GitLab
Large (~2,500)
Mercury
Large (~1,300)
Best For
GitLab
Best for: Engineers who want a fully remote, async-first culture with radical transparency
Mercury
Best for: Engineers who want product ownership and fast growth building startup banking infrastructure
Ratings
GitLabMercury
3.9
4.3
Overall
3.9
3.8
Work-Life Balance
4.0
3.9
Culture & Values
3.8
4.0
Comp & Benefits
3.5
3.8
Senior Mgmt
3.7
3.9
Career Opps
👍 75% Recommend
👤 70% CEO Approval (Sid Sijbrandij)
👍 79% Recommend
👤 85% CEO Approval (Immad Akhund)
Culture Values
GitLab only
🌐 Remote-Friendly📡 Async-First🪟 Transparent🔓 Open Source⚖️ Work-Life Balance
Mercury only
🎯 Direct Product Impact⚙️ Engineering-Driven🚀 Ship Fast & Iterate🌱 Learning & Growth💎 Strong Comp & Equity🧩 Wears Many Hats
Shared
None
Pros & Cons
GitLab
- Best-in-class all-remote culture — truly async-first with genuine flexibility
- Radically transparent company with a public handbook and open processes
- Revenue organization has seen quota chaos and low morale
- Some leadership instability at the C-suite level
Mercury
- Strong talent density with smart, motivated teammates and genuine autonomy and ownership
- Great Place to Work certified — product-first mindset with meaningful scope for every engineer
- Still figuring out how to scale processes — expect some ambiguity and shifting priorities
- Work-life balance rated 3.8/5 — periods of higher intensity during rapid growth phases
Bottom Line
GitLab
Choose GitLab if you want the gold standard of all-remote work with public handbook and async processes — but expect bureaucracy at scale and comp below top-tier.
Mercury
Choose Mercury if you want product ownership, fast growth, and to build banking infrastructure for startups — but expect growing pains and occasionally intense workloads.
Open Roles
GitLab — 195 jobs
💻 Engineering
79
💼 Sales / GTM
67
📋 Product
10
⚖️ Legal
5
📊 Data
4
🎨 Design
4
📣 Marketing
4
👤 HR / People
2
⚙️ Operations
2
Mercury — 70 jobs
💻 Engineering
15
💼 Sales / GTM
13
👤 HR / People
4
📋 Product
4
🎨 Design
3
⚖️ Legal
3
⚙️ Operations
3
📊 Data
2
💰 Finance
2
📣 Marketing
2
🧠 ML / AI
1
🎧 Support
1
Summary
GitLab scores 3.9/5.0 on Glassdoor with a 3.9 work-life balance rating. Mercury scores 4.3/5.0 overall with a 3.8 WLB. That’s a 0.4-point gap on overall satisfaction.
On the hiring front, GitLab has 195 open roles and Mercury has 70 open roles.