head to head · open source
GitLab vs Coder
GitLab has 24,549 GitHub stars, 5,943 forks, 36 open issues and last shipped 11 days ago. Coder has 17,256 stars, 1,642 forks, 996 open issues and last shipped yesterday. GitLab leads on adoption by 42% (24,549 vs 17,256 stars). GitLab is written in Ruby under a custom or non-standard licence; Coder is written in Go under AGPL-3.0. GitLab has attracted 24% as many forks as stars, Coder 10%. Coder was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| GitLab | Coder | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 17K |
| License | Custom / other | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Ruby | Go |
| Last push | 2026-10-23 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.9K | ⑂ 1.6K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick GitLab if
- You weight community size — 25K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Ruby
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Coder if
- You want the Coder feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and Coder fits your workflow better
About GitLab
GitLab Canonical source The canonical source of GitLab where all development takes place is hosted on GitLab.com. If you wish to clone a copy of GitLab without proprietary code, you can use the read only mirror of GitLab located at However, please do not submit any issues and/or merge requests to that project. Free trial You can request a free trial of GitLab Ultimate on our website. Open source software to collaborate on code To see how GitLab looks please see the features page on our website. Manage Git repositories with fine grained access controls that keep your code secure Perform code reviews and enhance…
read the full GitLab overview →
About Coder
Self Hosted Cloud Development Environments and AI Agents Quickstart Docs Why Coder Premium Coder is a self hosted platform for cloud development environments and AI coding agents. Workspaces are defined with Terraform, connected through a secure Wireguard® tunnel, and automatically shut down when not used. Coder Agents runs a native AI coding agent whose loop executes in the control plane on your infrastructure, with no API keys in workspaces. Define cloud development environments in Terraform EC2 VMs, Kubernetes Pods, Docker Containers, etc. Automatically shutdown idle resources to save on costs Onboard…
read the full Coder overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is GitLab or Coder more popular?
GitLab has 24,549 GitHub stars and Coder has 17,256. GitLab has the larger community by that measure.
Are GitLab and Coder free?
Both are open source. GitLab has no licence declared in this registry, and Coder is licensed under AGPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between GitLab and Coder?
GitLab is written in Ruby and Coder in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, GitLab or Coder?
Choose GitLab if you want the larger community (24,549 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Coder if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.