Forgejo

Community-governed, self-hosted software forge that powers Codeberg.

Open sourceSelf-hostableCI/CD and code hosting platforms

Verified facts: 4 of 4
Alternatives ranked: 5
Approved reviews: 0
Visits sent from here: 0

About Forgejo

Forgejo is a self-hosted software forge that started in 2022 as a fork of Gitea, after Gitea's domain and trademark moved to a for-profit company. It is developed under the umbrella of the non-profit Codeberg e.V. and is the software behind Codeberg.org. Feature-wise it offers what you expect from a modern forge: repositories, pull requests and reviews, issues, projects, wikis, releases, a package registry and Forgejo Actions, a CI system that understands GitHub Actions-style workflows via its runner. It is light enough to run on a small VPS and is easy to install from a single binary or container. The project emphasises security, privacy and work on federation between forges. Since version 9 it is licensed under the GPL v3 or later to prevent proprietary takeovers; earlier versions were MIT. It is free with no paid tiers from the project itself, and runs on Linux and other Unix-like systems.

Best for: Self-hosters who want a light forge run by a non-profit community rather than a company.

What works

Community governance under a non-profit
Light to run with built-in Actions CI
Copyleft licence guards against proprietary forks

Why people leave

Smaller ecosystem than GitHub or GitLab
No official paid support from the project
Federation features are still in progress

Top Forgejo alternatives

See all 5

1
Gitea
The upstream project, with paid cloud and enterprise options.
66.5
2
Codeberg
Use Forgejo without running it yourself on a non-profit host.
62.6
3
GitLab
Much more complete platform if you can afford the resources.
59.6
4
SourceHut
Minimalist, email-driven forge with built-in build service.
57.2
5
GitHub
Hosted option with the largest community.
55.3

Why people left Forgejo

In reviewers' own words, from reviews of the apps they moved to. These are their opinions, not ours.

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Forgejo: common questions

Is Forgejo free?

Yes. Forgejo is free, open-source software that you can host yourself.

Is Forgejo open source?

Yes. You can also run it on your own server.

What platforms does Forgejo run on?

Forgejo is available for Self-hosted, Web and Linux.

What are the best alternatives to Forgejo?

The highest-ranked Forgejo alternatives right now are Gitea, Codeberg and GitLab. See the full ranked list for pricing, platforms and verified facts.

See all 5 Forgejo alternatives

Forgejo facts

4 of 4 verified

License: GPL v3+ (from v9.0); Checked Oct 25, 2026forgejo.org(opens source in a new tab); “Forgejo versions v9.0 and later are distributed under the terms of the GPL v3+ .”
Stewardship: Non-profit Codeberg e.V.; Checked Oct 25, 2026forgejo.org(opens source in a new tab); “The Forgejo domains are in the custody of the non-profit Codeberg e.V. .”
Self-hosting: Yes; Checked Oct 25, 2026forgejo.org(opens source in a new tab); “Forgejo is a self-hosted lightweight software forge.”
Free software: Always; Checked Oct 25, 2026forgejo.org(opens source in a new tab); “Guaranteed 100% Free Software Forgejo will always be Free and Open Source Software .”