Diffinery vs GitLab
How Diffinery compares with GitLab.com on CI compatibility, hosted runners, compute minutes, AI agents and features, with sources and dates.
GitLab is a complete DevSecOps platform with its own CI system. Diffinery is a smaller, GitHub-compatible forge focused on fast CI and on AI agents as first-class collaborators. It is free, open-source software (Apache-2.0) that you deploy to your own Cloudflare account; there is no hosted service (see Deploy your own Diffinery and the source code). GitLab facts here are from GitLab's own documentation and pricing page, checked on October 16, 2026, and linked below.
In short
- The biggest difference is the CI format. GitLab CI uses
.gitlab-ci.yml. Diffinery runs GitHub Actions workflows (.github/workflows/*.yml) as they are, so it suits teams coming from GitHub, or teams that want the GitHub Actions ecosystem of reusable actions. - Choose GitLab if you need its breadth: built-in security scanning, planning and portfolio tools, a self-managed edition on your own servers, hosted runners up to 32 vCPUs, hosted Windows and macOS runners (in beta), or a service that GitLab runs for you, with nothing to deploy.
- Choose Diffinery if you want GitHub Actions compatibility, 4-vCPU runners by default, a forge built around AI agents with server-enforced guardrails, and open-source software that runs on your own Cloudflare account, with no servers or virtual machines to manage.
CI and runners
| Diffinery | GitLab.com | |
|---|---|---|
| Pipeline format | GitHub Actions YAML | .gitlab-ci.yml |
| Default hosted Linux runner | 4 vCPU, 12 GiB memory, 20 GB disk | small: 2 vCPU, 8 GB memory, 30 GB disk (source) |
| Other hosted Linux sizes | 2, 1/2 and 1/4 vCPU, picked per job from its measured runs | medium (4 vCPU) on every tier; large (8), xlarge (16) and 2xlarge (32) on Premium and Ultimate (source) |
| How bigger runners are counted | Each size runs on a Cloudflare Containers instance type, and Cloudflare bills your account by the 10 ms while a job runs (source, checked October 25, 2026) | Each minute on medium counts as 2 compute minutes, large 3, xlarge 6, 2xlarge 12 (source) |
| Hosted macOS and Windows | Not available; use self-hosted runners | Both in beta: Windows on every tier, macOS on Premium and Ultimate (macOS, Windows) |
| Included CI minutes | Nothing to buy. By default each account gets 3,000 hosted minutes a month, a quota your instance's administrators set (Configuration) | 400 compute minutes a month on Free, 10,000 on Premium, 50,000 on Ultimate (source) |
| Extra minutes | None to buy; you pay Cloudflare for your instance's usage | $10 per 1,000 compute minutes (source) |
| Self-hosted runners | diffinery runner | GitLab Runner |
Price and hosting
| Diffinery | GitLab.com | |
|---|---|---|
| Who runs it | You, on your own Cloudflare account and domain (guide) | GitLab runs GitLab.com; GitLab also has a self-managed edition |
| Price | Free and open source (Apache-2.0); you pay Cloudflare for your instance's usage | Free $0 (up to 5 users per private top-level group), Premium $29 per user per month billed annually, Ultimate on request (source) |
| Secret push protection | On for every repository | Ultimate tier (source) |
AI agents
| Diffinery | GitLab | |
|---|---|---|
| Accounts for agents and automation | Agent accounts with their own tokens, owned by a person or organization | Service accounts, on every tier (source) |
| Server-enforced agent guardrails | No pushes to protected branches, a person approves every agent pull request, agent checks never satisfy required checks, no secrets for agent-written code | Configured with protected branches and approval rules |
| MCP server | Built in, at /mcp on your instance | Built in, at /api/v4/mcp, on every tier (source) |
| AI features | Agent tasks and agent review run Claude Code, Codex or your own command with your own model key | GitLab Duo add-ons for Premium and Ultimate, and GitLab Credits (source) |
Moving from GitLab
Deploy your own instance first (guide). Diffinery's importer reads from GitHub. From GitLab, push your repositories with plain Git (git push --mirror), then rewrite pipelines as GitHub Actions workflows. See Move with plain Git.
Frequently asked questions
Does Diffinery run .gitlab-ci.yml?
No. Diffinery runs GitHub Actions workflows. Teams moving from GitLab rewrite their pipelines as workflows in .github/workflows/.
Is Diffinery a full GitLab replacement?
Not for every team. Diffinery covers Git hosting, pull requests, issues, releases, CI, a container registry and AI agents. It doesn't have GitLab's built-in security scanners, planning and portfolio tools, larger hosted runners or hosted Windows and macOS runners. And GitLab.com is a service GitLab runs for you, where Diffinery is software you run on your own Cloudflare account.