GitLab is a full featured server appliance (sort of a little GitHub like). It has a pretty UI but is quite resource intensive. It requires minimum 1GB RAM and is still a bit sluggish. It will require much more resources if you have lots of users.

OTOH the revision control app is more of a bare bones approach. And obviously it includes other version control software. It is far less resource intensive and should run on minimum specs.

And just to confuse things anther option may be the Redmine appliance. It is another full featured revison control appliance but is not quite so resource intensive as GitLab. It is actually shares a common base with the revision control appliance.

Hi Frank,

I deployed GitLab earlier this year for one of my clients and have committed to using it internally for source management in my own business. I have worked with it weekly for almost a year now. It is a good piece of high quality software that is actively worked on by the community.

In my view GitLab is more of an administrative interface for one or more Git repositories than it is a GUI for managing files in Git repositories. Don't get me wrong...it has a great interface for accessing the Git repositories but it does not have the functionality for managing Git Files as sophisticated as Git client-based tools like SourceTree from Atlassian (e.g. merge-tools). GitLab's main strength is that it overlays Git with a meta-data model for managing multiple repositories and ties a Wiki and Issue-tracker directly to the individual files and commits in the repository for tight management. So if you are using it in a group model consider the optimal combination is GitLab for repository administration and SourceTree for day-to-day file management. NOTE: The GitLab U.I. is not customisable without patching the sourcecode (customisable U.I. is commercial version feature). Also note that Git is not good for managing binary files (like software design documentation in pdf files). GitLab support GitAnnex for binary file management but only in the commercial version.

Going GitLab is to to go Git. If you want / need to work with subversion AND Git then use the revision control TKLX appliance. If you are focusing on Git go with GitLab. As Jeremy indicated you will need to use a medium sized AWS inatance for GitLab. If you are technical I would recommend you use the TKLX Core appliance and install GitLab using the omnibus installer to get the latest release.

Just one man's two cents worth :-)

 

 

 

UPDATE: GitLab now supports large files through LFS.