playgroundGitForgeLab/README.md

Internal Forge Comparison

This repository lists the pros and cons of three popular open-source Git forges (GitLab CE, Gitea, and Forgejo) based on a side-by-side comparison in a self-hosted test lab on a single VPS (github.com/matteodelucchi/gitforgelab). The goal is to provide a practical reference for teams and organizations evaluating which Git forge best fits their needs, based on real-world usage and feature comparisons.

Why This Exists

Choosing the right Git forge for a team or company is not trivial. Each platform differs in resource usage, feature set, administration complexity, and SSO integration. This lab deploys all three behind a shared reverse proxy with centralised OIDC authentication so they can be evaluated under identical conditions (same hardware, same identity provider, same workflow).

The entire infrastructure is defined as code (Terraform + Ansible + Docker Compose) and can be torn down and recreated in minutes.

Limitations

This is a test lab, not a production deployment.

• Runs on a single VPS. There is no high-availability, redundancy, or horizontal scaling.
• SSH Git access is disabled; repositories are accessed over HTTPS only.
• All services share one PostgreSQL and one Redis instance to save resources.
• GitLab is memory-tuned aggressively (2 Puma workers, 5 Sidekiq concurrency) and will be slow under real workloads.
• No backup strategy is included.

Comparison

Quick decision guide

If we want…	Choose
A complete DevOps platform with integrated CI/CD, package registry, security scanning, and enterprise features	GitLab
A lightweight, easy-to-operate Git server with minimal resource usage	Gitea
A community-driven forge similar to Gitea but with built-in CI (Forgejo Actions) and future federation support	Forgejo

A more detailed comparison that covers forgejo specific features and limitations is available in the forgejo.org/compare.

Forgejo vs. Gitea: What the Community Says

• Same but different. Forgejo is a hard fork of Gitea, so they share the same codebase and many features.
• However, Forgejo has a more active development and a more open governance model, which allows it to evolve faster and to include features that are not present in Gitea (e.g. Forgejo Actions, ...)
• Many people and companies move from gitea to forgejo reddit.

Forgejo vs. Gitlab: What the Community Says

• Fedora moves to Forgejo: Fedora Magazine
  • The Fedora Team compared intensively GitLab and Forgejo before choosing the latter. The report is here.
• Forgejo is prefered over GitLab by many Software specialists. One of the reasons is that GitLab is a very resource intensive application (because i.a. its written in Ruby) and that it has a very complex architecture (many services, many dependencies). Forgejo is written in Go (more efficient and state-of-the-art) and has a much simpler architecture.
  • ycombinator
  • lwn.net: Forgejo vs GitHub vs gitlab

Pricing

Feature	GitLab	Gitea	Forgejo
Free tier	✅	✅	✅
Paid tier (per user/month)	premium: 29$ ultimate: on request	enterprise: 19$	❌ (donation-based)
Information on pricing	info	info	info

Core Git Features

Feature	GitLab	Gitea	Forgejo
Git repositories	✅	✅	✅
Git LFS support	✅	✅	✅
Git tags for releases	✅	✅	✅
Protected branches	✅	✅	✅
Repository mirroring	✅	✅	✅
Webhooks	✅	✅	✅

Collaboration and Project Management

Feature	GitLab	Gitea	Forgejo
Issues	✅	✅	✅
Pull / merge requests	✅	✅	✅
Pull request reviewer assignment	✅	✅	✅
Pull request inline comments	✅	✅	✅
Wiki (per repository)	✅	✅	✅
Snippets / gists	✅	⚠️ limited	⚠️ limited
Project management	free: simple kanban premium: roadmap	simple kanban	simple kanban
Organization / group hierarchy	✅	⚠️ simpler model	⚠️ simpler model
Code search (global)	✅	⚠️ limited	⚠️ limited
Repository mirroring (push/pull)	✅	✅	✅

CI/CD and Automation

Feature	GitLab	Gitea	Forgejo
Built-in CI/CD	✅built-in Gitlab CI/CD	️ ❌ external CI (woodpecker/Drone)	✅Forgejo Actions (Github-Actions compatible)
Automated workflows	✅	⚠️ external CI required	✅
Workflow triggers	✅	⚠️ depends on CI integration	✅
External CI integration	✅	✅	✅

Artifacts & Registries

Feature	GitLab	Gitea	Forgejo
Package registry	✅	⚠️ limited ecosystem support	✅
Container registry	✅	⚠️ plugin / external registry	⚠️ evolving support

Authentication and Access Control

Feature	GitLab	Gitea	Forgejo
Access control	✅	✅	✅
LDAP / Active Directory	✅	✅	✅
SAML / enterprise SSO	⚠️ enterprise tier	❌ not supported	❌ not supported
Federation between instances	❌ not supported	❌ not supported	⚠️ planned (ForgeFed)

Operations / Self-Hosting

Feature	GitLab	Gitea	Forgejo
Resource footprint	❌ heavy (many services)	✅ light	✅ light
Deployment complexity	❌ complex	✅ simple	✅ simple

Notes on the test project setup:

Gitea

• SSH is disabled by default, so we use HTTPS to clone the repository.
  • it can be enabled in the Gitea settings if needed (see here and here)
• HTTPS: works, but requires the user to set a password manually in the profile first. That's unexpected since it should be inherited by authentik. Probably a misconfiguration from there.

Forgejo

• SSH is disabled by default, so we use HTTPS to clone the repository. Same as with Gitea.
• HTTPS: Same as with Gitea.

Gitlab

• SSH is active by default. But the port is wrongly configured and probably already used by the host...
• HTTPS: works well.