Comparison

CodebaseHQ and Lalabase, compared honestly.

For teams who have worked in CodebaseHQ for years and want to know what a move gains them, and what it costs.

In our own cause

This page is ours, so it is not neutral. That said, I was a paying customer there myself for fifteen years. Which is why it also says when CodebaseHQ stays the better choice.

Guido Boyke, founder of Lalabase Guido Boyke, founder
// Why Lalabase exists

For fifteen years I was a customer myself.

Lalabase was not drawn up on a whiteboard. For fifteen years I ran my own client projects in CodebaseHQ: tickets, time entries, repositories, all in one place. The tool did its job, and I paid for it gladly.

The price was never my problem. Thirteen pounds a month at the start, twenty pounds at the end. My problem was that the product stopped moving while my work kept moving. I wanted to ask questions of my projects instead of searching five tools, and I wanted to know which jurisdiction my clients' data sits in.

At some point it was clear that I did not want to keep waiting for that. So I started building what I needed myself. My own fifteen years of data were the first migration Lalabase ever processed. The tool further down this page is exactly the one I moved myself with.

To check for yourself: the last entry on the CodebaseHQ product blog is dated 28 September 2020. The service is operated by Krystal Hosting Ltd. in London and billed in pounds sterling. These details are as of August 2026.

// Fair play first

What CodebaseHQ does well

Repositories are right there

Git, Mercurial and Subversion in the same tool as the tickets. For Subversion in particular there are hardly any good homes left today.

One price for the whole account

Plans cost a flat rate, and from the second plan up the number of users is unlimited. With a large team that works out cheap.

Fast and free of ballast

Short paths, reliable basics. I worked with it for fifteen years without it getting in my way.

// In detail

The comparison in detail

The CodebaseHQ details are the public state of codebasehq.com in August 2026. Lalabase does not host repositories, and where that matters the row says no.

Feature CodebaseHQ Lalabase Verdict
Tickets and projects Yes, proven Yes, with kanban, smart folders and statuses configurable per project Lalabase ahead
Repository hosting Yes, Git, Subversion and Mercurial No CodebaseHQ ahead
Searchable source code Yes, in the hosted repository Yes, read in as structure so the AI can answer questions about the implementation Depends on you
Wiki and documentation Yes, as a notebook Yes, versioned and searchable by AI Lalabase ahead
Time tracking Yes, on the ticket Yes, right on the ticket, with reports and billing of hours Lalabase ahead
AI answers with sources No Yes, across tickets, documentation, time entries and client conversations. You pick the provider and the jurisdiction, AI is off by default Lalabase ahead
Client access Possible, via roles and companies Built in, with dedicated permissions for clients Depends on you
GDPR and DPA The provider is based in the United Kingdom, outside the EU DPA included, hosting in Germany Lalabase ahead
Billing In pounds sterling, tiered by projects and disk space In euros, per occupied seat Depends on you
Support By email Email and phone, straight to the founder Lalabase ahead
Price with a large team A flat account price, regardless of headcount Tiered by occupied seats CodebaseHQ ahead
// Not a sales pitch

When CodebaseHQ stays the better choice

01

When your source code lives there and should stay there. Lalabase hosts no repositories, it only reads source code in to make it searchable. For Subversion and Mercurial there are barely any alternatives left anyway.

02

When there are many of you. Beyond a certain team size a flat account price beats any per-seat price, including ours. We will work out what yours would be beforehand.

03

When nothing about your current tool bothers you. Switching costs time, and staying is the cheaper decision then.

// The other case

When switching is worth it

01

If tickets, time and knowledge have ended up in three separate tools and nobody knows where anything is any more.

02

If clients ask you where the servers are and you have to look it up every time.

03

If you want to analyse your own project data with AI, asking questions of tickets, notes, time entries and source code instead of searching through them.

// Migration

Your years come with you.

Send us your CodebaseHQ exports and you will see your own projects in Lalabase before you decide. There is a built-in migration tool for exactly this: users, tickets including their posts, tracked time and the file attachments. We operate it for you, and whatever does not fit we remove again.

Send your export
01
You export from CodebaseHQ

The XML exports for users, tickets and time entries, plus the archive with the file attachments.

02
We load it in

With the built-in migration tool, in an environment just for you.

03
You take a look

On your own material. Whatever does not fit, we remove again.

Scope and duration are settled beforehand in a short phone call.

Or just have a look yourself.

No migration. Productive in under 5 minutes.