GitLab just launched another feature that will help it compete with GitHub

Step by step, GitLab, the startup behind the GitLab open source software for managing source code, is becoming more competitive with GitHub, the company well known for hosting source code for many applications.

Today GitLab announced the availability of a new feature, GitLab Pages, in the startup’s Enterprise Edition. GitLab Pages is GitLab’s answer to GitHub Pages, a tool that people can use to create cool-looking websites for their open source projects on GitHub.

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“GitLab Pages allows you to host a static website on your GitLab instance, that is automatically deployed and updated, all from a normal GitLab project,” Job van der Voort, GitLab’s vice president of product, wrote in a blog post.

Of course, every repository has its own page, both on GitHub and on GitLab, but if you want to have a great, less technical landing page for projects or yourself or your group, this is just the thing.

Because it’s only available through GitLab’s Enterprise Edition, not the Community Edition, GitLab Pages probably won’t be popping up everywhere right away. GitHub Pages, by contrast, offer one site for every GitHub account and organization, and an unlimited number of project sites. But this is a perfectly good starting point. It’s possible that GitLab will make it available in the Community Edition, which the startup has done with its integration of Atlassian’s JIRA issue-tracking software.

Unlike GitHub Pages, GitLab Pages won’t let you add a default URL. But that’s coming.

“We plan to add CNAME and SSL support in an upcoming GitLab release,” van der Voort wrote.

The GitLab open source project began in 2011. GitLab B.V. the company started last year and announced a $4 million funding round this past September.

GitLab is still small relative to GitHub, which announced a $250 million funding round earlier this year and now has more than 10 million users. But as it adds more and more features that make GitHub GitHub, like Large File Storage and two-factor authentication, not to mention its own distinguishing features, like integrated continuous integration, GitLab is becoming a company to watch.

Updated at 1:45 p.m. Pacific to clarify that GitLab Pages are free.

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