Forgejo
Top pickCommunity-governed, copyleft self-hosted Git forge.
99
sovereigntyForgejo is a lightweight, self-hosted Git forge stewarded by the non-profit Codeberg e.V. It is a soft fork of Gitea and stays close to it in features, offering repositories, pull requests, code review, issue tracking, a package registry, and GitHub-Actions-compatible CI via Forgejo Actions. Its draw is governance and durability: a non-profit steward plus a copyleft license aimed at keeping the software free for users over the long term. A good fit for teams that want a modern forge with independent, community-first governance.
OPEN SOURCEGPL-3.0-or-laterSELF-HOSTLOCAL-FIRST
LicenseGPL-3.0-or-later
PricingFree / self-host
Open sourceYes
Self-hostableYes
Local-first dataYes
What it does well
- +Non-profit governance (Codeberg e.V.) reduces the risk of future vendor capture
- +Copyleft GPL-3.0+ license (since v9.0) is designed to keep modified versions open
- +Lightweight — runs comfortably on a small VPS or a Raspberry Pi
- +GitHub-Actions-compatible CI via Forgejo Actions; supports OAuth, LDAP, and a package registry
Where it falls short
- −Younger project with a smaller community and third-party ecosystem than Gitea or GitHub
- −As a soft fork of Gitea, its independent identity and long-term divergence are still maturing
- −You own all operations: backups, upgrades, and security patching are your responsibility
- −GPL-3.0+ copyleft terms may not suit organizations that want a permissive license
Forgejo as an alternative to
Where Forgejo shows up in our comparisons, and how it ranked.
Forgejo head-to-head
Straight comparisons against the tools people weigh it against.