SHSelfHostIndex

Concourse CI vs GitLab

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted ci/cd & build options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
CO Concourse CI Pipeline-based continuous thing-doer VS GI GitLab Git-repository manager providing wiki, issue-tracking and CI/CD
FeatureConcourse CIGitLab
CategoryCI/CD & BuildCI/CD & Build
LicenseApache-2.0MIT
LanguageGo
Setup difficultyHardEasy
Min. RAM2,048 MB2,000 MB
Deploymentdocker, kubernetes, helmbare-metal
GitHub stars★ 7,878—
First released20142023
ReplacesJenkins, CircleCIGitHub

Why pick each one

Choose Concourse CI if…

  • Reproducible builds
  • Strong isolation
Concourse CI details

Choose GitLab if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
GitLab details

Frequently asked questions

Is Concourse CI or GitLab better?

Neither is universally better. Concourse CI has the larger community, while GitLab is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Concourse CI and GitLab free and open-source?

Yes. Concourse CI is licensed under Apache-2.0 and GitLab under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Concourse CI and GitLab with Docker?

Concourse CI: yes. GitLab: check the project docs for container support.

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