Gitea vs GitLab vs Forgejo vs Gogs
The main self-hosted Git forges for hosting your code. Gogs and Gitea are lightweight; Forgejo is a community fork of Gitea; GitLab is the most complete (CI/CD, DevOps) and the heaviest.
| Tool | ★ GitHub | License | Platform |
|---|---|---|---|
| | 56,755 | MIT | Go, Docker, K8S |
| | 7,161 | MIT | Ruby, deb, Docker |
| | 0 | MIT | Docker, Go |
| | 47,672 | MIT | Go |
Popularity (★ on GitHub)
Gitea is a lightweight, complete Git forge — repositories, issues, pull requests and CI — that runs on modest hardware. It's the self-hosted alternative to GitHub for those who want to host their own code with low resource use.
Self Hosted Git repository management, code reviews, issue tracking, activity feeds and wikis.
A lightweight software forge focused on scaling, federation, and privacy (fork of Gitea).
Gogs is a self-contained, extremely lightweight Git forge that runs even on a Raspberry Pi. It's a minimalist alternative to GitHub for hosting personal repositories with minimal resources.
Frequently asked questions
Which is the best self-hosted alternative among Gitea, GitLab, Forgejo, Gogs?
It depends on your case. Gitea is the most popular (56,755 stars). Compare license, platform and features in the table above.
Are Gitea, GitLab, Forgejo, Gogs free?
Yes, they're all open source and self-hosted — you run them on your own server with no monthly fee.