GitLab Ultimate’s Total Economic Impact: 483% ROI Over 3 Years

A powerful DevSecOps platform streamlines operations, prevents security vulnerabilities from disrupting (and costing) your business, increases productivity, and fosters a culture of innovation and collaboration. That's exactly what we built GitLab to do, and our Ultimate tier represents the full power of our platform. To see the real-world results, we commissioned Forrester Consulting to create a “Total Economic Impact™ of GitLab Ultimate” study. Here’s what we discovered at a glance.

According to the study, for a composite organization based on interviewed customers, GitLab delivered:

• Three-year ROI of 483%
• 400% improvement in developer productivity
• 15x faster time to first release¹
• 5x time saved on security-related activities

Overall, GitLab enables 50% more work with business value.

The numbers tell a clear story: GitLab's platform transforms how teams work together. Whether you’re an application security lead tasked with improving the company’s security posture, a developer looking to deliver high-quality code faster, or a CTO looking for a scalable, secure, and flexible DevSecOps platform, this study (see full methodology below) shows that GitLab Ultimate delivers. Let’s break down the results.

Download the full 2024 Forrester Consulting “Total Economic Impact of GitLab Ultimate” study.

1. Three-year ROI of 483%

“The big win for us was efficiency — both in administration and in overall operations. Now, everyone can work collaboratively, and we can easily automate our pipeline. I’m also able to move personnel around to complete different tasks more efficiently. Rather than needing to train on different tools across programs, now it’s just ‘learn GitLab,’ and they’re ready to begin working.” - CTO and Senior Vice President, Defense industry

The study found that teams started seeing payback within six months of implementing GitLab Ultimate, primarily through improved efficiency. With a 483% ROI over three years, organizations reduced their software toolchain costs by 25% and cut the time IT teams spent on administering complex toolchains by 75%. Beyond the cost savings, moving to a unified platform fundamentally improves how teams develop and deliver software.

2. 400% improvement in productivity

“When I have conversations about GitLab with our developers, they universally agree that it has increased productivity at our organization across teams and roles. We now have one platform that has functions that everyone can use.” - Software architect, Energy/Research industry

Developers thrive in environments where they can easily switch between tasks without losing momentum. According to the study, developers can reclaim up to 305 hours per year by using testing automation within GitLab to help them test more frequently and track and fix bugs faster, all within a single interface with no context switching. This streamlined workflow allows them to focus on coding rather than juggling multiple tools and processes.

The productivity gains extend to onboarding, too: new hires in the composite organization’s software development team ramped up to full productivity 75% faster (i.e., in 1.5 weeks instead of 1.5 months). The impact is clear: Everyone on the team can contribute meaningful work sooner.

3. 15x faster time to first release

“Our superpower is software. It’s measured in terms of velocity and the ability to get new capabilities into the hands of our customers. For that to remain our primary focus, it just made economic sense to [consolidate] onto a single platform.” - CTO and Senior Vice President, Defense industry

The summary data from the customer interviews reveals that GitLab enables organizations to accelerate first production release by 15 times. This boost is achieved through faster project initiation, more frequent software releases, and a proactive approach to security that natively integrates security scans into the development process from the outset. Even with this increase in velocity, software quality, and security remain at the same high levels, thanks to developers' ability to fix issues early and quickly.

With security built directly into the development process, developers can identify, prioritize, and remediate vulnerabilities without disrupting their flow. This unified approach to managing the entire software development lifecycle means teams can move faster without compromising on security.

4. 5x time saved on security-related activities

“Integrating security and quality scanners into the pipeline was a game changer for us. With more automation and less manual work, we’re seeing fewer failures, fewer problems, and faster progress.” - Program Manager, Finance industry

Security is top-of-mind for every organization, as development speeds up and threats keep evolving. GitLab saves security team members in the composite organization 78 hours per member per year by automating recurring tasks like disaster recovery prep, auditing, and compliance checks. GitLab also improves visibility into software development processes, helping security and development teams work together more efficiently.

Cybersecurity and software development teams at the composite organization managed and mitigated security risks throughout the software development lifecycle with 81% less effort. This is because GitLab enabled them to integrate security protocols and scans throughout all stages of the software development lifecycle, simplifying how they maintain stringent security standards. As security testing and remediation are built into pipelines, teams reduce average response times and the risk of issues reaching production.

Experience DevSecOps in actionWith a 483% ROI, a rapid payback period, and countless success stories, GitLab is an invaluable tool for enterprises looking to transform their software development processes.

To explore how GitLab can benefit your organization, download the full Forrester Consulting “Total Economic Impact of GitLab Ultimate” study today.Methodology
For the study, Forrester interviewed four GitLab Ultimate customers across industries, including finance, defense, and research, and created a composite organization to represent the aggregated results of these interviews. The composite organization is expected to adopt GitLab Ultimate across all teams in a three-year period.

The composite organization is a $5 billion company with 5,000 employees, with 40% involved in software delivery and 50% of annual revenue driven by software development. Their goals are to consolidate multiple tools into a single, integrated platform, enhance developer productivity, ensure compliance with industry regulations and internal policies, and strengthen security throughout the development lifecycle.

1. Based on summary data from customer interviews; not applicable to the composite organization results.