head to head · open source
Gogs vs GitLab
Gogs has 47,821 GitHub stars, 5,069 forks, 1,009 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. GitLab has 24,544 stars, 5,983 forks, 36 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Gogs leads on adoption by 95% (47,821 vs 24,544 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%. GitLab 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 | 2026-09-12 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.1K | ⑂ 6.0K |
| 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
Gogs is a self hosted Git service written in Go and released under the MIT licence, aimed at individuals and small teams who want their own repository hosting without adopting a full collaboration platform.
About GitLab
GitLab is an open core DevSecOps platform that gives teams Git repository hosting, merge request code review, CI/CD pipelines, issue tracking, and wikis in one self hostable application, aimed at organizations that want to run their development lifecycle on infrastructure they control.
read the full GitLab overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Gogs or GitLab more popular?
Gogs has 47,821 GitHub stars and GitLab has 24,544. 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 (47,821 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose GitLab if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.