Slipway vs GitLab CI
GitLab combines source hosting, CI/CD, security scanning and more in one application. Slipway deliberately does not host code: it connects to any SCM, including GitLab, and concentrates on delivery.
Where they overlap
Section titled “Where they overlap”Pipelines as code with stages and jobs, needs-based DAGs, caches and artifacts, services, environments with deployments and approvals, protected environments, OIDC job tokens (id_tokens) for cloud federation, self-managed runners.
Differences that matter
Section titled “Differences that matter”| Topic | GitLab CI/CD | Slipway |
|---|---|---|
| Code host | GitLab (SaaS or self-managed) | Any SCM, including GitLab; works across a mixed estate |
| Pipeline file | .gitlab-ci.yml |
.slipway/*.yaml (several pipelines per repo, one per file) |
| Release and promotion model | Environments, releases and deploy jobs; promotion patterns are mostly pipeline logic | Releases, lifecycles, channels and promotion as first-class objects |
| Strategies and verification | Auto DevOps and incremental rollout features; metric analysis via integrations | Built-in strategies with metric verification and auto-rollback |
| Pricing | Per-seat tiers plus compute minutes | Per org, unlimited users; self-hosted compute free |
| Conditions | rules:, only/except, variables |
if: with CEL expressions |
| Reuse | include, extends, CI/CD components |
Templates, extends, registry steps |
Concept mapping
Section titled “Concept mapping”| GitLab CI | Slipway |
|---|---|
| Group, Project | Organisation, Project |
stages: |
stages: (and a needs DAG) |
| Job | Job |
script: |
Steps with run: |
image:, services: |
container:, services: |
needs: |
needs: |
rules: / only / except |
if: and trigger filters |
cache:, artifacts: |
cache:, artifacts: |
environment: |
environment: |
variables: |
env: and variables; masked variables become secrets |
parallel: matrix |
matrix: |
include: / extends: |
template: / extends: |
| Runner, tags | Runner, labels |
id_tokens: |
permissions: { id_token: write } |
Step-by-step: Migrate from GitLab CI.
Choose GitLab when
Section titled “Choose GitLab when”You want code, issues, CI and security in a single application and are happy to be on GitLab.
Choose Slipway when
Section titled “Choose Slipway when”You have several SCMs, want a deployment model that goes beyond pipeline logic, or want pricing that does not scale with headcount.