head to head · open source
Gitea vs Shelve
Gitea has 58,826 GitHub stars, 7,348 forks, 2,455 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Shelve has 459 stars, 43 forks, 17 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Gitea leads on adoption by 12,716% (58,826 vs 459 stars). Gitea is written in Go under MIT; Shelve is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. Gitea has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, Shelve 9%. Gitea was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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.
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Side by side
| Gitea | Shelve | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 59K | ★ 459 |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.3K | ⑂ 43 |
| 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 Shelve if
- You want the Shelve feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Shelve 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 Shelve
Shelve Open Source Secrets Management, Simplified. Centralize, secure, and sync your environment variables & secrets effortlessly. Built with exceptional Developer Experience (DX), aiming to become your unified development workspace. Website • Documentation 📑 Table of Contents Click to expand 📋 Overview 🎯 The Vision 🗺️ Status & Roadmap ✨ Key Features 🔒 Secure Secrets Management 💻 Developer Experience (DX) 🔄 Sync & Integrations 👥 Team Collaboration 🤔 Why Shelve? 🛠️ Tech Stack 🤝 Contributing 📚 Documentation 📖 Full Documentation 🏠 Self Hosting 💬 Community & Support 📄 License & Credits 📋 Overview…
read the full Shelve overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Gitea or Shelve more popular?
Gitea has 58,826 GitHub stars and Shelve has 459. Gitea has the larger community by that measure.
Are Gitea and Shelve free?
Both are open source. Gitea is licensed under MIT and Shelve under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Gitea and Shelve?
Gitea is written in Go and Shelve 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 Shelve?
Choose Gitea if you want the larger community (58,826 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Shelve if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.