GitLab Has a Free Container Registry, Package Registry, and API — Here's What GitHub Doesn't Tell You

#devops #beginners #tutorial #git

GitLab gives you a complete CI/CD platform, container registry, package registry, AND a full-featured API. All free for public and private repos.

Here's what most developers don't know you can do with it.

The API: No Rate Limit Pain

Base URL: https://gitlab.com/api/v4/

Unlike GitHub (60 req/hour unauthenticated), GitLab gives you 2,000 requests per minute with a personal access token.

Search Any Public Project

curl "https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects?search=kubernetes&order_by=stars&sort=desc" | jq '.[0] | {name, star_count, web_url}'

{
  "name": "kubernetes",
  "star_count": 2341,
  "web_url": "https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/kubernetes"
}

Get Repository File Contents (No Clone Needed)

curl "https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/278964/repository/files/README.md/raw?ref=main"

Read any file from any public repo without cloning. Project ID 278964 is GitLab itself.

List All CI/CD Pipelines

curl -H "PRIVATE-TOKEN: your_token" \
  "https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/:id/pipelines?status=failed&per_page=5" | \
  jq '.[] | {id, status, ref, created_at}'

Monitor failed pipelines across all your projects. Build a Slack alert in 10 lines.

Free Container Registry

# Push any Docker image to GitLab for free
docker login registry.gitlab.com
docker tag my-app registry.gitlab.com/username/project/my-app:latest
docker push registry.gitlab.com/username/project/my-app:latest

Unlimited private container images. Docker Hub limits you to 1 private repo on free tier.

Free Package Registry

# Publish npm packages privately
npm config set @scope:registry https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/:id/packages/npm/
npm publish

Also supports: PyPI, Maven, NuGet, Go, Composer, Conan, Helm, and generic packages. All free.

GitLab vs GitHub Free Tier

Feature	GitHub Free	GitLab Free
Private repos	Unlimited	Unlimited
CI/CD minutes/month	2,000	400
Container registry	500MB (packages)	5GB
Package registry	500MB	5GB
API rate limit	5,000/hr	2,000/min
Pages	Yes	Yes
Wiki	Yes	Yes
Issue boards	Basic	Full Kanban

CI/CD That Actually Works

# .gitlab-ci.yml - that's it, no GitHub Actions YAML gymnastics
test:
  image: node:20
  script:
    - npm install
    - npm test

deploy:
  image: node:20
  script:
    - npm run build
    - npx netlify deploy --prod
  only:
    - main

GitLab CI syntax is cleaner than GitHub Actions. Fight me.

Useful API Endpoints

Endpoint	What it does
`GET /projects`	Search/list projects
`GET /projects/:id/repository/tree`	List repo files
`GET /projects/:id/repository/files/:path/raw`	Read file contents
`GET /projects/:id/pipelines`	CI/CD pipeline status
`GET /projects/:id/merge_requests`	List MRs (PRs)
`GET /projects/:id/issues`	List issues
`GET /projects/:id/registry/repositories`	Container images
`POST /projects`	Create a new project