Gitea
Lightweight, self-hostable Git forge with code hosting, issues, packages, and Actions-style CI.
HN commenters like Gitea as a lightweight, easy-to-run self-hosted GitHub alternative123456 with built-in Actions-compatible CI and repo mirroring.7891011 Common caveats are that it is less feature-complete than GitLab121314 and that its for-profit backing makes some worry about a license change, leading them to prefer Forgejo.151617
Why people recommend it
Easy, lightweight · 3
Commenters say it is simple to set up, light on resources, and painless to upgrade.
“Forgejo/Gitea is lightweight and easy to setup.”
“I'm running gitea successfully with very little resources.”
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“All upgrades, including major changes, have been as easy as just changing the tag and reloading the container.”
CI/CD and Actions · 3
Its runners use GitHub Actions syntax, and one user says its CI/CD is ahead of Forgejo's.
“Gitea is far ahead in CI/CD features”
“you should consider self hosted gitea, which uses the same Actions syntax”
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“it's extremely easy to setup, maintain, and build CI/CD on top of.”
Repo mirroring · 3
Users rely on its pull and push mirroring for backups and GitHub visibility.
“I can also recommend hosting your own Gitea/Forgejo instance, it has an automatic repository mirroring feature”
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“I similarly have been using Gitea for some years. I use it as my main forge”
Feels like GitHub · 3
Users say it works and feels like GitHub, with mostly GitHub-compatible APIs.
“I love Gitea because it feels a lot like GitHub”
“Forejo and Gitea are good for this.”
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“gitea/forgejo both do an 80% job of covering these needs”
Speed · 3
Users describe it as faster than GitLab or GitHub in their use.
“gitea is faster, and easier to manage and does everything I actually need”
“I now run a local Gitea. Its rather more performant and uptime is rather better too!”
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“I just self-host Gitea.”
Package registry · 2
Its built-in registry replaced Nexus or other registries for Docker, NPM and other packages.
“I'm extremely satisfied with that setup. It is batteries included & fire and forget.”
“Also running Gitea, pretty pleasant experience!”
Caveats and dissent
Corporate control · 3
Some see a for-profit company and copyright attribution as a risk of a future license change.
“Ability for rug pull is much greater for gitea imo.”
“it was not clear to us to what extent gitea would play nicely with us”
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“I also evaluated gitea and saw they were offering a commercial multitenant service where my 3p hosting wouldn't be welcome”
Missing features · 3
Users say it covers about 80% of needs and is less feature-complete than GitLab.
“gitea is faster, and easier to manage and does everything I actually need”
“at a scale of 250 contributors (which we hit), Gitea solved all the problems”
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“gitea/forgejo both do an 80% job of covering these needs”
Limited integrations · 2
Fewer third-party tools support Gitea, and repos mirrored to GitHub can confuse users.
“eventually ended up moving over to Gitea + WoodpeckerCI + Nexus”
“Our practical solution was to just mirror our Gitea repos into GitHub.”
Community support · 1
One team found Discord-only support left them stuck several times.
“the support mechanism was "Beg for help on Discord and hope someone replies", this left us high and dry a few times”
Flat repo structure · 1
The user/repository layout lacks GitLab-style nested groups.
“Two of the big issues I had were around the user/repository forced structure.”
Monolithic design · 1
One commenter dislikes that forges like Gitea bundle everything into one interface.
“I have a pretty bad taste in my mouth from GitHub, GitLab, Forgejo, Gitea, etc.”
Often compared with
1 moved from Forgejo to Gitea
5 moved from Gitea to Forgejo
7 moved from GitHub to Gitea
2 moved from GitLab to GiteaCodeberg14 comments mention bothGitolite4 comments mention both
1 moved from Gitolite to Gitea
1 moved from Gitea to Gitolite
1 moved from Gitea to Tangled
1 moved from Gitea to cgit
Who recommends it in their own words
From the makers not counted in the ranking
“I'm one of the project leads of Gitea”
“I'm one of the project leads of Gitea and we've put a ton of work into Gitea Actions”
“Gitea is still community driven as before”
“I'm one of the project leads of Gitea”
“I'm one of the project leads of Gitea”
“I'm one of the project leads of Gitea.”
Threads where it came up
- Ask HN: Alternatives to GitHub 42 mentions
- Ask HN: What do you run on a $5 VPS that's worth keeping online 24/7? 4 mentions
- GitHub is the wrong shape for this new world 3 mentions
- Why developers are ditching GitHub for Codeberg and self-hosting alternatives 2 mentions
- The Forge We Deserve 2 mentions
- The federated code forge 1 mention
Data: gitea.json. Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 46
“main repo and CI is on my self-hosted Gitea”
“git backup(I use gittea) to backup public repos”
“I also have gitea installed, but I don't really see the appeal if I'm the sole user of a repo.”
“add bash shell scripts to my self-hosted Gitea repositories for common tasks”
“Forgejo/Gitea as local git server”
“I also run a few personal web services: Immich, Gitea, Bookstack, Jellyfin, and more.”
“Tangled, Codeberg or self-hosted Forgejo (my approach) or Gitea are all good alternative solutions here.”
“I can also recommend hosting your own Gitea/Forgejo instance, it has an automatic repository mirroring feature”
“Authelia, Immich, Jellyfin, Fusion, qBittorrent, Memos and Gitea.”
“I only use them for a few private repos myself though”
“I'm self-hosting Gitea and thinking of upgrading to Forgejo.”
“I just self-host Gitea.”
My gitea instance was only ~6 DB migrations beyond where Forgejo was at when I decided to switch, so I just undo‘d those and upgraded anyways. Works just fine, but I was really lucky that they weren‘t any big migrations. I guess isn‘t really as feasible anymore.
“I am self-hosting with Gitea. Have action runners set up on my Windows PC and Mac (with a container for Linux). Works great.”
“Gitea is far ahead in CI/CD features”
“Gitea is powerful and lightweight”
“the import feature works really well”
“I accidentally upgraded my Gitea instance beyond the fork which makes this more difficult...”
“at a scale of 250 contributors (which we hit), Gitea solved all the problems”
“gitea/forgejo both do an 80% job of covering these needs”
“selfhosting gitea has been a great experience for me”
“I left for Gitea.”
“I have a pretty bad taste in my mouth from GitHub, GitLab, Forgejo, Gitea, etc.”
“I've been self-hosting Gitea for years”
“you should consider self hosted gitea, which uses the same Actions syntax”
“the support mechanism was "Beg for help on Discord and hope someone replies", this left us high and dry a few times”
“we switched to gitea”
“eventually ended up moving over to Gitea + WoodpeckerCI + Nexus”
“You've built a great piece of software, thank you!”
“All upgrades, including major changes, have been as easy as just changing the tag and reloading the container.”
“Two of the big issues I had were around the user/repository forced structure.”
“thank you for your work on an excellent product!”
“Forejo and Gitea are good for this.”
“Forgejo/Gitea is lightweight and easy to setup.”
“It’s my go to now for all my private projects”
“looks like Gitea supports that kind of workflow now”
“I like Forgejo/Gitea”
“I'm working on self hosting Gitea right now.”
“Technically old version of gitea which is forgejo pre-fork”
“Our practical solution was to just mirror our Gitea repos into GitHub.”
“gitea is faster, and easier to manage and does everything I actually need”
“I also evaluated gitea and saw they were offering a commercial multitenant service where my 3p hosting wouldn't be welcome”
“Ability for rug pull is much greater for gitea imo.”
“I'm extremely satisfied with that setup. It is batteries included & fire and forget.”
“I use a self hosted Gitea instance and it's very simple.”
“it was not clear to us to what extent gitea would play nicely with us”