head to head · open source
GitLab vs hunk
GitLab has 24,544 GitHub stars, 5,983 forks, 36 open issues and last shipped yesterday. hunk has 9,323 stars, 300 forks, 162 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. GitLab leads on adoption by 163% (24,544 vs 9,323 stars). GitLab is written in Ruby under a custom or non-standard licence; hunk is written in TypeScript under MIT. GitLab has attracted 24% as many forks as stars, hunk 3%. GitLab 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 | hunk | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 9.3K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | Ruby | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.0K | ⑂ 300 |
| 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 hunk if
- You want the hunk feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and hunk fits your workflow better
About GitLab
GitLab is an open core DevSecOps platform that gives teams Git repository hosting, merge request code review, CI/CD pipelines, issue tracking, and wikis in one self hostable application, aimed at organizations that want to run their development lifecycle on infrastructure they control.
read the full GitLab overview →
About hunk
hunk is a review first terminal diff viewer for agentic coders: an MIT licensed TypeScript tool that opens agent authored changesets in an interactive terminal review interface instead of raw patch text, aimed at developers who must inspect changes produced by AI coding agents or by collaborators.
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Frequently asked questions
Is GitLab or hunk more popular?
GitLab has 24,544 GitHub stars and hunk has 9,323. GitLab has the larger community by that measure.
Are GitLab and hunk free?
Both are open source. GitLab has no licence declared in this registry, and hunk is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between GitLab and hunk?
GitLab is written in Ruby and hunk 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 hunk?
Choose GitLab if you want the larger community (24,544 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose hunk if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.