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It's a split decision.
Choose Forgejo if you want a self-hosted forge centered on privacy, federation, and a guarantee of Free Software. Choose Gitea if you want those self-hosted basics plus published paid options, including cloud-managed hosting and enterprise self-management. Both list free self-hosted plans. Gitea’s Open Source plan includes unlimited users and repositories; Forgejo has no published commercial plans or billing, so its commercial starting price is not listed. Compare hosting needs before switching.
01Side by side
| Forgejo | Gitea | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | No commercial starting price published | $0 Open Source; paid from $9.50/user/month annually |
| Free plan | Free Software; no commercial plans listed | Open Source: unlimited users and repositories |
| Best for | Teams prioritizing privacy, federation, and ownership | Teams wanting self-hosted or managed DevOps |
| Core strength | Lightweight, federated, privacy-focused self-hosting | Git hosting, project tools, packages, and CI/CD |
| Learning curve | Not specified in published material | Not specified in published material |
| Integrations/data | Highlights federation and privacy | API, webhooks, integrations, and 20+ package types |
| Team/seat costs | Commercial billing not published | $9.50/user/month annually; first admin excluded |
| Support | Support terms not provided | Support terms not provided |
Forgejo Choose Forgejo if
- Choose Forgejo if privacy and federation matter most.
- Choose Forgejo if you want a Free Software guarantee.
- Choose Forgejo if you can manage self-hosting.
Gitea Choose Gitea if
- Choose Gitea if you want cloud-managed hosting options.
- Choose Gitea if built-in CI/CD and package management matter.
- Choose Gitea if you need published enterprise pricing.
02Pricing compared
Both have a free self-hosted option, but Gitea publishes paid plans and Forgejo does not. Forgejo lists no commercial plans or monthly or annual billing, so there is no published starting price to compare.
Gitea’s Open Source plan costs $0 and includes unlimited users and repositories. Enterprise Self Managed is listed at $19 per user monthly or $9.50 per user monthly with annual billing; the first admin is excluded from seat calculations, and the plan includes a 30-day trial. Gitea Cloud starts with two users at $19 per instance monthly. Its pricing information also lists a $79.17 monthly equivalent for 10 users billed annually. The two-user instance includes 2,000 Actions minutes per month. Object storage is $10 per 100GB; other overage rates are not published. Compare hosting costs too: neither free plan means a hosted service is free.
03Features and depth
Forgejo’s feature story is about owning a lightweight, self-hosted forge. Its homepage emphasizes project collaboration, privacy, security, federation, and a guarantee that it will remain Free Software. It also describes low server-resource needs compared with other forges. That makes Forgejo a fit to consider when control and decentralized collaboration matter more than a published commercial support or hosting menu.
Gitea covers Git hosting and code review, plus project tools for issues, labels, kanban boards, milestones, assignments, time, and dependencies. It also lists package management for more than 20 package types and Gitea Actions, with workflows compatible with GitHub Actions. Gitea supports Linux, Windows, macOS, FreeBSD, and Kubernetes, as well as single-server and replication setups. Its feature list is more explicit about packages and CI/CD. The published Forgejo information does not specify equivalent package-management or CI/CD capabilities, so we would verify those requirements before switching rather than assume feature parity.
04Ease of use and learning curve
Forgejo describes itself as easy to install and maintain, but it is self-hosted: your team controls the server and must account for operating it. Its low-resource claim may help teams with modest infrastructure, though the published information gives no minimum hardware requirements.
Gitea also offers self-managed hosting, with deployment options across several operating systems and Kubernetes. Teams that would rather not manage a server can consider Gitea Cloud, which is listed as starting with two users. That trades infrastructure work for a paid plan. The available information does not establish that one interface is easier to learn, so choose based on who will run the forge and which deployment model fits.
Questions people ask
Is Forgejo free to use?
Forgejo’s homepage guarantees that it will remain Free Software, and the published pricing information lists no commercial plans or billing. Self-hosting still means running your own server; the sources do not state what that will cost your team in infrastructure or operations.
Does Gitea offer a hosted option?
Yes. Gitea lists Gitea Cloud as a cloud-managed plan starting with two users, at $19 per instance monthly. Its listed two-user instance includes 2,000 CI/CD Actions minutes per month. The pricing information also gives a $79.17 monthly equivalent for 10 users billed annually.
Which platform includes CI/CD and package management?
Gitea explicitly lists built-in CI/CD through Gitea Actions, with GitHub Actions-compatible workflows, and package management for more than 20 package types. The published Forgejo feature information does not specify those capabilities, so check its current documentation if either is a requirement.
Should we switch from Gitea to Forgejo?
Consider Forgejo if self-hosting, privacy, federation, and its Free Software guarantee are priorities. Consider staying with or choosing Gitea if you need its published paid self-managed or cloud-managed plans, or want the listed package and CI/CD features. Confirm your technical requirements before migrating.