GitLab Code Review: Best Tools and Practices (2026)

Why GitLab code review matters GitLab's all-in-one DevOps platform handles everything from source control to deployment, and code review sits at the center of that pipeline. Unlike GitHub, where review tooling is often stitched together from marketplace apps and third-party Actions, GitLab builds its review workflow directly into the merge request experience. This tight integration means your code review process can enforce approval rules, trigger CI/CD pipelines, run security scans, and gate deployments - all from a single platform. But that strength also creates a trap. Because GitLab provides so much out of the box, many teams never explore the third-party tools that could dramatically improve their review quality. GitLab's built-in features handle the workflow mechanics well - who needs to approve, what checks must pass, when code can be merged - but they do not analyze your code for bugs, security vulnerabilities, or logic errors. That is where dedicated review tools come in. The