head to head · open source
Gitea vs gentle-shell
Gitea has 58,826 GitHub stars, 7,348 forks, 2,455 open issues and last shipped yesterday. gentle-shell has 1,527 stars, 248 forks, 369 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Gitea leads on adoption by 3,752% (58,826 vs 1,527 stars). Gitea is written in Go under MIT; gentle-shell is written in TypeScript under MIT. Gitea has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, gentle-shell 16%. 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 | gentle-shell | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 59K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.3K | ⑂ 248 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Gitea if
- You weight community size — 59K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick gentle-shell if
- You want the gentle-shell feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and gentle-shell fits your workflow better
About Gitea
Gitea 繁體中文 简体中文 Purpose The goal of Gitea is to make the easiest, fastest, and most painless way of setting up a self hosted all in one software development service, including Git hosting, code management, code review, issue tracking, project kanban, wiki, team collaboration, package registry and CI/CD which can reuse GitHub Actions. As Gitea is written in Go, it works across all the platforms and architectures that are supported by Go, including Linux, macOS, FreeBSD/OpenBSD and Windows on x86, amd64, ARM, RISC V 64 and PowerPC architectures. For online demonstrations, you can visit demo.gitea.com. For…
read the full Gitea overview →
About gentle-shell
gentle shell™ Your coding agent for controlled development in the workspace you lead. Website · Quickstart · Docs · Wiki Your terminal can run an agent. Your workspace should help you lead it. gentle shell is your coding agent, bringing your changes, tasks, and engineering workflow together—built for Pi. One workspace. A coding agent you direct. A workflow you can inspect. BUILT FOR PI · Coding agent workspace · Focused agents · ODD + optional SDD ★ Star gentle shell on GitHub Built for Pi. Shaped by Gentle AI. Features gentle shell — Your coding agent, in the workspace you lead A complete workspace for the…
read the full gentle-shell overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Gitea or gentle-shell more popular?
Gitea has 58,826 GitHub stars and gentle-shell has 1,527. Gitea has the larger community by that measure.
Are Gitea and gentle-shell free?
Both are open source. Gitea is licensed under MIT and gentle-shell under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Gitea and gentle-shell?
Gitea is written in Go and gentle-shell in TypeScript. 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 gentle-shell?
Choose Gitea if you want the larger community (58,826 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose gentle-shell if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.