GitLab vs GitHub & DevSecOps

GitLab is a complete DevSecOps platform — SCM, CI/CD, security scanning, package registry, and deployment environments are all built-in. GitHub relies on the marketplace and Actions integrations for the same coverage.

Feature Comparison

# Feature                   GitLab                     GitHub
# ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
# CI/CD                     Built-in (.gitlab-ci.yml)  Actions (.github/workflows)
# Container Registry        Built-in (free)            Packages (GHCR, free)
# Package Registry          Built-in (npm/pip/maven)   Packages
# SAST                      Built-in (free tier)       CodeQL (Actions)
# DAST                      Built-in (Ultimate tier)   3rd party via Actions
# Dependency Scanning       Built-in                   Dependabot
# Secret Detection          Built-in                   Secret scanning
# Pages (static hosting)    GitLab Pages               GitHub Pages
# Environments              Built-in deployments UI    Environments API
# Self-hosting              GitLab CE/EE               GitHub Enterprise Server
# Issue boards              Built-in Kanban            Projects (beta)
# Epics / Roadmap           Premium+                   Projects
# Group-level CI variables  Yes                        Organization secrets
# Merge trains              Yes (Premium)              No native equivalent

# GitLab unique strengths:
# - Everything in one platform (no marketplace required for basics)
# - Stronger self-hosting story (GitLab CE is fully open source)
# - Merge trains: queue MRs and test in combined state before merging
# - Built-in Kubernetes deployment / agent (GitLab Agent for Kubernetes)
# - Value stream analytics, DORA metrics dashboards

# GitHub unique strengths:
# - Largest developer community / open source ecosystem
# - GitHub Copilot (AI coding assistant, deeply integrated)
# - GitHub Actions marketplace (50k+ actions)
# - Codespaces (cloud dev environments)

Security Scanning & Container Registry

# Include GitLab security templates in .gitlab-ci.yml

include:
  - template: Security/SAST.gitlab-ci.yml
  - template: Security/Secret-Detection.gitlab-ci.yml
  - template: Security/Dependency-Scanning.gitlab-ci.yml
  - template: Security/Container-Scanning.gitlab-ci.yml  # requires image artifact

# These templates auto-detect language and run appropriate scanners
# Results appear in the Security tab of the MR and pipeline

# Container Registry — build and push Docker image
build-image:
  stage: build
  image: docker:24
  services:
    - docker:24-dind
  variables:
    DOCKER_TLS_CERTDIR: "/certs"
  before_script:
    - docker login -u "$CI_REGISTRY_USER" -p "$CI_REGISTRY_PASSWORD" $CI_REGISTRY
  script:
    - docker build -t "$CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE:$CI_COMMIT_SHA" .
    - docker tag "$CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE:$CI_COMMIT_SHA" "$CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE:latest"
    - docker push "$CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE:$CI_COMMIT_SHA"
    - docker push "$CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE:latest"

# Pull in deploy job
deploy:
  image: "$CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE:$CI_COMMIT_SHA"
  script:
    - ./run-deploy.sh

Environments, Releases & GitLab Pages

# Environments — track deployments per environment in the UI
# Deployments → Environments shows current version per env + history

deploy-staging:
  script:
    - ./deploy.sh staging
  environment:
    name: staging
    url: https://staging.example.com
    on_stop: stop-staging    # Optional: job to tear down env

stop-staging:
  script:
    - ./teardown.sh staging
  environment:
    name: staging
    action: stop
  when: manual

# Create a Release (links Git tag to release notes + artifacts)
release-job:
  stage: release
  image: registry.gitlab.com/gitlab-org/release-cli:latest
  rules:
    - if: $CI_COMMIT_TAG
  script:
    - echo "Creating release for $CI_COMMIT_TAG"
  release:
    name: "Release $CI_COMMIT_TAG"
    description: "./CHANGELOG.md"
    tag_name: "$CI_COMMIT_TAG"
    assets:
      links:
        - name: "Binary"
          url: "https://example.com/releases/$CI_COMMIT_TAG/app"

# GitLab Pages — host static sites from CI artifacts
# Artifact must be in a job named "pages" and published to "public/" directory
pages:
  stage: deploy
  script:
    - npm run build -- --outDir public
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - public
  rules:
    - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == $CI_DEFAULT_BRANCH
# Site available at: https://<namespace>.gitlab.io/<project>/