GitHub vs GitLab vs Bitbucket Pricing 2026: Complete Comparison

Full plan breakdown · Team cost models · CI/CD pricing · Which platform saves your team money

Choosing between GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket isn't just about pricing — each platform has different pricing models (per-user vs per-group), different CI/CD costs, and different feature sets at each tier. This guide breaks down every plan, real team costs, and helps you calculate which platform is actually cheapest for your team size.

Quick Pricing Comparison: GitHub vs GitLab vs Bitbucket

GitHub Pricing Plans 2026

GitHub Actions Pricing (The Hidden Cost)

GitHub Actions runs free with 2,000 minutes per month for private repos. After that: $0.008 per minute.

• Light usage (1-2 deploys/day): $0/mo (stays under 2K min/mo)
• Medium usage (10 deploys/day, 5 min each): ~$150/mo ($3,000 min/mo overages)
• Heavy usage (50+ deploys/day): $300–$500/mo or higher

GitLab Pricing Plans 2026

Key difference: GitLab's plans are per-group, not per-user. Whether you have 1 person or 50 people in the group, Premium costs $29/month. This makes GitLab exceptionally cheap for large teams.

GitLab CI/CD Included

Unlike GitHub, GitLab includes CI/CD in every paid plan. Premium includes unlimited CI/CD pipeline minutes with 50GB storage. No per-minute charges.

Bitbucket Pricing Plans 2026

Bitbucket's advantage: Unlimited repositories at the Standard tier (unlike GitHub and GitLab which have no limit but charge per-user). Bitbucket Pipelines (CI/CD) is included in Standard ($5/user/mo) — cheaper than GitHub Actions overage costs.

Real Team Cost Comparison

5-Person Development Team

20-Person Team

Feature Comparison: GitHub Pro vs GitLab Premium vs Bitbucket Standard

Hidden Costs & Add-Ons

GitHub Hidden Costs

• GitHub Advanced Security: $200+/month minimum (SAST/secret scanning/supply chain security)
• GitHub Actions minutes: $0.008/minute after 2,000 free minutes (can easily be $200–$500/mo)
• Copilot for Business: $30/user/month (separate from base plan)
• Storage overages: $0.25/GB/month after included storage

GitLab Hidden Costs

• Self-managed add-ons: Minimal — most features included in paid plans
• Compute costs: If using GitLab Dedicated (SaaS with more isolation), premium pricing applies

Bitbucket Hidden Costs

• Pipelines minutes: Depends on runner (free, paid, or self-hosted)
• Storage overages: 5GB per user, additional storage available
• Jira integration: Free, but encourages Jira upsell

When to Choose Each Platform

Migration Considerations

From GitHub to GitLab

Cost savings: A 20-person team saves $4,200/year by switching from GitHub Pro + Actions to GitLab Premium. Import is straightforward via GitLab's native importer. CI/CD pipelines require rewriting from GitHub Actions YAML to GitLab CI YAML (usually 30 min–2 hours per pipeline).

From GitHub to Bitbucket

Cost savings: Moderate. A 20-person team saves $3,360/year by switching to Bitbucket Standard. Integration with Jira is seamless, making this ideal if your team uses Jira.

From Bitbucket to GitHub or GitLab

GitHub and GitLab have better open source communities and more marketplace integrations. Bitbucket Cloud to GitHub or GitLab migration is straightforward with native import tools.

FAQ

Is GitHub or GitLab cheaper for 50 people?

GitLab is dramatically cheaper. GitHub costs $2,400/year base (50 × $4/mo) plus $300–$500/month in Actions = ~$6,000–$7,200/year. GitLab is $348/year flat for 50 people with unlimited CI/CD. That's 17–20x cheaper.

Do all three platforms charge for private repositories?

No. All three offer free plans with unlimited private repositories. GitHub and Bitbucket's free tiers are best for small teams (≤5 people). GitLab's free tier is generous and includes 400 CI/CD minutes per month.

Can I run my own CI/CD runners on all three?

Yes. GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, and Bitbucket Pipelines all support self-hosted runners. This is useful if you have compliance requirements or want to avoid per-minute charges.

Which has the best developer community?

GitHub has the largest open source community and most third-party integrations. GitLab is growing and appeals to teams that want to self-host. Bitbucket is strong within Atlassian-using organizations.

Should I upgrade to Team plan on GitHub?

GitHub Team ($21/user/mo) adds SAML SSO, team management, and audit logs. You only need it if your company requires SSO or advanced compliance features. For most teams, Pro with a password manager is sufficient.