Gitea

What is Gitea?

Gitea is an open source, self-hosted Git platform written in Go that bundles repository hosting, code review, issue tracking, project boards, a wiki, a package registry, and GitHub Actions–compatible CI/CD into a single lightweight binary. You run the whole thing on your own server — from a Raspberry Pi to a production VM — and keep your code off a proprietary cloud.

What is Gitea best for?

Individuals and teams who want a fast, no-fuss self-hosted GitHub replacement without the resource appetite of a full DevOps suite. It fits homelabs, small-to-mid teams, and organizations with data-residency or air-gapped requirements that need git hosting and basic CI/CD running on modest hardware they fully control.

What can Gitea do?

• Host unlimited git repositories with pull requests, code review, and protected branches
• Run CI/CD with Gitea Actions, compatible with GitHub Actions YAML workflows
• Track work with issues, labels, milestones, kanban boards, and time tracking
• Serve a built-in package registry for 20+ formats (npm, PyPI, Maven, Container, Helm, and more)
• Mirror repositories, manage organizations and teams, and host per-repo wikis
• Authenticate against LDAP, OAuth2, SAML, and other external providers
• Run almost anywhere — Linux, macOS, Windows, and FreeBSD on x86, ARM, and RISC-V

Is Gitea free?

Yes — Gitea is free and fully open source under the MIT license, with unlimited users and repositories when you self-host; you only pay for the server it runs on. Gitea Ltd. also sells managed hosting (Gitea Cloud, with a 30-day trial) and Gitea Enterprise (around $19 per user/month) that adds SSO, audit logs, Kubernetes autoscaling, and an SLA — but the self-hosted core is complete and unrestricted.

Where does Gitea fall short?

• Its CI/CD (Gitea Actions) is newer and less mature than GitLab’s pipelines, and there’s no built-in security or dependency scanning — you bolt on tools like SonarQube or OWASP ZAP.
• It’s lean by design, so advanced DevSecOps, compliance, and enterprise governance features that heavier platforms ship out of the box simply aren’t there.
• In 2024 part of the community forked Gitea into Forgejo over governance concerns after a for-profit company took stewardship, and some newer capabilities now sit behind paid Gitea Enterprise.

What does Gitea replace?

Gitea is a self-hosted alternative to GitHub. It covers the same core git hosting, pull requests, issues, and Actions-style CI/CD, but you run it on your own infrastructure with no per-seat cloud bill. It also competes with GitLab and Forgejo as the lighter-weight option among self-hosted git platforms.

FAQ

Is Gitea open source? Yes — fully. Gitea is released under the permissive MIT license, so you can self-host, modify, and redistribute it freely. Unlike GitLab’s open-core model, the self-hosted edition isn’t feature-gated.

Can I self-host Gitea for free? Yes. The self-hosted edition is free with unlimited users and repositories; you only pay for your own server. Paid Gitea Cloud and Gitea Enterprise are optional add-ons for managed hosting and enterprise features.

Is Gitea a good GitHub alternative? For most teams that want to self-host, yes — it matches GitHub on repos, pull requests, and CI/CD while running on modest hardware. If you need GitHub’s huge ecosystem or deep built-in security scanning, weigh that gap first.

What do I need to run Gitea? Very little — a single binary or Docker container plus a database (SQLite, MySQL, or PostgreSQL). It idles at around 400 MB of RAM and runs comfortably on a small VPS or even a Raspberry Pi.