SHSelfHostIndex

Earthly 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?
EA Earthly Repeatable, container-based builds for CI VS GI GitLab Git-repository manager providing wiki, issue-tracking and CI/CD
FeatureEarthlyGitLab
CategoryCI/CD & BuildCI/CD & Build
LicenseMPL-2.0MIT
LanguageGo
Setup difficultyMediumEasy
Min. RAM512 MB2,000 MB
Deploymentbinary, dockerbare-metal
GitHub stars★ 12,049—
First released20202023
ReplacesMake, GitHub ActionsGitHub

Why pick each one

Choose Earthly if…

  • Released under the MPL-2.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Mature project with 12k GitHub stars
  • Written in Go
Earthly details

Choose GitLab if…

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

Frequently asked questions

Is Earthly or GitLab better?

Neither is universally better. Earthly 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 Earthly and GitLab free and open-source?

Yes. Earthly is licensed under MPL-2.0 and GitLab under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Earthly and GitLab with Docker?

Earthly: yes. GitLab: check the project docs for container support.

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