head to head · open source
GitLab vs crit
GitLab has 24,550 GitHub stars, 5,943 forks, 36 open issues and last shipped 13 days ago. crit has 1,268 stars, 106 forks, 22 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. GitLab leads on adoption by 1,836% (24,550 vs 1,268 stars). GitLab is written in Ruby under a custom or non-standard licence; crit is written in Go under MIT. GitLab has attracted 24% as many forks as stars, crit 8%. crit 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 | crit | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 1.3K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | Ruby | Go |
| Last push | 2026-10-23 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.9K | ⑂ 106 |
| 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 crit if
- You want the crit feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and crit 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 crit
Crit Review and comment on plans, code diffs, frontend elements and send feedback directly to your agent. Adaptive UI for each type of output For agents, plans and code are all the same it's just text, but for us, humans, reviewing generated plans and reviewing web application are two very different activities. Crit adds a proper interface for each type of output and lets you point at the exact thing that is wrong and leave a comment for the agent to fix: crit plan.md renders a markdown file with proper formatting and review UI crit auto detects git changes and shows syntax highlighted diffs for local review…
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Frequently asked questions
Is GitLab or crit more popular?
GitLab has 24,550 GitHub stars and crit has 1,268. GitLab has the larger community by that measure.
Are GitLab and crit free?
Both are open source. GitLab has no licence declared in this registry, and crit is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between GitLab and crit?
GitLab is written in Ruby and crit 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 crit?
Choose GitLab if you want the larger community (24,550 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose crit if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.