5 Awesome Gitea Alternatives

Gitea is a lightweight, self-hosted Git service written in Go. It gives you repository hosting, pull requests, issue tracking, CI/CD with Gitea Actions, package registries, and more, all in a single binary that runs on minimal resources. The open-source version is free to self-host under the MIT license. Gitea Cloud starts at $9.50/seat/month, and the Enterprise self-managed plan runs $114/seat/year (~$9.50/month).

If you want full control over your code without per-seat pricing, self-hosting Gitea on Sliplane costs just €9/month per server, with one-click deployment, HTTPS, and persistent storage included. Check out our easy deploy guide to get started in minutes.

But maybe Gitea isn't quite the right fit for your workflow. Maybe you want community-driven governance, enterprise-grade DevOps, or something even more minimal. Let's look at 5 awesome alternatives.

1. Forgejo

Forgejo is a community-driven soft fork of Gitea, created in 2022 after concerns about Gitea Ltd.'s incorporation. It shares 99% of Gitea's codebase but is governed by the non-profit Codeberg e.V. and licensed under GPL v3. If you care about open governance and copyleft licensing, Forgejo is the natural choice.

• Features: GitHub-like UI, pull requests, issues, milestones, Forgejo Actions (CI/CD compatible with GitHub Actions), built-in package registry, federation via ActivityPub (in progress), organizations and teams, OAuth2, webhooks, LFS support, and migration tools for GitHub/GitLab/Bitbucket repos.
• Why You Should Use It: If community governance and GPL licensing matter to you, Forgejo is the better pick over Gitea. The non-profit backing means no surprise license changes. Forgejo also has the most ambitious federation roadmap in the lightweight forge space, aiming to let instances communicate via ActivityPub. It runs on as little as 170 MB of RAM.
• Why Not: Forgejo deliberately moves slower than Gitea on enterprise features like SAML SSO and audit logging. The ecosystem of third-party integrations is slightly smaller. If you need Gitea Cloud or Enterprise support, Forgejo doesn't offer a commercial equivalent.
• Pricing: Completely free and open source under GPL v3. No paid tiers, no cloud hosting from the project itself. Your only cost is the server, typically €5-13/month on a small VPS. Codeberg.org offers free hosted Forgejo for open-source projects.

2. GitLab CE

GitLab Community Edition is the heavyweight of self-hosted Git platforms. It's a full DevOps platform with Git hosting, CI/CD pipelines, container registry, security scanning, and project management, all in one package. Where Gitea aims for simplicity, GitLab aims for completeness.

• Features: Complete CI/CD with Auto DevOps, container registry, issue boards, merge requests with approvals, wiki, snippets, built-in security scanning (SAST, DAST, dependency scanning on Ultimate), Kubernetes integration, and a massive ecosystem of integrations.
• Why You Should Use It: If you need an all-in-one DevOps platform that covers everything from code to production, GitLab is unmatched. The Community Edition alone gives you more built-in CI/CD power than any lightweight forge. It's the go-to for teams that need compliance features, advanced pipelines, and enterprise-grade security scanning.
• Why Not: GitLab is resource-hungry. You'll need at least 4 GB of RAM (8 GB recommended), compared to Gitea's ~256 MB idle footprint. Upgrades can be complex, and the free tier limits you to 5 users per top-level group on SaaS. It's overkill for small teams or personal projects.
• Pricing: Community Edition is free to self-host. GitLab.com SaaS Free tier is $0 (5 users max). Premium starts at $29/user/month (SaaS) or $19/user/month (self-managed). Ultimate is $99/user/month with security scanning and compliance features.

3. Gogs

Gogs is the original "painless self-hosted Git service" that inspired both Gitea and Forgejo. Written in Go, it ships as a single binary and runs on as little as 64 MB of RAM. If you just need a Git server and nothing else, Gogs is as simple as it gets.

• Features: Repository management with SSH and HTTPS, pull requests, issue tracking, wikis, webhooks (Slack, Discord, Teams), organizations and teams, LDAP/SMTP/OAuth2 authentication, multiple database backends (SQLite, MySQL, PostgreSQL, MSSQL), and a built-in admin panel.
• Why You Should Use It: If your only requirement is "host Git repos and don't think about it," Gogs is the answer. It can run on a Raspberry Pi or a $5 VPS for months without any maintenance. The single-binary deployment means there's almost nothing to configure or break. It's battle-tested and stable.
• Why Not: Gogs has a much slower release cadence and smaller community than Gitea or Forgejo. It lacks built-in CI/CD, a package registry, and GitHub Actions compatibility. Advanced features like signed commit verification and fine-grained permissions are missing. If you need more than basic Git hosting, you'll outgrow Gogs quickly.
• Pricing: Completely free and open source under the MIT license. No paid tiers. Self-hosting costs are infrastructure-only, typically $5-10/month on a small VPS.

4. OneDev

OneDev is a self-hosted DevOps platform that bundles Git hosting, CI/CD, issue tracking, Kanban boards, and a package registry into a single application. Unlike Gitea, which relies on external runners for CI, OneDev runs pipeline steps inside Docker containers managed by the server itself.

• Features: Git hosting with code search and symbol navigation, integrated CI/CD (no separate runner needed), issue tracking with custom fields, Kanban boards, package registry (Docker, NPM, Maven, NuGet, PyPi), time tracking, pull requests with inline comments, LDAP/SSO authentication, built-in AI capabilities, and an MCP server for AI agent integration.
• Why You Should Use It: If you want code hosting and CI/CD in a single, tightly integrated package without setting up separate runners, OneDev is excellent. The built-in code navigation and symbol search are features you won't find in Gitea. It's also a strong choice for teams that want project management (issues, Kanban, time tracking) alongside their code.
• Why Not: OneDev uses its own CI/CD format, not GitHub Actions-compatible workflows. The community is smaller than Gitea or Forgejo, so finding help or third-party integrations can be harder. It uses about 500 MB of RAM, which is heavier than Gitea but still much lighter than GitLab.
• Pricing: Community Edition is free and open source (MIT license). Enterprise Edition costs $6/user/month and adds clustering, high availability, security scanning, time tracking, audit logs, and priority support. Minimum purchase is 12 user-months.

5. Gitness (Harness Open Source)

Gitness (now part of Harness Open Source) is a modern, open-source development platform built by Harness. It combines code hosting, CI/CD pipelines, hosted development environments (Gitspaces), and an artifact registry in a single lightweight package. It's the newest player in the self-hosted Git space.

• Features: Git hosting with pull requests, built-in CI/CD pipelines, hosted dev environments (Gitspaces), artifact registry, code search, branch protection rules, webhooks, and a modern, clean UI. The Harness platform adds feature flags, cloud cost management, and chaos engineering on paid tiers.
• Why You Should Use It: If you want a modern developer platform that goes beyond just Git hosting, Gitness is compelling. The built-in dev environments (Gitspaces) let your team spin up pre-configured coding environments instantly. It's ultra-lightweight and the UI feels fresh compared to the Gitea/Forgejo family. Great for teams that want an integrated experience without the weight of GitLab.
• Why Not: Gitness is relatively new and the community is still growing. The rebrand from Gitness to Harness Open Source may signal a shift toward commercial focus. It doesn't have the maturity or ecosystem of Gitea/Forgejo, and features like federation or Actions compatibility are missing.
• Pricing: Harness Open Source is completely free to self-host. The Free cloud plan includes 2,000 cloud credits/month. Enterprise pricing is custom and modular (per CI/CD module). The open-source core covers everything most teams need.

Conclusion

Each tool fills a different gap: Forgejo for community-driven governance and federation, GitLab CE for enterprise-grade DevOps, Gogs for dead-simple minimal Git hosting, OneDev for tightly integrated CI/CD and project management, and Gitness for a modern developer experience with built-in dev environments.

Gitea remains a great choice for teams that want a lightweight, feature-rich Git forge with the biggest ecosystem in its class. But if your priorities lean more toward open governance, enterprise compliance, or a full DevOps platform, one of these alternatives might be a better fit.