"Because GitLab is open source the enhancements can become part of the codebase instead of being external. This ensures the automated tests for all functionality are continually run, ensuring that plugins always work. It also ensures GitLab can continue to evolve with it’s plugins instead of being bound to a plugin API that is hard to change and that resists refactoring. This ensures we have many years of quality code and great monthly releases ahead of us."
"That doesn’t mean we’ll never do a marketplace, in fact this is the way GitLab.com will be free forever."
In case you're interested some of our thoughts regarding plugin marketplaces from https://about.gitlab.com/direction/#vision
"Because GitLab is open source the enhancements can become part of the codebase instead of being external. This ensures the automated tests for all functionality are continually run, ensuring that plugins always work. It also ensures GitLab can continue to evolve with it’s plugins instead of being bound to a plugin API that is hard to change and that resists refactoring. This ensures we have many years of quality code and great monthly releases ahead of us."
"That doesn’t mean we’ll never do a marketplace, in fact this is the way GitLab.com will be free forever."