Kubernetes, you can find similar features, but they don't have similar integration. With Tanzu Mission Control, you get a total solution with only one provider. You have the integration with the infrastructure, virtualization of networking, and virtualization of storage. You have a natural integration, and you don't have the problem of integrating it with different products or providers. Sometimes, different companies have good integration, but it is not always guaranteed. For example, many years ago, Cisco and VMware were good partners in networking, but when VMware started to sell ESX, the relationship was broken. This is the problem that you can face when you are using solutions from two different companies."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is the ability to check the flow of all the different variants within our applications."

"The multi-tenancy with the VCD is great."

More VMware Tanzu Platform pros

Cons

"Atlassian offers more products than GitLab. GitLab offers source control management, version control and collaboration between developers. Atlassian offers features on top of this as well as more integration points for developers."

"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."

"The user interface could be more user-friendly. We do most of our operations through the website interface but it could be better."

"I've noticed an area for improvement in GitLab, particularly needing to go through many steps to push the code to the repository. Resolving that issue would make the product better. My team quickly fixed it by writing a small script, then double-clicking or enabling the script to take care of the issue. However, that quick fix was from my team and not the GitLab team, so in the next release, if an automatic deployment feature would be available in GitLab, then that would be good because, in Visual Studio, you can do that with just one click of a button."

"The solution should again offer an on-premises deployment option."

"The integration could be slightly better."

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

More GitLab cons

"Customers have noticed a considerable price increase after VMware's acquisition by Broadcom."

"The implementation is not easy, it is very complex and can take a day or two to complete."

"Tanzu provides better manageability as compared to OCP, but when it comes to tagging it with other products, it's a bit rigid. If I have to bring in any new product or something out of the box from a different vendor, working with Tanzu becomes a little difficult. For example, if I want to use the F5 services, I have to add one more layer of Avi, but I don't want to do that. If I have a list of the products that I want to use, such as for firewall services, with Tanzu, I will have to go through another layer, which creates complexity."

"Addressing the high upfront costs could improve the product. Implementing a subscription-based model with tiered service options could make it more accessible to a broader range of customers."

"Another area of improvement is pricing."

"The solution's initial setup process was complex...The solution could benefit from improved customization and visibility for its users."

"The infrastructure is quite challenging."

"This product doesn't have a GUI. In order to use it properly, I need to connect it to a new GUI or build a GUI to manage it — it's pretty difficult."

More VMware Tanzu Platform cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of GitLab could be better, it is expensive."

"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."

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

"The price is okay."

"Its price is fine. It is on the cheaper side and not expensive. You have to pay additionally for GitLab CI/CD minutes. Initially, we used the free version. When we ran out of GitLab minutes, we migrated to the paid version."

"The solution's pricing is acceptable."

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

"GitLab is highly priced for smaller teams, but it's okay if considering a user base of thousands."

More GitLab pricing and cost advice

"One of our Spanish customers told us that VMware Tanzu Service Mesh is a very expensive product for their data center."

"It is not the most expensive option, and I believe the capabilities align well with the value it provides."

"VMware Tanzu Mission Control is cheaper than Red Hat OpenShift."

"Since we were at a large data center, the price might not have been a concern for us."

"Its pricing is very competitive. We get around 70% or 75%, sometimes even 80%, discount on the product. I would rate it a four out of five in terms of pricing."

"The licensing cost is expensive."

"The least expensive licensing cost for VMware is around $350 per core."

"The license for VMware Tanzu Application Service is expensive. The license should be cheaper."

More VMware Tanzu Platform pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

22%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

16%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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

Which is better - OpenShift Container Platform or VMware Tanzu Mission Control?

Red Hat Openshift is ideal for organizations using microservices and cloud environments. I like that the platform is auto-scalable, which saves overhead time for developers. I think Openshift can b...

See all answers

What do you like most about VMware Tanzu Mission Control?

It definitely gives the end customer a good overview and perspective of running applications in terms of overall workload footprint. TMC provides a very detailed description of your cloud-native ap...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VMware Tanzu Mission Control?

The price of VMware Tanzu Mission Control is greater than that of Red Hat's competitor solution. I would rate the pricing of VMware Tanzu Mission Control as four out of ten.

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 25% of the time

GitHub CoPilot vs GitLab

Compared 14% of the time

SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) vs GitLab

Compared 7% of the time

AWS CodePipeline vs GitLab

Compared 5% of the time

Tekton vs GitLab

Compared 5% of the time

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Rancher Labs vs VMware Tanzu Platform

Compared 17% of the time

Kubernetes vs VMware Tanzu Platform

Compared 13% of the time

Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE vs VMware Tanzu Platform

Compared 11% of the time

Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform vs VMware Tanzu Platform

Compared 8% of the time

Red Hat OpenShift vs VMware Tanzu Platform

Compared 7% of the time

More VMware Tanzu Platform Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

GitLab

May 2025

Download GitLab product report

Buyer's Guide

VMware Tanzu Platform

April 2025

Download VMware Tanzu Platform product report

Also Known As

Fuzzit

Tanzu Application Catalog, Application Platform, Application Service, Hub, Mission Control, Service Mesh, Build Service, Concourse for VMware Tanzu

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

VMware Tanzu Platform is designed for cloud-native development and management of Kubernetes, CI/CD processes, microservices, and containerized workloads. It supports deployments both on cloud and on-premises, providing centralized management via Mission Control.

VMware Tanzu Platform offers seamless integration with vSphere, ESX, and vSAN, supporting centralized cluster management and lifecycle management. The platform provides a GUI for monitoring CI/CD pipelines and network policies, enhancing multi-tenancy and Day 2 operations. Users can easily manage Kubernetes clusters, monitor applications, and integrate with tools such as GitHub, GitLab, Cloud Foundry, and Azure. It ensures compliance and security for service providers, financial institutions, and businesses.

What are the key features of VMware Tanzu Platform?

Integration with vSphere, ESX, and vSAN: Enhances compatibility and flexibility.
Seamless Cluster Management: Centralized control over Kubernetes clusters.
CI/CD Pipelines and Network Policies: Simplifies monitoring and management.
Multi-tenancy Support: Facilitates resource sharing among multiple users.
Comprehensive Lifecycle Management: Streamlines deployment and scalability.
Observability Platform: Provides enhanced visibility and control.

What benefits and ROI should users look for in VMware Tanzu Platform reviews?

Centralized Management: Simplifies operations and reduces manual effort.
Enhanced Compliance and Security: Meets regulatory requirements.
Flexibility in Deployment: Supports both cloud and on-premises options.
Seamless Integration: Works with multiple vendors and tools.
Developer-Friendly Environment: Improves productivity and innovation.

Industries such as financial institutions, service providers, and businesses requiring rigorous compliance and security deploy VMware Tanzu Platform. These entities benefit from centralized management, streamlined DevOps processes, and integrated tools, enhancing their capabilities in cloud-native developments and containerized workloads.

VMware

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

Verizon, Cerner, Zipcar, Avarteq

Buyer's Guide

GitLab vs. VMware Tanzu Platform

April 2025

Free Report: GitLab vs. VMware Tanzu Platform

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