head to head · open source
Gogs vs GitLab
Gogs has 47,914 GitHub stars, 5,076 forks, 1,009 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. GitLab has 24,549 stars, 5,943 forks, 36 open issues and last shipped 11 days ago. Gogs leads on adoption by 95% (47,914 vs 24,549 stars). Gogs is written in Go under MIT; GitLab is written in Ruby under a custom or non-standard licence. Gogs has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, GitLab 24%. Gogs 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
| Gogs | GitLab | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 48K | ★ 25K |
| License | MIT | Custom / other |
| Written in | Go | Ruby |
| Last push | 2026-10-31 | 2026-10-23 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.1K | ⑂ 5.9K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Gogs if
- You weight community size — 48K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick GitLab if
- You want the GitLab feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Ruby
- You evaluated both and GitLab fits your workflow better
About Gogs
👉 Deploy on DigitalOcean and get $200 in free credits ! 🔮 Vision The Gogs ( /gɑgz/ ) project aims to build a simple, stable and extensible self hosted Git service that can be set up in the most painless way. With Go, this can be done with an independent binary distribution across all platforms that Go supports, including Linux, macOS, Windows and ARM based systems. 📡 Overview Please visit our home page for user documentation. Please refer to CHANGELOG.md for list of changes in each releases. Want to try it before doing anything else? Do it online! Having trouble? Help yourself with troubleshooting or ask…
About GitLab
GitLab Canonical source The canonical source of GitLab where all development takes place is hosted on GitLab.com. If you wish to clone a copy of GitLab without proprietary code, you can use the read only mirror of GitLab located at However, please do not submit any issues and/or merge requests to that project. Free trial You can request a free trial of GitLab Ultimate on our website. Open source software to collaborate on code To see how GitLab looks please see the features page on our website. Manage Git repositories with fine grained access controls that keep your code secure Perform code reviews and enhance…
read the full GitLab overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Gogs or GitLab more popular?
Gogs has 47,914 GitHub stars and GitLab has 24,549. Gogs has the larger community by that measure.
Are Gogs and GitLab free?
Both are open source. Gogs is licensed under MIT, and GitLab has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Gogs and GitLab?
Gogs is written in Go and GitLab in Ruby. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Gogs or GitLab?
Choose Gogs if you want the larger community (47,914 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose GitLab if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.