{"slug": "gitolite", "name": "Gitolite", "category": "selfhosted", "category_name": "Self-hosted and home server", "description": "", "recommenders": 2, "commenters": 3, "warners": 0, "score": 1.441, "rising": 0.35, "first": "2025-11-14", "latest": "2026-08-17", "why": "For just the basics, self-hosting of git can be pretty easy.  I use gitolite on a VPS.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 1, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0], "listed": false, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "For just the basics, self-hosting of git can be pretty easy.  I use gitolite on a VPS.", "icon": false, "domain": "gitolite.com", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://gitolite.com", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Gitolite", "gitolite"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 789348001, "item_id": 49334250, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49334250", "by": "rhdunn", "date": "2026-08-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Gitolite doesn't impose/enforce a structure on the user.", "excerpt": "Two of the big issues I had were around the user/repository forced structure. That works to some extent when you have multiple users with a small number of repositories. But for my personal projects I wanted more control over the structure and grouping. I worked around it to some extent by having an organisation per category, but that doesn't work at scale. For example, you can't group Text-to-Speech projects around ", "context": "", "use_case": "git repository hosting", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Alternatives to GitHub"}, {"id": 789343940, "item_id": 49333996, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49333996", "by": "rhdunn", "date": "2026-08-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Gitolite can be used to help with SSH/auth/repository creation", "excerpt": "It depends on what you are after? 1. Do you want something that works and feels like GitHub? -- Forejo and Gitea are good for this. 2. Do you want a place to host git repositories with minimal hassle? -- GitLab, CodeBerg, and others are available. 3. Do you have your own hosting infrastructure? You could use gitolite and CGit/GitWeb on that hosting platform or local hardware. 4. Do you just want to host repositories?", "context": "", "use_case": "SSH auth and repo creation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Alternatives to GitHub"}, {"id": 759814288, "item_id": 47488393, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47488393", "by": "fanatic2pope", "date": "2026-03-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "For just the basics, self-hosting of git can be pretty easy.  I use gitolite on a VPS.", "excerpt": "For just the basics, self-hosting of git can be pretty easy. I use gitolite on a VPS. https://gitolite.com/gitolite/", "context": "", "use_case": "self-hosted git", "switched_from": "", "story": "Migrating to the EU"}, {"id": 734907058, "item_id": 45931691, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45931691", "by": "rhdunn", "date": "2025-11-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I eventually switched to gitolite and CGit", "excerpt": "I used Gitea for a while. I eventually switched to gitolite and CGit primarily because Gitea (and Forgejo) force you into a flat organization/project structure. This makes organizing personal projects harder because: 1. you need to create an organization for each group (lang, tools, template, etc.) 2. you can't create more complex organization structure (e.g. template/python/python-flask-template) 3. you can't group ", "context": "", "use_case": "hosting personal git projects", "switched_from": "Gitea", "story": "Meeting notes between Forgejo and the Dutch government via Git commits"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["git hosting", "git repository hosting over ssh", "git repository hosting", "ssh auth and repo creation", "self-hosted git", "hosting personal git projects"], "compared": [{"slug": "gitea", "name": "Gitea", "co": 4, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "cgit", "name": "cgit", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "forgejo", "name": "Forgejo", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "gitweb", "name": "GitWeb", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49331033", "title": "Ask HN: Alternatives to GitHub", "mentions": 4}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47487436", "title": "Migrating to the EU", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45929247", "title": "Meeting notes between Forgejo and the Dutch government via Git commits", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"recommend": 1}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {"recommend": 1, "neutral": 1}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 789366080, "item_id": 49335380, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49335380", "by": "samlinnfer", "date": "2026-08-17", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Cool thing about gitolite is that you manage it using text files", "excerpt": "Cool thing about gitolite is that you manage it using text files and committing to the gitolite admin git repository. We were using it until we grew tired of not having a web view to comment and review patches so we switched to gitea.", "context": "", "use_case": "git hosting", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Alternatives to GitHub"}, {"id": 789360624, "item_id": 49335039, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49335039", "by": "rhdunn", "date": "2026-08-17", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "That's what gitolite does with some helper scripts for creating/setting up the repositories", "excerpt": "That's what gitolite does with some helper scripts for creating/setting up the repositories, adding metadata to the configs, etc. That way your `git` user can be set to reject ssh login attempts. The projects are managed by pushing a config to a gitolite admin repository.", "context": "", "use_case": "git repository hosting over ssh", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Alternatives to GitHub"}, {"id": 789348001, "item_id": 49334250, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49334250", "by": "rhdunn", "date": "2026-08-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Gitolite doesn't impose/enforce a structure on the user.", "excerpt": "Two of the big issues I had were around the user/repository forced structure. That works to some extent when you have multiple users with a small number of repositories. But for my personal projects I wanted more control over the structure and grouping. I worked around it to some extent by having an organisation per category, but that doesn't work at scale. 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Do you just want to host repositories?", "context": "", "use_case": "SSH auth and repo creation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Alternatives to GitHub"}, {"id": 759814288, "item_id": 47488393, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47488393", "by": "fanatic2pope", "date": "2026-03-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "For just the basics, self-hosting of git can be pretty easy.  I use gitolite on a VPS.", "excerpt": "For just the basics, self-hosting of git can be pretty easy. I use gitolite on a VPS. https://gitolite.com/gitolite/", "context": "", "use_case": "self-hosted git", "switched_from": "", "story": "Migrating to the EU"}, {"id": 734907058, "item_id": 45931691, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45931691", "by": "rhdunn", "date": "2025-11-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I eventually switched to gitolite and CGit", "excerpt": "I used Gitea for a while. I eventually switched to gitolite and CGit primarily because Gitea (and Forgejo) force you into a flat organization/project structure. This makes organizing personal projects harder because: 1. you need to create an organization for each group (lang, tools, template, etc.) 2. you can't create more complex organization structure (e.g. template/python/python-flask-template) 3. you can't group ", "context": "", "use_case": "hosting personal git projects", "switched_from": "Gitea", "story": "Meeting notes between Forgejo and the Dutch government via Git commits"}]}