Pick GitLab if
teams who will stay on Free at $0 (5 users, 400 minutes) while they open a first pipeline graph, then Premium at $29/user/month billed yearly when they need unlimited licensed users and 10,000 compute minutes.
Read the GitLab pageGitLab vs Terraform
Our take
Pick GitLab if teams who will stay on Free at $0 (5 users, 400 minutes) while they open a first pipeline graph, then Premium at $29/user/month billed yearly when they need unlimited licensed users and 10,000 compute minutes. Pick Terraform if individuals / small teams who will stay on Free at $0 (500 managed resources) while they open a first Workspace Overview, then Essentials at $0.00013 per RUM-hour when they
Best for
GitLab A DevSecOps pipeline you start at $0
Terraform A workspace you start at a public $
Free plan
GitLab $0 · per user/month. No credit card. 5 users per top-level group. 400 compute minutes / month. 10 GiB storage. SCM + CI/CD. SAST. GitLab Credits are an add-on for Duo
Terraform $0 · up to 500 managed resources. Remote execution, VCS, private module registry, SSO, policy, run tasks. No charge for those 500
Lowest paid
GitLab GitLab Credits $1
Terraform Not published by the vendor
Next step up
GitLab Premium $29/user/mo yearly
Terraform
Runs where
GitLab Hosted
Terraform Hosted
Watch out
GitLab Free is 5 users and 400 minutes
Terraform Free hard-caps at 500 managed resources
Last checked
GitLab 2026-10-23 · about.gitlab.com/pricing
Terraform 2026-10-23 · ibm.com/products/hashicorp/pricing
Which one, then?
Pick Terraform if
individuals / small teams who will stay on Free at $0 (500 managed resources) while they open a first Workspace Overview, then Essentials at $0.00013 per RUM-hour when they outgrow the 500-resource cap.
Read the Terraform page