head to head · open source
GitLab vs gitpod
GitLab has 24,549 GitHub stars, 5,943 forks, 36 open issues and last shipped 11 days ago. gitpod has 13,804 stars, 1,394 forks, 452 open issues and last shipped yesterday. GitLab leads on adoption by 78% (24,549 vs 13,804 stars). GitLab is written in Ruby under a custom or non-standard licence; gitpod is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. GitLab has attracted 24% as many forks as stars, gitpod 10%. gitpod 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| GitLab | gitpod | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 14K |
| License | Custom / other | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Ruby | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-23 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.9K | ⑂ 1.4K |
| 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 gitpod if
- You want the gitpod feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and gitpod 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 gitpod
Gitpod has been renamed to Ona mission control for software projects and software engineering agents . We no longer recommend this version of Gitpod, users should take advantage of Ona's free tier or contact sales for enterprise. With Ona you gain more powerful development environments than Gitpod Classic with industry standard specifications based on Dev Container and Ona Agents. Gitpod Classic Gitpod Classic is a developer platform providing on demand, pre configured development environments in the cloud. It allows developers to spin up secure workspaces with a simple .gitpod.yml configuration file…
read the full gitpod overview →
More in Developer Tools
Related comparisons
More Version Control & Collaboration projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Version Control & Collaboration field.
Frequently asked questions
Is GitLab or gitpod more popular?
GitLab has 24,549 GitHub stars and gitpod has 13,804. GitLab has the larger community by that measure.
Are GitLab and gitpod free?
Both are open source. GitLab has no licence declared in this registry, and gitpod is licensed under AGPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between GitLab and gitpod?
GitLab is written in Ruby and gitpod in TypeScript. 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 gitpod?
Choose GitLab if you want the larger community (24,549 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose gitpod if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.