someone please tell me what the difference between these three are? apparently there's a difference but i really can't tell :/

Bitbucket gitlab and github are all doing the same. They host your git repositorys which is their main purpose.
With gitlab you have the option to host it yourself.

@ynnk Bitbucket allow you to host it yourself as well.

@ynnk @ScriptCoded i swear with github you can host your own branches n whatnot

out of them all, which would you prefer?

Github now they allow you to host your repo privately for free.

For work related tools I'd prefer BitBucket as their suite of tools that integrate well together are extremely useful Jira, Confluence and Source Tree.

Or one that isn't mentioned here Visual Studio Team Services / Devops.

Microsoft has jumped miles in this department. They offer a full CI suite of tools in a single product. We use that at my current place of work. We host onprem.

It's basically like car brands. They all do the same thing, but there are minor differences here and there.

@gronostaj that's actually a really good way of thinking about it, thanks :)

@gronostaj If you look at it as merely a car, yes. But if you look at it as a utility then its far more.

If you need a car that is capable of pulling a caravan then you pick a specific car, if you require a car that is only ever transporting a single occupant that you pick a specific car.

Assess your needs and pick a product that best suite them.

Do you need a private repo, host on prem or cloud, are you planning on building CI pipelines, if so where are you planning on hosting the end product, are you working with a big team, if so what agile tools are you planning on using etc...

If all you need is a repo then you question is redundant as you dont care for the differences.

@BIOS It really isn't. Don't just pick a product, framework, platform, language etc... for the sake of picking one. As above evaluate your needs and the benefits each product has to offer to find the best fit.