Add to Chrome
Add to Edge
Add to Firefox
Add to Opera
Add to Brave
Add to SafariWhen comparing GitLab issues vs Fossil, the Slant community recommends GitLab issues for most people. In the question“What are the best bug/issue tracking tools for small development teams?” GitLab issues is ranked 1st while Fossil is ranked 10th. The most important reason people chose GitLab issues is:
GitLab's UI is clean and intuitive. Each view is designed to not fill the screen with useless information. It displays the activity in a feed-type way in the most prominent part of the view. On top of that, there's a toolbar with buttons which can filter this feed by pushes, merge events or comments. On the left, there's a menu that displays all the links that take you to the different views. For example, a file directory which displays all the files in that repo, a commit view which displays all the commits in cronological order, a network and a graph view that display important information graphically etc... All these details make GitLab's UI extremely intuitive and easy to use, no view is overflown with information and every view displays only the most useful and crucial information needed at that time.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Good web UI
GitLab's UI is clean and intuitive. Each view is designed to not fill the screen with useless information.
It displays the activity in a feed-type way in the most prominent part of the view. On top of that, there's a toolbar with buttons which can filter this feed by pushes, merge events or comments.
On the left, there's a menu that displays all the links that take you to the different views. For example, a file directory which displays all the files in that repo, a commit view which displays all the commits in cronological order, a network and a graph view that display important information graphically etc...
All these details make GitLab's UI extremely intuitive and easy to use, no view is overflown with information and every view displays only the most useful and crucial information needed at that time.
Pro Comes with integrated CI/CD solution
GitLab CI makes it easy to set up CI and deployment for projects in GitLab. It supports parallel testing, multiple platforms, Docker containers and streaming build logs.
Pro Regular updates
GitLab is being constantly worked on and has a new release every month on the 22nd. Updating is also very easy through a single upgrade script.
Pro Issues can have weight
On GitLab EE (free for open-source projects only) you can set the weight of an issue during its creation (from 1 to 9) to get a better idea of how much time, value or complexity a given issue has.
Pro DSCM + issue tracker + wiki
If you need a (distrubuted) SCM, Fossil comes with a built-in SCM, a wiki and issue tracker.
Pro Self-contained file
The data is stored in one single file. No file structure distributed over a bunch of folders.
Pro Multi platform
The executable is provided for multiple platforms, e.g. Linux, macOS, Windows.
Pro Easy to install
The Fossil application contains one single file. No need to install dependencies.
Cons
Con Search functionality is not that refined
While you can search for users or projects, you cannot search for a filename. This makes GitLab's search one of the weak points in an otherwise great tool.
Con Ticket comments can't be edited
While a ticket can have multiple comments added to it, and (separately) also attachments — if the users have the right permissions — it is impossible to edit a comment after submitting it. This is probably why a comment must be previewed before it can be submitted.
