🦊 GitLab Scraper — Projects, Merge Requests & Issues vs GitLab API

Pay-per-result GitLab scraper — extracts full project metadata, stars, forks, commit cadence, merge-request stats, issue counts, and CI/CD pipeline history from public GitLab.com and self-hosted GitLab instances. Built for OSS scouts, dev-tool competitive intel, and procurement researchers as a no-token-rotation alternative to the official GitLab REST API (10 req/sec authenticated), GraphQL API (point-budget), Sourcegraph Cloud ($299-1000+/mo), and SaaS aggregators like LinearB ($25-79/user/mo) and Velocity by Code Climate ($499+/mo).

Why GitLab Scraper Beats the GitLab API, Sourcegraph & LinearB

Feature	NexGenData GitLab Scraper	GitLab official API	Sourcegraph Cloud	LinearB
Cost	$0.002 / project, pay-per-result	Free + rate-limited	$299-1000+ / month	$25-79 / user / month
Rate limit	None for end user	10 req/sec authenticated	Plan-dependent	Plan-dependent
Self-hosted GitLab support	Yes — set instance URL	Yes (with PAT)	Yes (with PAT)	Yes (with PAT)
Auth	Apify token + optional GitLab PAT	GitLab PAT required for most ops	Account + PAT	Account + PAT
Bulk export	Direct dataset → JSON/CSV/Excel	Per-call REST + pagination	UI + limited API	API
Cross-org / cross-instance scan	Yes	No (instance-scoped)	Yes	Yes
Free trial	Free Apify credits	Free for low volume	30-day trial	30-day trial

OSS scouts, devtool marketers, and procurement researchers pick this actor instead of building their own GitLab PAT-rotation rig because at >2000 projects the official API's per-second cap forces multi-hour scans. It is a drop-in alternative to Sourcegraph Cloud for "I just need GitLab project metadata for my BI tool" — the bare data without the UI overhead.

What You Get Per Project

Each dataset item is a flat JSON record:

• id, namespace, path, web_url, description
• stars, forks, open_issues, closed_issues, open_mrs, merged_mrs
• primary_language, language_breakdown
• topics, license, default_branch, visibility
• created_at, last_activity_at, last_release_at
• commits_last_90d, unique_committers_last_90d
• top_committers — array of {username, name, commits}
• merge_request_stats — average lead time, throughput, review latency
• pipeline_success_rate_90d, last_pipeline_status
• readme_text, archived, mirror, forked_from

Use Cases

• OSS scouts — find growing GitLab-hosted projects that don't show up on GitHub trending
• Devtool marketers — discover teams running self-hosted GitLab for outbound targeting
• DevOps procurement — benchmark a target company's CI velocity before pitching them
• Migration consultancies — quantify the scope of a GitLab → GitHub migration RFP
• Open-source maintainers — track fork activity and downstream contributions across instances
• Investor diligence — verify "X projects on GitLab" claims with raw data
• Internal-platform teams — audit your own org's GitLab health across thousands of repos

Quick Start

from apify_client import ApifyClient
client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("nexgendata/gitlab-scraper").call(run_input={
    "instance": "https://gitlab.com",
    "search": "kubernetes",
    "minStars": 10,
    "maxResults": 1000,
    "includeMergeRequestStats": True
})
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item["path"], item["stars"], item["commits_last_90d"])

Pricing

Pay-per-event — no PAT-rotation rig required, no monthly minimum.

• Actor Start: $0.0001
• Per project: $0.002

A 1000-project search costs about $2. Equivalent GitLab-API rate-respecting scan takes 2+ hours of PAT juggling.

Related NexGenData Actors

Use case	Actor
GitHub repos + stars + contributors	GitHub Scraper
Daily / weekly trending repos	GitHub Trending Scraper
Deep stargazer-history analytics	GitHub Repo Stats
Docker Hub image pull counts	Docker Hub Scraper
Dev.to articles & dev audience	Dev.to Scraper
Developer tools MCP server	Developer Tools MCP Server
Company tech-stack detector	Company Tech Stack Detector
StackOverflow Q&A trends	StackOverflow Questions

FAQ

Q: Does this work with self-hosted GitLab? Yes — set instance: "https://gitlab.yourcompany.com" and supply a PAT in gitlabToken. The actor uses the same API surface across self-hosted and gitlab.com.

Q: Does this need a GitLab PAT? Only for self-hosted, private projects, or higher request volumes. Public gitlab.com searches work without one.

Q: How does this compare to the GitLab GraphQL API? GraphQL gives you per-call efficiency but ties you to a point budget. This actor flattens the data, runs the multi-call dance for you, and returns one row per project.

Q: Can I get pipeline history? Yes — includePipelineHistory: true adds the last 90 days of pipeline runs per project.

Q: Schema stability? Field names are versioned per actor release. We track GitLab major API versions.

Q: What about merge-request review-latency metrics? merge_request_stats includes avg_lead_time_hours, avg_review_latency_hours, and throughput_per_week. These are computed from the public MR events stream.

About NexGenData

NexGenData publishes 260+ buyer-intent actors covering SEC filings, YC alumni, lead generation, competitive intelligence, stock fundamentals across 30+ exchanges, and more. All pay-per-result. Browse the full catalog at https://apify.com/nexgendata?fpr=2ayu9b

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How NexGenData Pricing Works

Every NexGenData actor uses pay-per-event pricing — you only pay for results that actually land in your dataset. No monthly minimum, no seat fees, no surprise overage bills.

• Actor Start: a single-event charge each time you spin the actor up (scaled to memory size)
• Result / item: charged per item written to the default dataset
• No charge for retries, internal proxy rotation, or failed sub-requests — those are absorbed by the platform

Apify Platform Bonus

New to Apify? Sign up with the NexGenData referral link — you get free platform credits on signup (enough for several thousand free results) and you help fund the maintenance of this actor fleet.

Integration Surface

Every actor in the NexGenData catalog can be triggered from:

• Apify console — point-and-click run
• Apify API — REST + webhooks
• Apify Python / JS SDKs — programmatic batch
• Zapier, Make.com, n8n — official integrations
• MCP — many actors are exposed as MCP tools for Claude / ChatGPT / Cursor agents
• Schedules — built-in cron for daily / weekly / monthly runs
• Webhooks — POST results to any HTTPS endpoint on dataset write

Support

NexGenData maintains 260+ Apify actors and ships updates regularly. Bug reports via the Apify console issues tab get a response within 24 hours. Roadmap requests are welcome — high-demand features ship in the next version.

Home: thenextgennexus.com Full catalog: apify.com/nexgendata