Gitea vs GitLab Community Edition
Both are alternatives to GitHub. Here's how they stack up — verified facts, no spin.
Also searched as GitLab Community Edition vs Gitea — same comparison, one verdict.
Gitea and GitLab Community Edition are closely matched on ownership (98 vs 95) — this one comes down to pricing and to which trade-offs below you can live with.
Gitea
Popular, easy-to-run self-hosted Git service.
Gitea is a fast, lightweight Git forge written in Go and released under the permissive MIT license. It provides repository hosting, pull requests, code review, issue tracking, a package registry across many formats, and GitHub-Actions-compatible CI via Gitea Actions. It has the largest community and third-party ecosystem among the open forges and installs in minutes from a single binary or container. It is stewarded by the for-profit CommitGo, Inc., which also offers paid Gitea Enterprise and Gitea Cloud offerings alongside the open-source core.
GitLab Community Edition
Full open-source DevOps platform you can self-host.
GitLab Community Edition (CE, the gitlab-foss project) is the MIT-licensed open-source core of GitLab, a complete DevOps platform. Beyond repositories and merge requests it bundles a powerful built-in CI/CD pipeline system, a container registry, and issue and project management. It suits teams that want an all-in-one, self-hosted DevOps solution. Note that GitLab follows an open-core model: many advanced features live only in the proprietary Enterprise Edition (EE), and GitLab is heavier to run than the Go-based forges.
Side by side
10 points of comparison, every one read from a verified field. Green marks the side that wins a row outright. A dash means we do not hold that fact — never that it is zero.
| Gitea | GitLab Community Edition | |
|---|---|---|
| Sovereignty ScoreOur transparent 0–100 composite for data ownership and exit cost. | 98 | 95 |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
| Local-first data | Yes | Yes |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Pricing | Free / self-host (optional paid Enterprise and Cloud tiers) | Free / self-host (CE); paid Enterprise Edition tiers add advanced features |
| RAM to run it wellThe figure that actually matters, not the vendor's minimum. | 2 GB | 16 GB, the vendor's single-node baseline. 8 GB can carry 5–20 people if you disable the bundled Prometheus and trim Sidekiq and Puma as the memory-constrained guide describes |
| Realistic running costWhat the box costs each month if you run it yourself. | $12/mo for a team of 10 on a 2 GB VPS | $48–96/mo for a 5–20 user instance on a 16 GB / 8 vCPU VPS ($24–48 on the 8 GB constrained setup), plus separate runner machines for CI |
| Setup timeHonest first-install estimate, not the marketing quickstart. | 45 minutes | 1 hour to install the package; a day to get email, TLS, backups and a runner right |
| Ongoing maintenanceThe part nobody budgets for. | Low. Version upgrades are usually a binary swap. Back up the repo directory and the database together or the backup is useless. | A minor release every month (on the third Thursday) and patch releases twice a month. Security fixes reach only the current minor and the two before it. Major versions also move the bundled PostgreSQL: GitLab 19 requires PostgreSQL 17. |
Gitea edges it on the Sovereignty Score, but the right pick depends on the trade-offs below.
Weighing both against staying on GitHub? Is GitHub free? What it actually costs →
Gitea
Strengths
- +Largest community and third-party ecosystem of the open forges
- +Permissive MIT license; simple single-binary or container install
- +Very light on resources — comfortable on modest hardware
- +GitHub-Actions-compatible CI, package registry, OAuth/LDAP, and a mature REST API
Trade-offs
- −Steered by a for-profit company (CommitGo) with paid Enterprise/Cloud tiers, a mild governance consideration versus a non-profit steward
- −Self-hosting means you handle backups, upgrades, and security yourself
- −Advanced enterprise features (e.g. SSO auto-scaling runners) are reserved for the paid Enterprise edition
- −Issue/PR and workflow data still need conversion when migrating between platforms
GitLab Community Edition
Strengths
- +All-in-one DevOps platform: repos, merge requests, mature CI/CD, and container registry in one product
- +Large, very active community and extensive documentation
- +MIT-licensed core (CE); fully self-hostable on your own infrastructure
- +Strong choice for teams that want integrated pipelines without stitching tools together
Trade-offs
- −Open-core model: many advanced features are reserved for the proprietary Enterprise Edition, creating an upsell path
- −Noticeably more resource-hungry than Gitea/Forgejo — realistically needs several GB of RAM
- −More complex to deploy, upgrade, and operate than a single-binary forge
- −Self-hosting shifts backups, scaling, and security onto your team
Which one fits you
The trade-offs above, turned into a decision. Find the line that describes your team.
Choose Gitea
if a lower exit cost matters more to you than any single feature, and largest community and third-party ecosystem of the open forges.
Choose GitLab Community Edition
if all-in-one DevOps platform: repos, merge requests, mature CI/CD, and container registry in one product.
Neither, yet
if both carry a real cost you should weigh first — steered by a for-profit company (CommitGo) with paid Enterprise/Cloud tiers, a mild governance consideration versus a non-profit steward, and open-core model: many advanced features are reserved for the proprietary Enterprise Edition, creating an upsell path. If either of those is a dealbreaker for your team, the shortlist is wrong rather than the choice.
What it takes to run these yourself
Real requirements and honest running costs, not the vendor quickstart.
Self-hosting Gitea
2 GB RAM · 45 minutes
$12/mo for a team of 10 on a 2 GB VPS
Self-hosting GitLab Community Edition
16 GB, the vendor's single-node baseline. 8 GB can carry 5–20 people if you disable the bundled Prometheus and trim Sidekiq and Puma as the memory-constrained guide describes RAM · 1 hour to install the package; a day to get email, TLS, backups and a runner right
$48–96/mo for a 5–20 user instance on a 16 GB / 8 vCPU VPS ($24–48 on the 8 GB constrained setup), plus separate runner machines for CI
Gitea vs GitLab Community Edition — common questions
Is Gitea a better fit than GitLab Community Edition for code hosting & git forges?
It depends on what you are optimising for, and the honest split is this: Gitea scores 98 to GitLab Community Edition's 95 on data ownership and exit cost, so it is the safer choice if you care about being able to leave. GitLab Community Edition earns its place on a different axis — all-in-one DevOps platform: repos, merge requests, mature CI/CD, and container registry in one product. Neither is a wrong answer for every team; the table above is the actual comparison.
What happens if we want to switch later?
Gitea keeps its data local or in open formats, so leaving is an export rather than a negotiation. GitLab Community Edition is still self-hostable, so the files stay on your server either way — but it is not local-first by design, so check what its export produces before you rely on it.
Can I self-host Gitea or GitLab Community Edition?
Both can be self-hosted. The difference is what it costs you in time rather than whether it is possible — see the setup and maintenance rows above.
Are Gitea and GitLab Community Edition both alternatives to GitHub?
Yes — both appear in our GitHub comparison, which is why they are worth putting side by side. People usually arrive here already having decided to move off GitHub and now choosing between the two replacements, which is a narrower and much easier question.
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Facts verified 2026-07-07. Licenses and pricing change — spotted something out of date? That's a correction we want.