Support for Alpha, Beta, Limited Availability, and Generally Available features
Some GitLab features are released as Alpha or Beta versions and are not fully supported. All other features are considered to be Generally Available (GA).
Alpha features
Support is not provided for Alpha features and issues with them should be opened in the GitLab issue tracker.
Characteristics of Alpha features:
- Not ready for production use.
- Unstable and can cause performance and stability issues.
- Configuration and dependencies are likely to change.
- Features and functions may be removed. Breaking changes may occur outside of major releases or with less notice than for Beta or Generally Available features.
- Data loss can occur (be that through bugs or updates).
- Documentation reflects the Alpha status.
- Behind flags that are off by default.
- Not announced in release posts.
Beta features
Your Support Contract provides commercially-reasonable effort support for Beta features, with the expectation that issues require extra time and assistance from development to troubleshoot.
Closed Beta features
Closed Beta features are available to selected users only.
- Not ready for production use.
- Unstable and can cause performance and stability issues.
- Configuration and dependencies unlikely to change.
- Features and functions unlikely to change. However, breaking changes may occur outside of major releases or with less notice than for Generally Available features.
- Data loss less likely.
- Behind a feature flag that is off by default and the UI reflects Beta status.
- Documentation reflects Beta status.
- Can be announced in a release post that reflects Beta status.
Open Beta features
- Not ready for production use.
- Unstable and can cause performance and stability issues.
- Configuration and dependencies unlikely to change.
- Features and functions unlikely to change. However, breaking changes may occur outside of major releases or with less notice than for Generally Available features.
- Data loss not likely.
- Support on a commercially-reasonable effort basis.
- Documentation reflects Beta status.
- Behind a feature flag that is on by default and the UI reflects Beta status.
- Behind a toggle that is off by default and the UI reflects Beta status.
- Can be announced in a release post that reflects Beta status.
Limited Availability (LA)
Characteristics of Limited Availability features:
- Ready for production use by a small set of customers.
- Can be booked by Deal Desk as part of an order.
- Fully documented and supported.
Generally Available (GA)
Generally Available features means that they passed the Production Readiness Review for GitLab.com, and are:
- Ready for production use at any scale.
- Fully documented and supported.