Startup tips: Use Gitlab to host your code and for Continuous Integration for free

I would like to recommend Gitlab as a great free tool for startups and charities. If you are a tech startup or a charity, money is tight and resources limited. Consequently, any money/time saved will make a huge difference.

If you go for the free version of Gitlab, what do you get?

• The Cloud version is free and has no ownership costs.
• Ability to create as many Git repositories as you need, and they are all private.
• Manage a team without limitation on the number of team members
• You can create granular access permissions
• A nice user interface for peer review and to control merges of code
• Free wiki for each project
• Free CI/CD without needing Jenkins! You can set up build pipelines and use a pool of free Docker containers where you can run your build.

Consequently we have used Gitlab extensively for our builds, for instance, building Node.js applications, building Android apps, for our own website, etc.