head to head · open source
Gitea vs GitButler
Gitea has 58,826 GitHub stars, 7,348 forks, 2,455 open issues and last shipped yesterday. GitButler has 21,914 stars, 1,044 forks, 439 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Gitea leads on adoption by 168% (58,826 vs 21,914 stars). Gitea is written in Go under MIT; GitButler is written in Rust under a custom or non-standard licence. Gitea has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, GitButler 5%. GitButler was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (git, github), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Gitea | GitButler | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 59K | ★ 22K |
| License | MIT | Custom / other |
| Written in | Go | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.3K | ⑂ 1.0K |
| 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 GitButler if
- You want the GitButler feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and GitButler 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 GitButler
GitButler Git, but better . GitButler is a modern Git based version control interface with both a GUI and CLI built from the ground up for AI powered workflows. Website • Blog • Docs • Downloads Our beautiful GUI Our amazing but CLI [![TWEET][s1]][l1] [ ![BLUESKY][s8]][l8] [![DISCORD][s2]][l2] [![CI][s0]][l0] [![INSTA][s3]][l3] [![YOUTUBE][s5]][l5] [![DEEPWIKI][s7]][l7] [s0]: [l0]: [s1]: [l1]: [s2]: [l2]: [s3]: [l3]: [s5]: [l5]: [s7]: [l7]: [s8]: [l8]: GitButler is a powerful new Git based version control system, designed from scratch to be simple, powerful and flexible. It is designed for ease of use and modern…
read the full GitButler overview →
More in Developer Tools
Related comparisons
More Version Control & Collaboration projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Version Control & Collaboration field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Gitea or GitButler more popular?
Gitea has 58,826 GitHub stars and GitButler has 21,914. Gitea has the larger community by that measure.
Are Gitea and GitButler free?
Both are open source. Gitea is licensed under MIT, and GitButler has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Gitea and GitButler?
Gitea is written in Go and GitButler in Rust. 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 GitButler?
Choose Gitea if you want the larger community (58,826 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose GitButler if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.