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PRIVATE REGISTRY COMPARISON
GitLab's npm package registry integrates with projects, groups and CI/CD. PrivateNPM runs independently of your source-code platform and separates publishing credentials from recipient download keys. Compare an integrated development workflow with your distribution requirements.
Reviewed by the PrivateNPM team. This is a vendor comparison; official sources and assumptions are linked below.
THE DECISION
GitLab is a natural choice when package producers and consumers already operate in GitLab projects. PrivateNPM is worth evaluating when recipients should receive package access independently of the project and group structure of your source platform.
You distribute supported formats to customers and want recipient grants and download keys managed outside GitLab. You want one recipient workflow even when publishers use different source-code hosts.
Your team uses GitLab CI/CD and wants package publishing next to projects and groups. Its npm registry is documented for Free, Premium and Ultimate, including GitLab.com and self-managed offerings.
CAPABILITIES AND TRADEOFFS
| Requirement | PrivateNPM | GitLab Package Registry |
|---|---|---|
| Registry organization | Separate registries and package-level recipient grants. | Project, group and instance npm endpoints with GitLab permissions. |
| CI authentication | GitLab CI trusted publishing with OIDC, or a publisher key. | CI/CD job tokens and documented access, project, group or deploy tokens. |
| Read-only distribution | Dedicated download keys restricted by grants and key settings. | Deploy tokens support read_package_registry; evaluate their project or group scope. |
| Deployment choice | Hosted service. | GitLab.com, GitLab Self-Managed and GitLab Dedicated offerings. |
PrivateNPM features Plan limits and pricing Competitor documentation
ESTIMATE YOUR MONTH
Enter decimal GB (1 TB = 1,000 GB), human publisher seats and hosted packages across formats. Amounts are USD per month before tax. Customers using download keys are not publisher seats.
PrivateNPM estimates use the published monthly billing catalog, whole GB of excess transfer and the default overage cap of one monthly plan price. The first overage month is waived; these are ongoing-month examples. Annual billing, trial rules and a changed spend cap affect the bill. Registry count, download-key count and other feature requirements are not modeled: check all plan limits.
WORKED EXAMPLES
A team may publish to a project endpoint while consumers install through a group or instance endpoint. Map the routes and permissions used by each consumer. For external delivery, compare creating and revoking a deploy token with managing a recipient's exact package grants.
These are illustrative monthly workloads, not customer results or vendor benchmarks. Each PrivateNPM estimate selects the lowest-priced plan eligible for the shown storage, seat and package counts. Other plan limits still apply.
10 GB stored · 100 GB downloaded · 5 seats · 20 packages.
PrivateNPM: $29/month. Growth · monthly billing, default overage cap
GitLab Package Registry: evaluate this workload using the provider's pricing model and your additional requirements. No competitor bill is estimated.
100 GB stored · 1500 GB downloaded · 15 seats · 150 packages.
PrivateNPM: $198/month. Scale · monthly billing, default overage cap
GitLab Package Registry: evaluate this workload using the provider's pricing model and your additional requirements. No competitor bill is estimated.
500 GB stored · 5000 GB downloaded · 30 seats · 500 packages.
PrivateNPM: $499/month. Platform · monthly billing, default overage cap
GitLab Package Registry: evaluate this workload using the provider's pricing model and your additional requirements. No competitor bill is estimated.
MIGRATION CHECKLIST
Start with one package and one consumer. Keep the existing service available until you have verified publishing, allowed installs, denied access and rollback. Package bytes can be copied; identities, permissions and audit history require separate planning.
Use a publisher key to publish, then a read-only download key in a clean consumer project. Confirm that an allowed package installs, an ungranted package is denied and revocation blocks new downloads after the authorization cache expires. Already downloaded content cannot be revoked from a customer's disk.
Follow the publish-and-install quickstart, then configure the registry route and host-specific credential. For CI, use the trusted publishing guide. These are PrivateNPM walkthroughs; the checklist above is a migration plan, not a claim that every provider has been tested end to end.
Preserve an inventory of required versions, integrity values and dist-tags. Use package-manager commands to update lockfiles and inspect resolved URLs. Do not delete the source packages or revoke the old credentials until consumers have switched and you can restore the previous configuration.
Yes. GitLab documents deploy tokens with read_package_registry, as well as other token types. Compare the scope and administration of those tokens with the access your recipients require.
The npm registry documentation lists Free, Premium and Ultimate. Actual usage allowances, storage purchases and self-managed infrastructure still require a separate cost review.
Reviewed 30 October 2026 by the PrivateNPM team using the official pages below. Pricing can change; confirm current terms before buying. This is a documentation-based comparison, not an independent performance benchmark or a hands-on test of every vendor.
READY WHEN YOU ARE
