A neutral, maintained directory of GitHub alternatives. Every entry links to its source.
45 platforms37 active3 in beta5 dead or closed
This is a directory, not a ranking. Platforms are grouped by how they are run:
hosted commercially, run by non-profits, self-hosted, decentralised, or built for
large binary assets. That choice constrains everything else.
Pricing and hosting
All 45 platforms compared. Scroll sideways for more columns.
Open core: MIT for Community Edition, proprietary for paid tiers
Free tier on GitLab.com. Accounts created after 27 January 2026 are limited to 3 top-level groups, and new private top-level namespaces are capped at 5 users.
Premium $29/user/month billed annually; Ultimate on custom pricing
First 5 users free with unlimited private repositories. Unlimited free Stakeholder accounts. One hosted CI job with 1,800 minutes per month, plus one self-hosted job with unlimited minutes.
Basic $6/user/month, Basic + Test Plans $52/user/month
The facts that usually decide the choice: whether CI is included or you bring
your own, whether there is an issue tracker at all, and whether your existing
GitHub Actions workflow files keep working.
What each platform can do. 40 active platforms; discontinued ones are omitted. Scroll sideways for more columns.
The two platforms most teams compare first, side by side on price, limits, hosting model and licence. Verified 19 September 2026.
New and in beta
Launched or announced during 2026 and not yet stable. Two of these arrived on 17 August 2026. Treat all of them as beta software: access is staged, feature sets are incomplete, and pricing can still change.
Launched 17 August 2026. A Git forge built into the Cursor editor.
Origin is Cursor's own Git forge, announced on 17 August 2026. It hosts repositories, speaks standard Git, mirrors from GitHub, and supports pull requests with review and merge, plus code browsing and search. There is no issue tracker and no built-in CI; instead Cursor launched with integrations for Vercel, Buildkite and Depot. The pitch is depth of integration with the Cursor editor and its cloud agents rather than breadth of forge features.
Hosting
Cloud (Cursor)
Licence
Proprietary
Free tier
None. Origin requires a paid Cursor plan.
Paid plans
Included with Cursor Pro, Teams and Enterprise plans
CI/CD
Integrations
Issue tracker
No
Reads Actions YAML
No
SAML / SSO
Enterprise
Used by
Launched 17 August 2026. No public adopters yet.
Early beta with a staged rollout, so availability depends on your plan and when your account is reached. Teams on legacy privacy mode must switch to Privacy Mode before Origin can be enabled.
Strengths
Pull requests with review and merge, unusual for a forge this new
Syncs from existing GitHub repositories rather than demanding a migration
Tightly integrated with Cursor agents and Cursor code search
Trade-offs
No free tier at all. A paid Cursor plan is required
Early beta with staged access, so you may not be able to enable it yet
No issue tracking and no native CI; both depend on third parties
Moving from GitHub
Syncs repositories directly from GitHub, so code and history arrive intact. Issues cannot transfer because Origin has no issue tracker. CI must be rebuilt on Vercel, Buildkite or Depot.
Versioned storage that speaks Git, built for agents rather than people.
Artifacts is Git-compatible storage built on Durable Objects, Workers, R2 and KV rather than a traditional Git server. You can create repositories through a REST or Workers API, clone and push with any standard Git client, fork, and import from GitHub or any other remote. It is designed for AI agents that need to spin up millions of throwaway repositories, and it deliberately omits everything a forge provides: no issues, no pull requests, no code review, no web interface. Treat it as infrastructure, not as somewhere to move your project.
Hosting
Cloud (Cloudflare)
Licence
Proprietary service; the ArtifactFS filesystem driver is open source
Free tier
First 10,000 operations and 1 GB storage per month included during beta
Paid plans
$0.15 per 1,000 operations, $0.50 per GB-month
CI/CD
None
Issue tracker
No
Reads Actions YAML
No
SAML / SSO
No
Used by
Cloudflare itself, for sandbox state and agent sessions.
Closed beta as of August 2026. Access requires an application. Announced April 2026 with public beta targeted for May, which has not yet arrived.
Strengths
Repositories can be created programmatically at very large scale
Works with any standard Git client over authenticated HTTPS
Native git-notes support, so agents can attach metadata without rewriting objects
Trade-offs
Closed beta, so you cannot simply sign up
Not a forge: no issues, pull requests, review or web interface
Durable Object architecture imposes chunking and memory limits on very large objects
Moving from GitHub
Imports from GitHub or any Git remote. Nothing beyond code exists to migrate, since there is no issue tracker, review or CI to move to.
Announced 17 August 2026. Git storage built into the Netlify platform.
Netlify announced on 17 August 2026 that it is now a Git host. Source provides automatic versioning for code created through Netlify Drop and Agent Runners, and it is built to preserve context beyond the code itself: prompts, decisions and intent alongside commits. Netlify published clone benchmarks against GitHub: p50 282 ms versus 385 ms, and p95 693 ms versus 1,510 ms, with full CI setup at p95 1.5 s versus 3.3 s. It is not a forge: Netlify does not describe pull requests, issues or code review as Source features, and review happens through Deploy Previews instead.
Hosting
Cloud (Netlify)
Licence
Proprietary
Free tier
Part of the Netlify platform rather than a separately priced product
Paid plans
No separate pricing published
CI/CD
Built-in
Issue tracker
No
Reads Actions YAML
No
SAML / SSO
Paid tiers
Used by
Netlify Drop and Agent Runners. Announced 17 August 2026.
Netlify states plainly that connecting an external Git provider remains a core feature, so Source supplements GitHub rather than replacing it.
Strengths
Published clone and CI benchmarks that beat GitHub on both p50 and p95
No separate account or external repository needed to start
Designed to keep agent context, not just commits
Trade-offs
Not a forge: no pull requests, issues or code review described
Netlify positions it as a supplement to external Git, not a replacement
No published standalone pricing or release-status detail
Moving from GitHub
Intended for code created inside Netlify rather than migrated in. Netlify still recommends connecting an external Git provider for existing projects.
The most complete like-for-like replacement for GitHub.
GitLab covers the same ground as GitHub and then some: repositories, merge requests, issue boards, a mature built-in CI/CD system, a container registry, and security scanning. The self-managed Community Edition is genuinely free with no seat limit, which makes GitLab the usual destination for teams that want to leave GitHub without giving up features.
Hosting
Cloud and self-managed
Licence
Open core: MIT for Community Edition, proprietary for paid tiers
Free tier
Free tier on GitLab.com. Accounts created after 27 January 2026 are limited to 3 top-level groups, and new private top-level namespaces are capped at 5 users.
Paid plans
Premium $29/user/month billed annually; Ultimate on custom pricing
CI/CD
Built-in
Issue tracker
Yes
Reads Actions YAML
No
SAML / SSO
Premium and above
Used by
CERN, NASA and Siemens are publicly cited users.
Self-managed Community Edition is free and unlimited. GitLab no longer publishes a list price for Ultimate; the pricing page says "custom pricing". Free includes 400 compute minutes and 10 GiB storage a month.
Strengths
Built-in CI/CD that predates GitHub Actions and remains deeply integrated
Community Edition is free and unlimited when self-hosted
Single application covering plan, build, secure and deploy
Trade-offs
Self-hosting is resource-hungry compared with lightweight forges
The free SaaS tier has tightened repeatedly since 2022
Interface density is a common complaint from small teams
Moving from GitHub
The GitHub importer is the most complete of any platform here: repositories, issues, pull requests, wikis, milestones and releases all transfer. Actions workflows do not, and must be rewritten as GitLab CI.
Bitbucket makes most sense if your team already lives in Jira and Confluence. Issues, branches and deployments cross-link with Atlassian tooling automatically. Bitbucket Pipelines handles CI. Per-seat pricing undercuts both GitHub Team and GitLab Premium, though the free tier stops at five users.
Hosting
Cloud and Data Center
Licence
Proprietary
Free tier
Up to 5 users, 50 build minutes per month, 1 GB Git LFS storage
Paid plans
Standard $3.65/user/month, Premium $7.25/user/month
CI/CD
Built-in
Issue tracker
Yes
Reads Actions YAML
No
SAML / SSO
Premium via Atlassian Guard
Used by
Common wherever teams have standardised on Jira and Confluence.
Add-ons: 1,000 extra build minutes or 100 GB storage for $10/month each.
Strengths
Native Jira and Confluence integration, not a bolted-on app
Cheapest per-seat pricing among the major commercial forges
Data Center option for regulated on-premises deployment
Trade-offs
Free tier caps at 5 users
Smaller open-source community than GitHub or GitLab
Standalone Bitbucket Server reached end of life in February 2024
Moving from GitHub
The importer brings repositories and history. Issues need a separate import and pull request discussions do not transfer. Pipelines uses its own YAML, so CI is a rewrite.
Unlimited private Git repos inside the Microsoft stack.
Azure Repos is the Git service inside Azure DevOps, alongside Boards, Pipelines and Artifacts. It is owned by Microsoft, the same as GitHub, but sits on separate infrastructure with a separate roadmap and a stronger enterprise governance story. The unlimited self-hosted CI minutes are unusually generous.
Hosting
Cloud and Azure DevOps Server on-premises
Licence
Proprietary
Free tier
First 5 users free with unlimited private repositories. Unlimited free Stakeholder accounts. One hosted CI job with 1,800 minutes per month, plus one self-hosted job with unlimited minutes.
Paid plans
Basic $6/user/month, Basic + Test Plans $52/user/month
CI/CD
Built-in
Issue tracker
Yes
Reads Actions YAML
No
SAML / SSO
Yes, via Entra ID
Used by
Microsoft engineering teams and enterprises already on Azure.
Extra hosted parallel jobs $40/month; extra self-hosted jobs $15/month.
Strengths
Unlimited private repositories even on the free tier
Unlimited CI minutes on self-hosted agents
Deep Active Directory and Entra ID integration
Trade-offs
Also Microsoft-owned, so it does not reduce vendor concentration
Interface feels dated next to newer forges
Microsoft steers new work toward GitHub, so investment is uneven
Moving from GitHub
Repository import is straightforward. Issues become Boards work items only through third-party tooling. Azure Pipelines YAML is close enough to Actions that rewrites are usually mechanical.
Reopened to new customers in November 2025 after an 16-month closure.
CodeCommit is managed Git hosting inside AWS, with IAM for access control and native hooks into CodePipeline and CodeBuild. AWS closed it to new customers in July 2024 and told people to migrate away, then reversed the decision in November 2025 and resumed adding features. That history is worth weighing: the service is available again, but it has already been deprioritised once.
Hosting
Cloud (AWS)
Licence
Proprietary
Free tier
5 active users per month included in the AWS Free Tier
Paid plans
$1 per additional active user per month
CI/CD
Integrations
Issue tracker
No
Reads Actions YAML
No
SAML / SSO
Yes, via IAM Identity Center
Used by
Teams keeping source inside an existing AWS account boundary.
Closed to new customers on 25 July 2024, then reopened on 25 November 2025. Many comparison articles have not been updated.
Strengths
IAM-native access control with no separate user directory
Repositories stay inside your AWS account boundary and region
Very low cost at $1 per active user beyond the free five
Trade-offs
AWS already tried to sunset it once, which is a real continuity signal
No issue tracker, wiki, or pull-request UI worth the name
Only useful if you are already committed to AWS
Moving from GitHub
Push a mirror clone and you are done, because there is nothing else to move. No issues, no pull request history, no CI configuration to carry across.
Gitee is the largest Git host in mainland China, with domestic infrastructure that avoids the latency and reliability problems of reaching GitHub from inside the country. Public repositories undergo manual content review before they become visible, a legal requirement that has no equivalent on Western platforms and which materially changes how you would use it.
Hosting
Cloud, with self-hosted enterprise editions
Licence
Proprietary
Free tier
Free personal accounts with private repositories
Paid plans
Paid enterprise plans, priced in CNY
CI/CD
Built-in
Issue tracker
Yes
Reads Actions YAML
No
SAML / SSO
Enterprise
Used by
openEuler and much of the Chinese open-source ecosystem.
Public repositories are subject to mandatory content review under Chinese law.
Strengths
Fast and reliable from inside mainland China
Large domestic developer community
Enterprise editions available for on-premises deployment
Trade-offs
Mandatory review of public repositories before publication
Interface and documentation are primarily Chinese
Subject to Chinese data and content regulation
Moving from GitHub
Direct GitHub import covers repositories and issues. Note that public repositories enter a mandatory review queue before they become visible.
SourceHut is a deliberate rejection of the modern forge. No JavaScript anywhere in the interface, patches arrive by email, and pages load essentially instantly. The email-based contribution workflow is the same one the Linux kernel uses. It suits people who already work that way and frustrates people who expect a pull-request button.
Hosting
Cloud and self-hosted
Licence
Open source (AGPL and others), self-hostable
Free tier
Most services are free to use during the public alpha. Builds and chat require a paid account.
Paid plans
$4, $8 or $12 per month. Identical features; you pick what you can afford
CI/CD
Built-in
Issue tracker
Yes
Reads Actions YAML
No
SAML / SSO
No
Used by
The Hare programming language and the aerc mail client.
SourceHut never asks for payment from anyone whose financial situation would not comfortably support it.
Strengths
Fastest interface of any forge here, with zero client-side JavaScript
Honest, transparent pricing with no feature gating between tiers
Email-driven patch workflow familiar to kernel and BSD developers
Trade-offs
Still officially in public alpha
The email workflow is a genuine barrier for drive-by contributors
Sparse interface with few conveniences
Moving from GitHub
Code moves easily. Everything social does not: there are no pull requests to import because contribution happens by emailed patches, which is a workflow change for contributors rather than a data migration.
Managed Git, Subversion and Perforce hosting with tickets, since 2005.
Assembla has hosted Git and Subversion since 2005 and is now an Idera company. It is one of the few hosted platforms that still treats Subversion as a first-class product, and it adds managed Perforce Helix Core for teams with large binary assets. Web-based merge requests, file locking, SAML single sign-on and SOC 2 controls are included for every customer. It is priced and pitched at businesses rather than open-source projects: there is no free tier.
Hosting
Cloud, plus dedicated or self-hosted on the Custom Cloud plan
Starter is source hosting only, with unlimited Git and SVN repositories and 10 GB storage per user. Growth adds ticketing and project management and 50 GB per user. Perforce hosting is priced separately as Perforce Cloud.
Strengths
Git, Subversion and Perforce under one account and permission model
SAML 2.0 single sign-on and two-factor authentication for every customer
Dedicated or self-hosted deployment available on the Custom Cloud plan
Trade-offs
No free tier, so it is not a home for open-source projects
No built-in CI; pipelines run on external services through integrations
Ticketing needs the Growth plan, which costs more per seat than GitHub Team or Bitbucket
Moving from GitHub
Git history pushes straight in, and Subversion repositories move without conversion. Tickets and CI do not travel; budget time to recreate both.
Flat-rate Git and Subversion hosting with built-in deployments.
Beanstalk, from Wildbit, hosts Git and Subversion repositories and pairs them with a deployment tool that pushes a branch to your own servers automatically or on demand. Code review works on branches, with the commits, files and discussion in one view. Flat monthly plans mean a 20-person team pays $25 a month rather than $25 a seat. There is no issue tracker of its own and no CI runner; both are expected to live elsewhere.
Hosting
Cloud
Licence
Proprietary
Free tier
1 user, 1 repository, 100 MB storage
Paid plans
Bronze $15/month to Diamond $200/month, priced per plan rather than per seat
CI/CD
None
Issue tracker
No
Reads Actions YAML
No
SAML / SSO
Not documented
Used by
Philips, Intel and Citrix are cited on its home page.
Bronze: 5 users, 10 repositories, 3 GB. Diamond: 200 users, 300 repositories, 60 GB. Every plan includes code review and deployments. The company blog has not been updated since December 2016, so treat this as a maintained product that is no longer being developed.
Strengths
Flat plan pricing, not per seat
Deployments to your own servers built in
Subversion hosted alongside Git
Trade-offs
No issue tracker of its own and no CI
No visible product development since 2016
Storage limits are small: 3 GB on the entry plan
Moving from GitHub
Import a repository by URL or push a mirror clone. Issues have nowhere to go, and CI has to be replaced by its deployment tool or an external service.
Hosted Redmine from Berlin, with Git and Subversion repositories included.
Planio is a managed Redmine service run by Planio GmbH in Berlin since 2009. Each plan includes Git and Subversion repositories linked to Redmine issues, plus wikis, boards, a help desk and team chat. It suits teams that want an issue tracker with repositories attached rather than a forge with an issue tracker attached, and teams that want a European vendor operating under GDPR.
Priced per plan, not per seat. Gold covers 7 active projects and 10 active users; Platinum covers 40 projects and 45 users. USD and JPY prices are listed alongside.
Strengths
Full Redmine issue tracking and wikis with repositories attached
Flat plan pricing and a free tier for very small teams
Run by a German company under GDPR
Trade-offs
Redmine interface rather than a modern forge
No built-in CI
Per-plan user caps run out quickly for growing teams
Moving from GitHub
Push Git history into the repository attached to a Planio project. Redmine imports issues from CSV, so GitHub issues need exporting first; pull request history does not transfer.
Nulab's project management tool with Git and Subversion built in.
Backlog is a project management product from Nulab that ships Git and Subversion repositories inside every project. Commits, branches and pull requests link to issues, and the rest of the product is boards, Gantt charts, wikis and file sharing. Pricing is per plan with unlimited users from the Standard tier, which makes it unusually cheap for large teams that need light code hosting next to task tracking.
Hosting
Cloud
Licence
Proprietary
Free tier
10 users, 1 project, 100 MB storage, Git and Subversion included
Paid plans
Starter $35/month, Standard $100/month, Premium $175/month, priced per plan with no per-user fees
CI/CD
None
Issue tracker
Yes
Reads Actions YAML
No
SAML / SSO
Enterprise, SAML
Used by
Widely used in Japan, where Nulab is based.
Starter: 30 users, 5 projects, 1 GB. Standard and Premium: unlimited users; Standard has 100 projects and 30 GB. SAML single sign-on and SCIM provisioning are on the Enterprise tier.
Strengths
Unlimited users from $100 a month
Pull requests and commits link directly to issues
Gantt charts, boards and wikis in the same tool
Trade-offs
Code hosting is secondary to project management
No built-in CI
SAML single sign-on only on the Enterprise tier
Moving from GitHub
Push Git history into a project repository. Backlog documents imports from Jira and Redmine rather than GitHub, so issues move by hand.
Non-profit Forgejo hosting, run democratically from Berlin.
Codeberg is free hosting run by a registered German non-profit whose members elect its leadership. It runs Forgejo, includes Codeberg Pages for static sites and Codeberg CI for builds, and takes no venture funding. The trade-off is scope: it exists to host free and open-source software, so it is not a general-purpose home for private commercial work.
Hosting
Cloud, operated by Codeberg e.V.
Licence
Runs Forgejo (GPL-3.0)
Free tier
Free for all free and open-source projects
Paid plans
None. Funded by donations and membership fees
CI/CD
Built-in
Issue tracker
Yes
Reads Actions YAML
Partial
SAML / SSO
No
Used by
Zig moved here in November 2025 and Gentoo followed in February 2026. Forgejo itself is developed here.
Codeberg e.V. is a registered non-profit association based in Berlin, Germany.
Strengths
Democratic non-profit governance with member voting
No tracking, no advertising, no investor pressure
EU-based hosting with GDPR alignment by default
Trade-offs
Open-source projects only, by policy
Smaller compute budget than commercial platforms
CI capacity is modest and shared across the community
Moving from GitHub
Runs Forgejo, so the Forgejo migration tool applies: repositories, issues, pull requests, labels, milestones and releases all transfer from GitHub.
Canonical's platform, and the home of Ubuntu development.
Launchpad hosts Ubuntu itself, along with much of the Debian and Ubuntu packaging ecosystem. Beyond Git hosting it offers build farms that produce packages for multiple architectures, plus translation tooling and bug tracking that spans distributions. It is specialised infrastructure rather than a GitHub substitute.
Hosting
Cloud, operated by Canonical
Licence
AGPL-3.0
Free tier
Free for open-source projects
Paid plans
Commercial hosting by arrangement with Canonical
CI/CD
Built-in
Issue tracker
Yes
Reads Actions YAML
No
SAML / SSO
No
Used by
Ubuntu itself, and most Debian and Ubuntu packaging work.
Supports both Git and Bazaar repositories.
Strengths
Personal Package Archives that build for many architectures
Excellent cross-distribution bug tracking
Mature translation and localisation workflow
Trade-offs
Dated interface
Strongly oriented toward Ubuntu and Debian packaging
Small community outside that ecosystem
Moving from GitHub
Suited to projects adopting Ubuntu packaging rather than to a straight GitHub migration. Expect to restructure around its build and PPA model.
The Free Software Foundation forge, with strict licence policy.
Savannah hosts GNU project software and other free software that meets the Free Software Foundation licence criteria. Submissions are reviewed by hand against those criteria before approval. If ideological consistency about software freedom is the point, Savannah is the only host here that enforces it as policy.
Hosting
Cloud, operated by the Free Software Foundation
Licence
Runs Savane (GPL)
Free tier
Free for projects that qualify
Paid plans
None
CI/CD
None
Issue tracker
Yes
Reads Actions YAML
No
SAML / SSO
No
Used by
GNU software including GNU Emacs and Coreutils.
Projects must use an FSF-approved free software licence and avoid dependencies on non-free software.
Strengths
Enforces free software licensing as a condition of hosting
Extremely long-lived and stable since 2001
No corporate ownership or commercial pressure
Trade-offs
Manual project review before approval
Interface is functional but very dated
Non-free dependencies disqualify a project
Moving from GitHub
Projects are reviewed by hand for licence compliance before approval, so migration starts with an application rather than an import.
The original forge, still running and now on Apache Allura.
SourceForge predates GitHub by seven years and still serves a large download and mirroring network, which is its main remaining draw for projects shipping binaries. Ownership changed in 2016 and the adware bundling that damaged its reputation was removed, but the association has proven durable.
Hosting
Cloud
Licence
Runs Apache Allura (Apache-2.0)
Free tier
Free for open-source projects, supported by advertising
Paid plans
Paid promotion and mirroring options for project owners
CI/CD
None
Issue tracker
Yes
Reads Actions YAML
No
SAML / SSO
No
Used by
Established projects that rely on its download mirror network.
Reputation still suffers from the 2013–2016 bundled-adware period under previous ownership. That practice ended after the 2016 sale.
Strengths
Global mirror network for large binary downloads
Free for open-source projects with no seat limits
Built-in download statistics and reviews
Trade-offs
Lasting reputational damage from the pre-2016 adware era
Advertising-supported interface
Little developer momentum compared with modern forges
Moving from GitHub
Repository and issue import exist. The reason to move is the mirror network for binary releases, not the development workflow.
Free hosting for Pijul, a patch-based version control system that is not Git.
The Nest is the hosting service for Pijul, a distributed version control system built on a theory of patches: independent changes commute, so they apply in any order without a rebase. The Nest adds channels, discussions and CI jobs on top. It belongs on this list the way Fossil does, as a coherent alternative to Git plus GitHub rather than a drop-in replacement. Moving means converting history and learning a new tool.
Hosting
Cloud, run by the Pijul project
Licence
Pijul is GPL-2.0-or-later. The Nest publishes its own source on the Nest.
Free tier
Free, with open registration
Paid plans
None
CI/CD
Built-in, as jobs
Issue tracker
Yes, as discussions
Reads Actions YAML
No
SAML / SSO
Not documented
Used by
Pijul itself and the Nest are developed on it.
Pijul is a different version control system, not a Git host. Pijul 1.0.0-beta.24 was released on 14 September 2026 and the Nest runs version 2.0 LTS.
Strengths
Patch commutation removes most merge and rebase ceremony
Free hosting with discussions and CI jobs
Both the version control system and the Nest publish their source
Trade-offs
Not Git: tooling, editors and CI integrations built for Git do not apply
Still in beta after a long development history
Small community compared with any Git forge
Moving from GitHub
History must be converted from Git to Pijul and the team learns a new version control system. Nothing else transfers.
Community-governed Gitea fork. The default modern self-hosted choice.
Forgejo appeared when Gitea was placed under a for-profit company, and it is now governed by its community with a hard commitment to staying free software. It runs from a single binary, uses very little memory, and includes Forgejo Actions, which is compatible with GitHub Actions workflow files. Federation between instances is in active development.
Hosting
Self-hosted, or use Codeberg
Licence
GPL-3.0
Free tier
Free and unlimited. It is your server
Paid plans
None
CI/CD
Built-in
Issue tracker
Yes
Reads Actions YAML
Yes
SAML / SSO
Yes, OAuth2 and LDAP
Used by
Codeberg runs entirely on it.
Forked from Gitea in 2022 after Gitea moved to for-profit company control.
Strengths
Single binary, runs comfortably on a $5 virtual server
Community governance with no company able to relicense it
Trade-offs
You own backups, upgrades and uptime
Federation is still under development
Smaller plugin ecosystem than GitLab
Moving from GitHub
The easiest migration here. The importer carries repositories, issues, pull requests, labels, milestones and releases, and Forgejo Actions reads your existing GitHub Actions workflow files, so much of CI keeps working unchanged.
Lightweight Go forge with commercial cloud and enterprise editions.
Gitea is the lightweight Go forge that Forgejo forked from. The open-source edition remains MIT-licensed and free with no limits, while a commercial company now sells managed cloud hosting and an enterprise edition. Choosing between Gitea and Forgejo is mostly a governance question rather than a technical one, since the codebases remain close.
Hosting
Self-hosted, Gitea Cloud, or Gitea Enterprise
Licence
MIT for the open-source edition
Free tier
Self-managed open source is free with no user or repository limits
Paid plans
Gitea Enterprise $9.50–$19/user/month with a one-year commitment
CI/CD
Built-in
Issue tracker
Yes
Reads Actions YAML
Yes
SAML / SSO
SAML on Enterprise; OAuth2 and LDAP free
Used by
The Blender project runs its own Gitea at projects.blender.org.
Enterprise adds SAML SSO, audit logs and Kubernetes autoscaling runners. Discounts for non-profits and small companies.
Strengths
Very low resource use, installs in minutes
MIT licence permits commercial redistribution
Commercial support available if you want it
Trade-offs
For-profit governance was what triggered the Forgejo fork
Some features are reserved for the Enterprise edition
You still run the infrastructure on the free tier
Moving from GitHub
Same importer lineage as Forgejo: repositories, issues, pull requests, labels and releases transfer, and Gitea Actions reads GitHub Actions workflow files.
The full GitLab platform, self-hosted, with no seat cost.
The Community Edition gives you GitLab repositories, merge requests, issues, the container registry and GitLab CI on your own hardware with no per-user charge. It is the heaviest option here by a wide margin, but nothing else self-hosted matches its feature coverage.
Hosting
Self-hosted
Licence
MIT
Free tier
Free, unlimited users and repositories
Paid plans
Optional paid self-managed tiers add security and compliance features
CI/CD
Built-in
Issue tracker
Yes
Reads Actions YAML
No
SAML / SSO
Paid tiers for SAML
Used by
Organisations running GitLab on their own hardware without seat costs.
Expect to allocate at least 4 GB of RAM, and realistically 8 GB.
Strengths
Most complete feature set of any self-hosted forge
No seat limits at all
Clear upgrade path to paid tiers without migrating
Trade-offs
Needs substantially more memory and CPU than Forgejo or Gitea
Upgrades are involved and occasionally breaking
Security and compliance features are paid-tier only
Moving from GitHub
Identical importer to GitLab.com, so issues and pull requests come across. Budget for the CI rewrite and for a server with at least 8 GB of RAM.
Self-hosted forge with CI/CD and code search built in.
OneDev bundles Git hosting, a build pipeline, issue tracking and unusually good symbol-aware code search into one Java application. The code search and code navigation are better than most self-hosted alternatives out of the box, with no separate indexing service to run.
Hosting
Self-hosted
Licence
MIT
Free tier
Free and unlimited
Paid plans
Optional paid support subscriptions
CI/CD
Built-in
Issue tracker
Yes
Reads Actions YAML
No
SAML / SSO
Yes
Used by
Small self-hosting teams. Limited public adoption.
Includes symbol-level code search without any external indexing service.
Strengths
Symbol-level code search and navigation included
CI/CD built in rather than bolted on
Straightforward Docker deployment
Trade-offs
Small community and contributor base
Java runtime has a heavier memory footprint than Go forges
Fewer third-party integrations
Moving from GitHub
Imports repositories, issues and pull requests from GitHub. CI is defined in its own format and needs rewriting.
Repositories, pipelines, artifacts and dev environments in one container.
Harness Open Source bundles Git hosting and pull requests with a pipeline engine, artifact registries and hosted developer environments, and runs from a single Docker container. It imports repositories directly from GitHub and GitLab. Harness funds full-time development because it sells a managed platform built on the same foundations, which means healthy engineering investment and a roadmap set by a commercial product.
Hosting
Self-hosted
Licence
Apache 2.0
Free tier
Free and unlimited
Paid plans
None for the open-source project. Harness sells a managed platform separately
CI/CD
Built-in
Issue tracker
No
Reads Actions YAML
No
SAML / SSO
Yes, OAuth
Used by
Harness builds it, and it is the successor to Drone CI.
Formerly called Gitness, and the successor to Drone CI. gitness.com now redirects to the Harness Open Source page.
Strengths
Repositories, CI/CD, artifact registry and dev environments in one install
Imports repositories directly from GitHub and GitLab
Apache 2.0 with a vendor paying for full-time development
Trade-offs
No issue tracker, so planning has to live in another tool
Pipelines use the Harness YAML format, not GitHub Actions
Roadmap follows a commercial product rather than a community
Moving from GitHub
Imports repositories directly from GitHub and GitLab, including private ones with a personal access token. Issues have nowhere to land, because there is no tracker. Actions workflows must be rewritten as Harness pipelines.
The original lightweight Go forge that Gitea forked from.
Gogs is the ancestor of both Gitea and Forgejo, and it still runs from a single binary on hardware as small as a Raspberry Pi. Development moves slowly compared with its descendants, so most new deployments pick Forgejo instead. It remains a reasonable choice where minimal resource use matters more than feature pace.
Hosting
Self-hosted
Licence
MIT
Free tier
Free and unlimited
Paid plans
None
CI/CD
None
Issue tracker
Yes
Reads Actions YAML
No
SAML / SSO
LDAP
Used by
Low-resource self-hosters, including Raspberry Pi installations.
Development is slower than Gitea and Forgejo. Check recent commit activity first.
Strengths
Smallest resource footprint of any forge listed
Runs on a Raspberry Pi without complaint
Very simple to install and maintain
Trade-offs
Slow development compared with Gitea and Forgejo
Fewer features than its own forks
Small community
Moving from GitHub
Repository migration works. There is no CI to migrate to, so builds need an external system entirely.
Fedora's forge, which stores issues in Git itself.
Pagure is the Python forge built by Red Hat for Fedora. Its distinguishing design decision is storing issue and pull-request metadata inside Git repositories rather than a database, which means your entire project history clones with the code and cannot be stranded on a dead server.
Hosting
Self-hosted, or use pagure.io
Licence
GPL-2.0
Free tier
Free and unlimited
Paid plans
None
CI/CD
Integrations
Issue tracker
Yes
Reads Actions YAML
No
SAML / SSO
Yes
Used by
The Fedora project.
Issues and pull request metadata live in Git repositories, so they clone with the project.
Strengths
Issue and PR metadata are stored in Git and clone with the project
No database lock-in for project metadata
Proven at Fedora scale
Trade-offs
Community is centred almost entirely on Fedora
Interface is plainer than modern forges
Slow feature development
Moving from GitHub
Repositories import cleanly. Because issues live in Git rather than a database, they clone with the project afterwards, which is unusual and useful.
Community continuation of Phabricator, which stopped in 2021.
Phabricator ran code review at Facebook, Wikimedia and many other large engineering organisations before its maintainers stopped work in 2021. Phorge picked it up. Its Differential review tool is stack-based rather than branch-based, which many people still consider a better model than pull requests for large changes.
Hosting
Self-hosted
Licence
Apache-2.0
Free tier
Free and unlimited
Paid plans
None
CI/CD
Built-in, via Harbormaster
Issue tracker
Yes
Reads Actions YAML
No
SAML / SSO
Yes
Used by
The Wikimedia Foundation runs Phabricator, which Phorge continues.
Phabricator itself was discontinued in 2021. Phorge is the maintained fork.
Strengths
Differential remains an excellent stacked code review tool
Comprehensive suite covering tasks, wiki, review and audit
Proven at very large engineering organisations
Trade-offs
PHP application with a demanding setup
Modest contributor base for a codebase this large
Interface conventions differ sharply from GitHub
Moving from GitHub
Code imports, but the review model is stacked changes rather than pull requests, so open GitHub PRs have no direct equivalent and are usually recreated.
Not Git. A self-contained VCS with wiki, tickets and forum in one binary.
Fossil is a complete version control system written by the author of SQLite, and it is what SQLite itself uses. One executable provides version control, a bug tracker, a wiki, a forum and a web interface, with the whole repository stored as a single SQLite database file you can copy anywhere. Choosing Fossil means leaving Git, not changing Git hosts.
Hosting
Self-hosted
Licence
BSD-2-Clause
Free tier
Free and unlimited
Paid plans
None
CI/CD
None
Issue tracker
Yes
Reads Actions YAML
No
SAML / SSO
No
Used by
SQLite, whose author wrote Fossil.
Fossil is its own version control system, not a Git host. It can import and export Git.
Strengths
Entire project is one file you can back up by copying it
Wiki, tickets and forum need no extra services
Exceptionally stable, with a long support record
Trade-offs
Not Git, so it breaks compatibility with the wider ecosystem
Very small community
Few third-party tools or integrations
Moving from GitHub
This is a change of version control system, not a change of host. Fossil imports Git history, but contributors must learn Fossil and the wider Git tool ecosystem no longer applies.
GitLab with Mercurial support, maintained in France.
Heptapod is a friendly fork of GitLab Community Edition that adds native Mercurial repositories alongside Git, with merge requests, CI/CD and everything else GitLab CE provides. It is the only maintained forge that gives Mercurial projects a GitLab-class workflow, which is why Mercurial projects that had to leave Bitbucket in 2020 often landed here. Cloud hosting is billed through Clever Cloud, a French provider, and free-software projects can apply for hosting on foss.heptapod.net.
Hosting
Self-hosted, Heptapod Cloud on Clever Cloud, or free hosting for free-software projects
Licence
MIT, the same as GitLab Community Edition; Mercurial backend GPL-2.0-or-later
Free tier
Self-hosted is free and open source. foss.heptapod.net hosts free-software projects at no cost.
Paid plans
Heptapod Cloud from €7 per active user per month, pay as you go; CI runners from €1.85 per 1,000 minutes
CI/CD
Built-in
Issue tracker
Yes
Reads Actions YAML
No
SAML / SSO
SAML at instance level; group SSO is a GitLab paid feature
Used by
PyPy and the Mercurial project itself develop on foss.heptapod.net.
Heptapod 19.4.0 was tagged on 16 September 2026, so it tracks current GitLab closely. Maintained by Cloudcrane SAS since March 2024, after Octobus created it in 2018.
Strengths
Native Mercurial support with the full GitLab CE feature set
European cloud hosting with pay-per-active-user pricing
Free hosting for free-software projects
Trade-offs
Same resource footprint as GitLab, which is heavy
Small team behind a very large codebase
Only compelling if Mercurial matters to you
Moving from GitHub
Inherits the GitLab importer, so repositories, issues and pull requests come across from GitHub. Git projects stay Git; converting to Mercurial is optional and separate.
Patch-based code review at very large scale. Runs Android and Chromium.
Gerrit is a code review system with Git hosting attached, rather than a forge with review bolted on. Each change is reviewed and amended as one commit until it is approved, which resembles the mailing-list workflow that Git and the Linux kernel use. It has no issue tracker and no built-in CI, integrating with Jenkins, Zuul and others instead. For projects that need rigorous pre-merge review across thousands of contributors, nothing else here matches it.
Hosting
Self-hosted
Licence
Apache-2.0
Free tier
Free and unlimited
Paid plans
None
CI/CD
Integrations
Issue tracker
No
Reads Actions YAML
No
SAML / SSO
Yes
Used by
Android, Chromium, Qt and the OpenInfra Foundation.
Review happens per commit rather than per branch, so the unit of review is a single change that gets revised in place.
Strengths
Proven at Android and Chromium scale with thousands of contributors
Per-commit review with enforced pre-merge gating
Fine-grained access control down to individual branches and refs
Trade-offs
No issue tracker and no built-in CI
The change-based workflow is unfamiliar if you expect pull requests
Setup and administration are demanding
Moving from GitHub
Code imports easily, but the workflow does not translate: review is per commit and amended in place rather than per branch. Contributors need retraining, and you will need a separate issue tracker.
One interface over Git, Mercurial and Subversion together.
RhodeCode manages Git, Mercurial and Subversion repositories behind a single permission model and interface. That combination is its whole reason to exist: organisations with decades of Mercurial or Subversion history alongside newer Git repositories can govern all of it in one place instead of running three systems. The Community Edition is free with no user cap.
Hosting
Self-hosted or RhodeCode Cloud
Licence
Community Edition is open source; Enterprise is proprietary
Free tier
Community Edition is free with unlimited users, self-hosted
Paid plans
Enterprise $75/user/year, Cloud from $8/user/month
CI/CD
Integrations
Issue tracker
No
Reads Actions YAML
No
SAML / SSO
Enterprise, SAML
Used by
Organisations with mixed Git, Mercurial and Subversion history.
Paid tiers have a 10-user minimum and are sold in ten-packs.
Strengths
Git, Mercurial and Subversion in one product with unified permissions
Community Edition has no user limit
Fine-grained permissions and full-text search across all three systems
Trade-offs
No issue tracker; it is source management and review only
SAML and enterprise authentication are paid-tier features
Small community relative to Git-only forges
Moving from GitHub
Repositories import from Git, Mercurial and Subversion. There is no issue tracker, so issues need a separate destination.
Lightweight Git, Mercurial and Subversion hosting with no dependencies.
SCM-Manager hosts Git, Mercurial and Subversion repositories from a single application that needs no external web server and no database. Everything is configured through the web interface, and a plugin system adds review, issue tracking and CI integration as needed. It is the smallest way to get multi-VCS hosting running.
Hosting
Self-hosted
Licence
AGPL-3.0
Free tier
Free and unlimited
Paid plans
Commercial support available from Cloudogu
CI/CD
Integrations
Issue tracker
Plugin
Reads Actions YAML
No
SAML / SSO
Yes
Used by
Maintained by Cloudogu. Common in Jenkins-centred toolchains.
Runs without an external web server or database.
Strengths
Installs and runs with no external dependencies at all
Supports three version control systems
Plugin architecture keeps the core small
Trade-offs
Core ships without an issue tracker; that is a plugin
Small community and limited third-party ecosystem
Fewer features than Forgejo or Gitea for Git-only teams
Moving from GitHub
Straightforward repository import across three version control systems. Issue tracking requires a plugin or an external tracker.
Full ALM suite with traceability, aimed at regulated industry.
Tuleap is an application lifecycle management platform rather than a forge. Git hosting, code review and CI sit alongside requirements management, test management and agile planning, all linked so a requirement can be traced to the commit and the test that satisfied it. That traceability is the point, and it is why it appears in aerospace and industrial engineering rather than in web startups.
Hosting
Self-hosted or Tuleap Cloud
Licence
GPL-2.0
Free tier
Community Edition is free and open source, self-hosted
Paid plans
Enterprise and Cloud pricing on request
CI/CD
Built-in
Issue tracker
Yes
Reads Actions YAML
No
SAML / SSO
Yes
Used by
Airbus, STMicroelectronics and Orange are publicly cited users.
Built around requirement-to-code traceability, which is what regulated audits ask for.
Strengths
Requirement-to-code-to-test traceability in one system
Requirements, test and release management included
Open source with no user limit when self-hosted
Trade-offs
Substantially heavier than a plain forge
Interface reflects its ALM heritage rather than modern forge conventions
Enterprise pricing is not published
Moving from GitHub
Code imports, but adopting Tuleap means adopting its ALM structure. The work is modelling requirements and traceability, not moving repositories.
A GitHub-shaped forge that starts from a single WAR file.
GitBucket is a Scala reimplementation of the GitHub interface, deliberately close to the original in both layout and vocabulary. It provides issues, pull requests, a wiki and a plugin system, and installs by running one WAR file on any machine with a Java runtime. It has been maintained continuously since 2013, and it is the shortest path here for a team that wants GitHub's shape without GitHub.
Hosting
Self-hosted (JVM)
Licence
Apache 2.0
Free tier
Free and unlimited
Paid plans
None
CI/CD
Integrations
Issue tracker
Yes
Reads Actions YAML
No
SAML / SSO
Yes, LDAP and OIDC
Used by
No large public deployments are advertised. Maintained continuously since 2013.
Starts with java -jar gitbucket.war. It ships with an embedded H2 database, so no separate database server is needed to begin.
Strengths
One WAR file, with no database server or reverse proxy needed to start
Interface closely mirrors GitHub, so there is little to relearn
LDAP and OpenID Connect are both supported
Trade-offs
No built-in CI; it expects Jenkins or another external system
Smaller community and slower feature pace than Gitea or Forgejo
Needs a JVM, which is heavier than a Go single binary
Moving from GitHub
The documented route is a mirror push, which carries code, branches and tags. Issues and pull requests stay behind. CI moves to Jenkins, for which GitBucket publishes integration guides.
The forge that runs SourceForge, available to run yourself.
Allura is the software behind SourceForge. The SourceForge team began it in 2009 to replace their legacy PHP tooling, then donated it to the Apache Software Foundation, where it became a top-level project in 2014. A single project can carry Git, Mercurial and Subversion repositories alongside tickets, wikis, discussion forums and blogs. That breadth is unusual now: most forges here dropped everything except Git years ago.
Hosting
Self-hosted
Licence
Apache 2.0
Free tier
Free and unlimited
Paid plans
None
CI/CD
Integrations
Issue tracker
Yes
Reads Actions YAML
No
SAML / SSO
No
Used by
SourceForge runs on Allura.
One project can hold Git, Mercurial and Subversion repositories at the same time.
Strengths
Hosts Git, Mercurial and Subversion side by side in one project
Discussion forums and blogs are first-class tools, not add-ons
Apache Software Foundation governance, so no single vendor controls it
Trade-offs
Heavier to deploy than a single-binary forge, needing Python, MongoDB and Solr
Interface shows its age next to Forgejo or Gitea
Small contributor base for a project of this scope
Moving from GitHub
One of the few forges here with a real GitHub importer: it pulls the repository, tickets and wiki through the GitHub API. There is no CI to migrate to, so pipelines move to an external system.
Commercial self-hosted forge with agile project management built in.
GForge combines Git hosting and pull requests with agile planning, a wiki, built-in CI/CD, a service desk and team chat, aimed at teams that would otherwise buy both a forge and a separate tracker. It installs from a container in about a minute and is built to run on modest hardware, which is its clearest contrast with GitLab. Air-gapped and ITAR-friendly deployment is offered for defence and aerospace work.
Hosting
Self-hosted via Docker or Podman, or vendor-hosted SaaS
Licence
Proprietary
Free tier
Up to 5 active users with unlimited public and private projects. Free permanently for open-source teams
Paid plans
From $6/user/month on SaaS. Perpetual or annual licences for self-hosted
CI/CD
Built-in
Issue tracker
Yes
Reads Actions YAML
No
SAML / SSO
Yes
Used by
Targeted at defence, aerospace and university teams needing air-gapped installs.
GForge states that most teams land between $10 and $15 per user per month once team size and support level are included.
Strengths
Git hosting plus sprint, kanban and burndown planning in one product
Runs in 4 to 6 GB of RAM where GitLab expects 16 GB or more
Air-gapped installation supported for regulated environments
Trade-offs
Proprietary, so leaving means exporting rather than continuing to run the same code
Seat pricing above five users, unlike every open-source forge here
Small vendor, which is worth weighing on a long-lived project
Moving from GitHub
Repositories move with a standard mirror push. GForge says it will help migrate issues and project data as a service rather than through self-serve tooling, so budget vendor time for anything beyond code.
Federated Git built on the AT Protocol, with a Bluesky handle as your identity.
Tangled splits a forge into parts you can own separately. Repositories sit on knots, lightweight Git servers you can run yourself while staying in the shared network, and CI runs on Nix-based spindles. Identity comes from an AT Protocol account, so a Bluesky handle signs you in and your account is not held by the forge. Pull requests use a round-based review model and issues are threaded. It raised EUR 3.8 million in March 2026, and the Gleam language moved its repositories here.
Hosting
Hosted at tangled.org, or self-hosted knots
Licence
Open source (MIT)
Free tier
Free. The hosted service has no paid tier
Paid plans
None
CI/CD
Built-in
Issue tracker
Yes
Reads Actions YAML
No
SAML / SSO
No
Used by
The Gleam programming language moved its repositories here.
Repositories live on knots, which are small Git servers anyone can run. CI runs on spindles, which can also be self-hosted.
Strengths
Identity is an AT Protocol handle you keep, not an account on one company's server
Knots and spindles can both be self-hosted without leaving the shared network
Native pull requests and threaded issues, which most decentralised options lack
Trade-offs
No tooling to migrate GitHub issues or pull requests, only code
CI is Nix-based, so existing workflow files do not carry over
Young on every axis: the network, the federation model and the funding
Moving from GitHub
Code moves by changing the remote and pushing, since Tangled speaks ordinary Git. Tangled states it has no tooling to migrate GitHub issues or pull requests, so that history stays behind. CI is rewritten as Nix workflows under .tangled/workflows/.
Peer-to-peer code collaboration with no server to shut down.
Radicle replicates repositories and their issues and patches directly between participants over a gossip protocol, so a project has no single host that can remove it. Identity is cryptographic rather than an account on someone else's server. It is the most genuinely censorship-resistant option here, and also the least convenient for casual contributors.
Hosting
Peer-to-peer, no central host
Licence
Open source (MIT and Apache-2.0)
Free tier
Free. There is no service to pay for
Paid plans
None
CI/CD
Integrations
Issue tracker
Yes
Reads Actions YAML
No
SAML / SSO
No
Used by
Radicle develops itself on Radicle. Adoption is early.
Repositories, issues and patches replicate directly between peers. Running a public node is optional.
Strengths
No central authority that can delete or restrict a project
Issues and patches replicate with the code, not a separate database
Cryptographic identity with no account signup
Trade-offs
Discovery is hard without a central index
Small ecosystem and few integrations
Contributors must install a client to participate
Moving from GitHub
Code and history replicate in easily. Contributors must install a client and there is no central index, so discoverability is something you provide yourself.
The standard for game development and very large binary assets.
Helix Core is centralised version control built for repositories measured in terabytes, where most content is binary art assets that cannot be merged. Exclusive file locking stops two artists editing the same model, and clients only pull the files they need. Nearly every large game studio runs it. It is a different tool for a different problem, not a Git host.
Hosting
Self-hosted or Perforce-managed cloud
Licence
Proprietary
Free tier
Free for up to 5 users and 20 workspaces
Paid plans
Quoted per seat; contact sales
CI/CD
Integrations
Issue tracker
Separate product
Reads Actions YAML
No
SAML / SSO
Yes
Used by
Standard across AAA game studios; Unreal Engine tooling assumes it.
Centralised rather than distributed version control. File locking prevents conflicting binary edits.
Strengths
Handles multi-terabyte repositories of binary assets
Exclusive file locking, which Git fundamentally cannot offer
Unreal Engine and Unity integrate with it directly
Trade-offs
Not Git, and not distributed
Expensive beyond the free five-user tier
Needs dedicated administration
Moving from GitHub
A full change of version control model, from distributed to centralised. Git history can be converted, but branching, locking and workflow all differ. Plan this as a project, not a migration.
Formerly Plastic SCM. Built for game teams with non-technical contributors.
Unity Version Control, previously Plastic SCM, targets game teams where artists and designers need version control that does not require understanding Git. It offers centralised and distributed workflows side by side, handles large binaries well, and provides a simplified client for non-programmers alongside a full one.
Hosting
Cloud or on-premises
Licence
Proprietary
Free tier
Free tier available for small teams with storage limits
Paid plans
Per-seat pricing through Unity, with storage charged separately
CI/CD
Integrations
Issue tracker
No
Reads Actions YAML
No
SAML / SSO
Yes
Used by
Unity game teams, particularly those with non-technical contributors.
Supports both centralised and distributed workflows in one product.
Strengths
Separate simplified client aimed at artists and designers
Centralised and distributed workflows in the same product
Native Unity Editor integration
Trade-offs
Strongly oriented toward Unity workflows
Storage costs accumulate quickly with large assets
Smaller community than Perforce in game development
Moving from GitHub
Imports Git history and can keep operating in a Git-like distributed mode, which makes it a gentler move than Perforce for teams coming from Git.
Git, Mercurial and Subversion hosting from Perforce, paired with Helix Core.
TeamHub, formerly Helix TeamHub, is the Git-flavoured half of the Perforce line-up. It hosts Git, Mercurial and Subversion repositories with code review, a Kanban issue board and a wiki, and it hosts Maven, Ivy and Docker artifacts in the same place. Its distinctive feature is the P4 Git Connector, which lets a Git repository in TeamHub combine with large binary assets held in Helix Core so game and hardware teams can keep one source of truth.
Hosting
Cloud or on-premises
Licence
Proprietary
Free tier
None. The free tier was discontinued on 28 July 2025.
Paid plans
Premium (cloud, 5 GB per seat) and Enterprise (on-premises), both billed annually on quote
CI/CD
Integrations
Issue tracker
Yes
Reads Actions YAML
No
SAML / SSO
Yes, SSO and Active Directory
Used by
Teams already running Perforce Helix Core.
Premium limits the command-line client to one active session per five users; Enterprise has no limit. Artifact repositories for Maven, Ivy and Docker are included.
Strengths
Hybrid workspaces that join Git code with Helix Core binary assets
Artifact and container registries alongside source hosting
Single sign-on and Active Directory nested groups supported
Trade-offs
No free tier since July 2025 and no published prices
CI runs on external tools through integrations
Mainly makes sense next to an existing Perforce deployment
Moving from GitHub
Git history pushes straight in. Issues and pull requests do not import; recreate them on the Kanban board.
Space combined Git hosting, CI, chat, documents and HR tooling in one product. JetBrains announced its discontinuation in May 2024 and shut down cloud instances on 1 June 2025. A narrower successor called SpaceCode entered private preview and was itself discontinued in November 2024. Do not start new work here.
Hosting
Was cloud and on-premises
Licence
Proprietary
Free tier
No longer available
Paid plans
No longer sold
JetBrains stopped selling subscriptions on 28 May 2024. Support ended 31 May 2025 and cloud organisations were deactivated on 1 June 2025. On-premises licences updated before that date continue to work indefinitely.
Trade-offs
Cloud instances were deactivated on 1 June 2025
The SpaceCode successor was also discontinued
Only pre-existing on-premises licences still function
Cloud Source Repositories was private Git hosting inside Google Cloud. Google closed it to new customers in June 2024. Projects that had not used it before that date cannot enable it, and Google now points new users toward external Git providers connected through Cloud Build.
Hosting
Was cloud (Google Cloud)
Licence
Proprietary
Free tier
No longer available to new projects
Paid plans
Existing customers only
Projects without prior usage cannot enable the service. Google directs new users to third-party Git providers.
Trade-offs
Unavailable to any project that had not already enabled it
Phabricator was the code review and project management suite behind engineering at Facebook, Wikimedia, Uber and others. Its maintainers wound down active development in 2021. The code is still available, but running an unmaintained PHP application on the public internet is a security liability. Phorge is the maintained continuation.
Hosting
Was self-hosted
Licence
Apache-2.0
Free tier
Source remains available but unmaintained
Paid plans
No longer sold
Phorge is the community fork that continues development.
CodeCatalyst was AWS's attempt at a complete developer platform: repositories, issues, workflows, dev environments and project blueprints in one service. It is also the service AWS pointed people towards in July 2024 when it closed CodeCommit to new customers. AWS then closed CodeCatalyst itself to new customers in November 2025, and reopened CodeCommit the same month. Read that sequence carefully before committing to any AWS-native forge.
Hosting
Was cloud (AWS)
Licence
Proprietary
Free tier
No longer available to new accounts
Paid plans
Existing spaces only
AWS announced the change on 13 October 2025. Existing customers keep their spaces but cannot create new ones, and no new features are planned.
Trade-offs
Closed to new customers since 7 November 2025
Security and availability work only; no new features planned
AWS documents a manual migration path rather than an automated export
Bitbucket Server was the self-hosted edition of Bitbucket, and its retirement is why a good number of teams are shopping for a forge at all. Atlassian ended support on 15 February 2024 as part of closing its entire Server product line. The supported destinations are Bitbucket Data Center, which costs considerably more per user, or Bitbucket Cloud, which is not feature-equivalent. Existing installations still run, but they receive no security fixes.
Hosting
Was self-hosted
Licence
Proprietary
Free tier
Never had one
Paid plans
No longer sold
Version 8.14 was the final Server release. Everything from 8.15 onwards ships to Data Center customers only.
Trade-offs
No security patches since 15 February 2024
Data Center licensing is substantially more expensive per user
Cloud is not feature-equivalent, so moving there is not a straight swap
What does not travel is everything the platform layered on top: issues, pull
request discussions, Actions workflows, releases, wikis, stars and project boards.
GitLab, Gitea, Forgejo and Codeberg all ship importers that pull issues and pull
requests across through the GitHub API. Budget time for CI, which always needs
rewriting unless you move to Forgejo or Gitea, whose Actions implementations read
GitHub Actions workflow files.
How this page is maintained
This directory is independent. It has no commercial relationship with any
platform listed, takes no payment for inclusion or placement, and currently
carries no affiliate links. If that changes, paid links will be marked as
sponsored and disclosed at the top of the page.
How prices are checked. Every price, free-tier limit and
availability claim is read from the vendor's own pricing or documentation page,
never from a third-party summary. Each entry links to the exact page it came
from, so you can check the claim yourself. Where a vendor does not publish
pricing, the entry says so rather than guessing.
What gets listed. Any platform that can host Git
repositories as a substitute for GitHub, whether commercial, non-profit,
self-hosted or decentralised. Products that are discontinued or closed to new
customers are kept and labelled, because they still appear in older comparison
articles and search results. Tools that are not code hosts, such as CI services
or code search products, are left out.
Corrections. Vendors change pricing without notice, and
pages here can go stale. If something is wrong or out of date, the source link
on each entry is the fastest way to confirm the current position.
Frequently asked questions
What new GitHub alternatives launched in 2026?
Three arrived in 2026. Cursor Origin launched on 17 August 2026 as a Git forge built into the Cursor editor, with pull requests and review but no issue tracker, and it requires a paid Cursor plan. Netlify announced the same day that Netlify Source makes it a Git host, though Netlify positions it as a supplement to external Git rather than a forge. GitHub was in the middle of a service incident that same day. Cloudflare Artifacts, announced in April 2026, is Git-compatible storage aimed at AI agents and remains in closed beta. All three are new enough that you should treat them as beta software.
What is the best free alternative to GitHub?
It depends on whether your code is open source. Codeberg is free with no seat limit for open-source projects and is run by a non-profit. For private commercial work, Azure Repos gives unlimited private repositories free for the first five users. If you can run a server, Forgejo and Gitea are free with no user limit at all.
Which GitHub alternative can I self-host for free?
Forgejo was forked from Gitea in 2022 after Gitea was placed under the control of a for-profit company. The codebases remain close, so the practical difference is governance rather than features. Forgejo is community-governed and GPL-3.0 licensed. Gitea is MIT licensed and developed alongside commercial cloud and enterprise editions.
Is GitLab actually cheaper than GitHub?
Not on the hosted tiers. GitLab Premium costs $29 per user per month billed annually, which is more than GitHub Team. The saving comes from self-hosting: GitLab Community Edition is free with unlimited users, so the cost becomes your server and your administration time rather than per-seat licensing.
Can I move my GitHub repositories somewhere else without losing history?
Yes. Git history, branches and tags move intact with a mirror clone, because every clone contains the full history. What does not move automatically is the platform-specific material around the code: issues, pull request discussions, Actions workflows, releases, wikis and stars. GitLab, Gitea, Forgejo and Codeberg all provide importers that migrate issues and pull requests as well.
Is AWS CodeCommit still available?
Yes. AWS closed CodeCommit to new customers on 25 July 2024, then reopened it on 25 November 2025 and resumed adding features. Many comparison articles still describe it as closed. Existing customers were never cut off. Weigh the fact that AWS deprioritised it once before building on it.
What happened to JetBrains Space?
JetBrains discontinued Space. Sales stopped on 28 May 2024, support ended on 31 May 2025, and cloud organisations were deactivated on 1 June 2025. A narrower successor called SpaceCode entered private preview and was also discontinued in November 2024. On-premises licences updated before the cutoff continue to work indefinitely.
Which GitHub alternative is best for large binary files?
Perforce Helix Core is the standard for repositories dominated by large binary assets, and it is free for up to five users and twenty workspaces. Unity Version Control, formerly Plastic SCM, targets the same problem with a simplified client for artists. Both offer exclusive file locking, which Git cannot provide because binary files cannot be merged.
Are there GitHub alternatives that are not owned by a large company?
Yes. Codeberg is run by Codeberg e.V., a registered non-profit in Berlin whose members elect its leadership. SourceHut is independently owned and funded by subscriptions. Forgejo is community-governed. Radicle has no central operator at all, since repositories replicate peer to peer, and Tangled ties your identity to an AT Protocol account rather than to the forge.
Do any GitHub alternatives support GitHub Actions workflows?
Forgejo Actions and Gitea Actions both read GitHub Actions workflow files, so many existing workflows run with little or no change. Compatibility is good but not complete, and actions that call the GitHub API directly need rewriting. GitLab, Bitbucket and Azure DevOps use their own CI formats and require a full rewrite.
What happened to Google Code, Gitorious and CodePlex?
All three closed a decade ago. Google Code stopped accepting new projects on 12 March 2015, went read-only that August, and shut down on 25 January 2016. GitLab acquired Gitorious on 3 March 2015 and closed it on 1 June that year. Microsoft shut CodePlex on 15 December 2017 and directed users to GitHub. They are worth knowing about only because older comparison articles still list them. The recent equivalents are in the discontinued section: JetBrains Space, Phabricator, Bitbucket Server, Amazon CodeCatalyst and Google Cloud Source Repositories.
Which GitHub alternatives also host Subversion?
Hosted: Assembla, Beanstalk, Planio and Backlog all offer Subversion repositories next to Git, and Perforce TeamHub adds Mercurial as well. Self-hosted: RhodeCode, SCM-Manager and Apache Allura manage Git, Mercurial and Subversion under one interface. GitHub itself shut down its Subversion bridge in January 2024, which is why teams with mixed history look at this list.