head to head · open source
Gitea vs Forgejo
Gitea has 58,048 GitHub stars, 7,153 forks, 2,455 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Forgejo has 0 stars, 0 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped —. Gitea leads on adoption by 0% (58,048 vs 0 stars). Gitea is written in Go under MIT; Forgejo is written in various languages under a licence not recorded in this registry. Gitea has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, Forgejo 0%. Gitea was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Gitea | Forgejo | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 58K | ★ 0 |
| License | MIT | Custom / other |
| Written in | Go | — |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | — |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.2K | ⑂ 0 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Gitea if
- You weight community size — 58K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Forgejo if
- You want the Forgejo feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You evaluated both and Forgejo fits your workflow better
About Gitea
Gitea is a self hosted, all in one software development service written in Go. It provides Git hosting, code review, issue tracking, project management (kanban), wiki, team collaboration, package registry, and CI/CD capabilities. The project aims to deliver a lightweight, painless alternative to larger platforms by running as a single binary across Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and Windows on multiple architectures.
read the full Gitea overview →
About Forgejo
Forgejo is a self hosted Git forge — a lightweight and secure server for hosting Git repositories and collaborating on them — for individuals and teams who want version control infrastructure they control themselves.
read the full Forgejo overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Gitea or Forgejo more popular?
Gitea has 58,048 GitHub stars and Forgejo has 0. Gitea has the larger community by that measure.
Are Gitea and Forgejo free?
Both are open source. Gitea is licensed under MIT, and Forgejo has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Gitea and Forgejo?
Gitea is written in Go and Forgejo in various languages. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Gitea or Forgejo?
Choose Gitea if you want the larger community (58,048 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Forgejo if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.