According to some anonymous sources within GitLab, one of the largest open-source code repositories plans to save up to $1 million per year, or nearly a quarter of its hosting costs, by deleting inactive projects created by free users. According to the same sources, the policy will go into effect in September 2022, and users will be notified before their work is deleted. If these rumours are true, will GitLab users look for alternatives?

So far, GitLab has had a good reputation among developers and project maintainers, and many GitHub users migrated to GitLab after GitHub was acquired by Microsoft. However, many in the GitLab community are now concerned that the alleged policy will result in projects disappearing before users have the opportunity to archive the code on which they rely. Because many open-source projects are widely used, such a decision will have a significant negative impact. However, according to the anonymous sources, a single comment, commit, or new issue posted to a project during a year will be enough to keep it alive.

GitLab’s free tier includes 5GB of storage, 10GB of data transfers, 400 CI/CD minutes per month, as well as five users per namespace. Free users increase the total user base and the loyal ones typically bring in new users and strengthen the brand. Furthermore, those who use GitLab for personal projects frequently become strong advocates, recommending GitLab to their employers. A large user base increases the likelihood that third-party tools/APIs/integrations will support GitLab, grow the ecosystem and uplift its status.

Nonetheless, with cost control as its primary goal, the company intends to discourage some use of the free product. All that remains is to wait until September to see if the rumours are true.