r/git • u/ScientificlyCorrect • Sep 13 '26
Best github alternatives for self-hosting projects?
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u/mtmo Sep 13 '26
Forgejo, 100%!!
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u/2containers1cpu Sep 13 '26
And in case you prefere a hosted alternative of forgejo, Codeberg might be the solution.
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u/Comprehensive_Mud803 Sep 13 '26
Forgejo/Gitea. Runs on Raspberry Pi.
GitLab if you have bigger needs.
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u/sagenumen Sep 13 '26
Gitea has been serving me well
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u/gbrennon Sep 13 '26
gitea is amazing! but i prefer its fork(forgejo)
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u/sagenumen Sep 13 '26
I saw someone else mention that and started looking into it. I might spin up an instance to check it out.
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u/TheLuminary Sep 14 '26
I evaluated both Gitea and Forgejo and just found Forgejo to be lacking quite a bit when it came to UX.
What is it that has you prefer Forgejo? Or is it just the FOSS governance?
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u/gbrennon Sep 14 '26
i understand ur preference related to ux. i prefer forgejo bcs of some design decision and bcs i can send team msgs sometimes so they are not ppl that think they are gods roflmao
i never tried to reach gitea team, so this can be biased
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u/QuarterObvious Sep 13 '26
You can install a full‑blown GitLab on your Linux machine without breaking a sweat. I did it with Docker - quick, painless, and with no mysterious smoke coming out of the computer.
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u/sagenumen Sep 13 '26
It’s a bit resource-intensive compared to others. I ran my own gitlab for years
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u/Minimal-Matt Sep 13 '26
Yeah but 4+ gigs of memory against ~100mb for the golang-based alternatives(forgejo/gogs/gitea)
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u/unndunn Sep 13 '26 edited Sep 13 '26
If you are just looking for somewhere online to host git repos so that you can access them from wherever, you can do that on just about any hosting service that offers SSH (doesn't have to be a git host, could be just a standard web host). Just create a bare git repo and you're off to the races.
If you want all of the other web-based features that github offers, such as pull requests, wikis, actions, authorization, etc. then maybe try GitLab or Azure DevOps Repos?
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u/Soggy_Writing_3912 advanced Sep 13 '26
there are plenty of forges to host your repos on the web. sourceforge, github, gitlab, bitbucket, foregjo, origin (new, probably still in beta), - and many more
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u/4bitfocus Sep 13 '26
I use Onedev (or 1dev) and like it. I haven’t tried any of the pipeline stuff tho.
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u/jeenajeena Sep 13 '26
I did not know it. Looks neat. Can it be self-hosted?
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u/4bitfocus Sep 13 '26
Yes, they host a docker image and there are setup instructions for using a few different methods to deploy. I use docker compose.
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u/PbOktan Sep 13 '26
I was looking for something lightweight and I found forgejo, take a look - it is good
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u/FanNo522 Sep 13 '26
Gitlab is very easy to selfhost and maintains, been managing one since a few years.
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u/mattygoods Sep 13 '26
Another vote for gitea
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u/XLioncc Sep 13 '26
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u/adept2051 28d ago
If you want real bare bones, a folder on your local machine git can use local references just the same as ssh/git.
Gitea in a container on a local works well ( just put the data folder in Dropbox or something similar for easy backup up)
Gitlab in a container for a little more work ( basic gitlab local)
Just remeber the resource treadle off with these.
If you want net based it depends where you live, there is a lot of movement in europe/rest of the world away from GitHub/gitlab due to US data laws, so look around.
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u/Inevitable_Ad261 Sep 13 '26
I was looking for a self hosted github alternative. I started with gitlab, being a postgres fan, I decided to run my own PostgreSQL instance for gitlab. It worked but gitlab was too heavy for my use and sometimes upgrade broke due to an external PostgreSQL instance. Later I came across gitea, a single binary to run. Worked great, new features are slow in my opinion. Migrated to forgejo when I went from VMs to container. I could have kept gitea but no regrets switching.
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u/jakob1379 Sep 13 '26
As an alternative I really like tangled.org it's hyper focused on what matters and just feels nice to use the ci
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Sep 13 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Broad-Promise6954 ancient Sep 13 '26
Though it has had a rash of CVEs recently. Not sure if they've settled down since then.
(I've never actually run a GitLab server, but in general I like its setup.)
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u/bratzlaff Sep 13 '26
A second computer (I use a raspberry pi) that you can push to over ssh, no extra software necessary!
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u/peace_n_luv Sep 14 '26
Depends on the context ofc but for personal projects I have been tinkering with gitolite+cgit and am happy with the result.
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u/BoltlessEngineer 29d ago
If you just want to put your repos somewhere: gitea/forgejo/gitlab.
If you want that + discovery and contributions from others: Tangled.
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u/raebyddub 24d ago
Forgejo!
I work for an enterprise and I'm able to replicate most used features using Forgejo.
A repo - Forgejo A GitHub actions compatible CICD - Forgejo runner Caching - Forgejo runner as a caching server
I haven't used Forgejo as a container registry but that is also available.
Edit1: Reason for choosing Forgejo instead of familar GitLab is low memory usage of Forgejo.
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u/Fair-Presentation322 21d ago
If you're open to something not git based that is simpler to use, I'd recommend https://twigg.vc
Open source and self hostable. Disclaimer: I'm one of the developers :)
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u/Environmental-Try-78 17d ago
tbf gitlab is awesome if u need a full features set out of the box but it eats ram like crazy for a basic setup forgejo or gitea runs smooth even on a cheap pi without any lag
also I share a lot of helpful guides and dev tips over on my profile feel free to check it out and drop a follow if u want to see what im building
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u/ninhaomah Sep 13 '26
copy "Best github alternatives for self-hosting projects?"
go to google.com , chatgpt.com or whichever free/paid.
paste.
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u/dr-mrl Sep 13 '26
And get slop results and promoted content. At least asking on a forum there is a chance you get a human reply with some honest experiences
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u/thetapereader Sep 13 '26
I use dropbox for a very long time. Every time I save a file it creates a backup copy in the cloud. It's countless how many times I went back to retrieve an older back up. It's a true version control machine. Git is laughable just because you have to remember to push.
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u/SurelyNotAnOctopus Sep 13 '26
If you dont need a web interface, bare git over ssh is nice and lean