Knapsack Pro

CodeShip vs Gitlab CI comparison of Continuous Integration servers
What are the differences between CodeShip and Gitlab CI?

CodeShip

https://codeship.com

Gitlab CI

https://about.gitlab.com/product/continuous-integration/
Unique feature

Runs on own infrastructure

AutoDev Ops / Allows keeping code management and CI in the same place

Type of product

SaaS

SaaS / On Premise

Offers a free plan

Yes

Free for up to 100 builds per month

Yes

Very generous free plans for both the SaaS version as well as the on premise version.

Predictable pricing

Yes

Clearly defined, calculator, expensive

Yes

Clear and affordable pricing for both SaaS and self-hosted versions.

Support / SLA

Yes

Offers great dev support

Yes

All paid plans include next business day support.

Paralellism
Every CI servers tends to address this differently (parallel, distributed, build matrix). Some of it is just marketing, and some is just nuance. For this table, parallel means that tasks can be run concurrently on the same machine, distributed means that tasks can be scaled horizontally, on multiple machines
How to split tests in parallel in the optimal way with Knapsack Pro

Yes

Via easy Yaml config file, limited by the specs of the machine you have purchased

Yes

Easily configure jobs you want to be run in parallel via the YML config file (gitlab-ci.yml)

Distributed builds
distributed means that tasks can be scaled horizontally, on multiple machines
How to split tests in parallel in the optimal way with Knapsack Pro

No

Yes

Containers support / Build environment

Yes

Native support for Docker

Yes

The Docker Container Registry is integrated into GitLab by default

Analytics / Status overview
Analytics and overview referrs to the ability to, at a glance, see what's breaking (be it a certain task, or the build for a specific project)

Yes

Yes

Management support
How easy is it to manage users / projects / assign roles and permissions and so on

Yes

Full with organization and teams management

Yes

Self-hosted option

No

Yes

Hosted plans / SaaS

Yes

Yes

Build pipelines
A continuous delivery pipeline is a description of the process that the software goes through from a new code commit, through testing and other statical analysis steps all the way to the end-users of the product.

Yes

Yes

Defined via YML config files

Reports
Reports are about the abilty to see specific reports (like code coverage or custom ones), but not necesarily tied in into a larger dashboard.

N/A

Yes

Ecosystem
Besides the official documentation and software, is there a large community using this product? Are there any community-driven tools / plugins that you can use?

N/A

Yes

Specific language support: Ruby
Some CI servers have built-in support for parsing RSpec or Istanbul output for example and we mention those. Some others make it even easier by detecting Gemfiles or package.json and automate parts of the process for the developer.

Yes

Fairly complete documentation on Ruby projects: https://documentation.codeship.com/pro/languages-frameworks/ruby/

Yes

Although not built into GitLab CI by default, the Docker support allows solving any Ruby specific need that may arise.

Specific language support: JavaScript

Yes

Fairly complete documentation on Node.js projects: https://documentation.codeship.com/pro/languages-frameworks/nodejs/

Yes

Although not built into GitLab CI by default, the Docker support allows solving any Javascript specific need that may arise.

Integrations
1st party support for common tools (like Slack notifications, various VCS platforms, etc)

Yes

Easy to integrate a bunch of 3rd party services, such as Code Climate, Codecov, Rancher, Pager Duty and many more: https://documentation.codeship.com/general/integrations/codeclimate/

Yes

Plenty of third party integrations available throughout GitLab, most notably Kubernetes and GitHub, but also plenty of others: https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/integration/README.html

API
Custom integreation is available, via an API or otherwise, it's mentioned separately as it allows further customization than any of the Ecosystem/Integration options

Yes

Custom integrations are possible: https://documentation.codeship.com/general/integrations/custom-integration/

Yes

Provides a REST API and a (new) GraphQL API, with plans to maintain the GraphQL API only going forward. Allows doing almost anything that can be done via the interface, at least in terms of CI needs.

Auditing

N/A

Yes

Additional notes

CodeShip Pro gives you a lot more flexibility when defining your CI/CD process, plus you get your own AWS instance, so your build doesn't run on a shared server (this can be important for HIPAA or GDPR compliance, etc).

The Auto DevOps feature might be interesting to people looking for a very hands-off experience with getting a CI/CD process up and running https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/topics/autodevops/

CodeShip Parallelisation - Parallel Test Pipelines how to run Ruby & JavaScript tests faster

GitLab CI parallelisation - how to run parallel jobs for Ruby & JavaScript projects

CodeShip parallelism integration

Gitlab CI parallelism integration

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