The GitLab Package Registry is one of the more popular alternatives to GitHub Packages for sharing internal libraries. Like GitHub Packages, it’s built right into the platform, feels familiar, and works smoothly with GitLab CI/CD. For teams already using GitLab, it’s an easy pick. On the surface, it all seems pretty seamless: each project manages its own dependencies, and publishing or using internal libraries is simple enough.

But as your organization grows, the limits of the GitLab Package Registry start to show. Managing packages at the project level can lead to duplicate security checks, inconsistent policies, and extra work. What starts out as a smooth, built-in solution can quickly turn into a patchwork of disconnected registries. That’s usually when teams start looking for a more centralized way to manage packages.

In this article, we’ll look at why GitLab’s project-scoped model can break down as your organization scales, leading to duplication, inefficiency, and security risks across teams. We’ll also take a moment to explore the solution: centralized, organization-wide package management. 

GitLab Is Built for Code, Not Packages 

GitLab is built around projects, with each one acting as its own little workspace. But modern software development is a lot more package-driven. These days, 70–90% of enterprise code comes from OSS dependencies that get reused across tons of projects. The GitLab Package Registry makes it easy to publish and use packages within a single project, but it starts to fall short when you’re managing shared or OSS packages at scale. Security, licensing, and policy decisions can’t live in silos. They need to be centralized to stay consistent across the organization.

The GitLab Package Registry follows GitLab’s project-as-a-boundary model, which means there’s not much centralized visibility or governance at the group level. Policies usually live within each project, and features like upstream proxying, promotion workflows, or curated distribution aren’t built in. That makes it tricky to manage packages consistently across multiple teams or environments. 

Over time, each project starts to operate like its own island. That’s fine for smaller teams, but once you start to scale, things get messy. Work gets repeated, policies drift, and security blind spots grow. Before long, what felt simple at first starts slowing everything down. 

How This Leads to Duplication, Risk, and Developer Frustration 

When you have a bunch of projects running on their own, your teams end up re-checking the same open-source packages for security and licenses. Internal libraries get rebuilt and republished across multiple projects, which just multiplies the effort. All this slows development, burns out devs, and causes friction between teams. 

When package management happens at the project level, things start to get messy fast:

⛔ It’s hard to get a clear view of all dependencies, and org-wise governance becomes scattered.

⛔ Policies vary from project to project, creating blind spots where packages go unvetted or non-compliant.

⛔ When a vulnerability pops up (like Log4Shell, my favorite example), teams have to manually hunt down which projects are affected.

All it takes is one issue to turn into a big, reactive scramble.

Developers end up doing a lot of manual work, such as sourcing, vetting, and managing dependencies for every single project. Vulnerabilities often show up way too late in the CI/CD pipeline, forcing rework and slowing down feature delivery. Finding and reusing internal, pre-approved packages is clunky, adding even more repeated effort. On top of that, manual audits and compliance checks across multiple projects pile on extra overhead, making it almost impossible to scale smoothly. 

If everything were centralized, you can already imagine how it would make things easier.  

How Centralized Package Management Solves Fragmentation 

The solution is to move from project-level to organization- or group-wide package management. Using a centralized package repository like ProGet lets you handle curation, governance, and distribution from one place. With an “approve once, use everywhere” approach, vetted packages are available across all projects, cutting out redundant scans and manual reviews. 

Centralized package management makes governance and security proactive instead of reactive. Unsafe or non-compliant packages get blocked before they ever reach a project, and teams only use approved, vetted packages. Org-wide policies for security, licensing, and versioning are applied consistently. With the added real-time visibility into package usage, it’s much easier to respond quickly and reliably when vulnerabilities do pop up. 

All in all, centralized package management will let your team scale development with confidence. Developers don’t have to manually source or vet dependencies; they can just pull from a trusted, searchable feed of pre-approved packages. Security issues are handled upstream, keeping CI/CD pipelines stable and reducing rework, delays, and overhead. Audits and compliance checks become faster and easier, while consistent governance strengthens both security and efficiency across the organization. 

From GitLab Packages to Centralized Control

If you’re using the GitLab Package Registry at the project level, you’ll start to see the hidden costs as your organization grows. Teams end up duplicating work, policies drift, and security blind spots get bigger. Developers get frustrated, overhead goes up, and what started out as a convenient setup eventually turns into something clunky, reactive, and hard to manage.

Centralized package management fixes that by bringing curation, governance, and distribution together in one place. Approved packages are ready to use across all projects, cutting out duplicate effort and keeping security and compliance consistent. Developers can focus on building instead of babysitting dependencies, giving your organization a scalable, predictable, and more secure way to manage packages.

If this article rings true for your org, learn how it stacks up with our guide “Package Management at Scale”. It walks you through how to evaluate your current practices, and provides a clear roadmap for implementing a secure and scalable package management strategy across your teams.  Get your free copy now!

Or, take the next step and implement a CMPR solution in your own organization using ProGet. You can start a 30-day free trial of ProGet Basic and see how centralized package management streamlines workflows, improves compliance, and boosts developer productivity firsthand.