Codeberg vs GitHub in 2026: which Git host fits your project

Choose Codeberg if your project is free software, you want it hosted by a community-owned non-profit in Germany, and you don't need much private space. Choose GitHub if you need private repositories for a business, generous hosted CI or the largest pool of contributors. If you want Codeberg's software with room for closed code, run Forgejo on your own server in Europe.

Codeberg and GitHub at a glance

Prices are from each provider's own page, checked on 10 November 2026.

What decides it for most teams

• Is your code open source? Codeberg's terms ask that public content carry a licence allowing anyone to use, change and share it, commercially too. Creative Commons licences with NonCommercial or NoDerivatives terms don't count, apart from a narrow exception for personal works.
• How much has to stay private? Codeberg says it doesn't offer private hosting services and points companies to Forgejo. GitHub's Free plan includes unlimited private repositories.
• Who writes your code? Codeberg's terms forbid sharing projects that mostly consist of code written by generative AI tools, and they name Claude and OpenAI Codex. If an agent writes most of your app, Codeberg isn't the place for it.
• How much CI do you run? GitHub counts minutes per plan and bills over the included amount. Codeberg's CI is run by volunteers on limited hardware, is granted after a manual review, and may break at any time.
• Which law and which company? Codeberg is a German association that removes content illegal in Germany. GitHub's terms name GitHub, Inc. and the courts of California. For what a European company changes, read EU region vs EU company.

1. Codeberg

Codeberg.org is a forge built on Forgejo, which is a hard fork of Gitea. It's operated by Codeberg e.V., a registered non-profit in Berlin whose members elect its board and vote on its budget. Most services run on the association's own hardware in a rented facility in Berlin, while backups, redundancy and DDoS protection use providers such as netcup and Hetzner.

There's no fee and no paid tier. Codeberg says it won't take money for exceptions to its rules, so you can't buy private storage or extra CI. Ask first before going past 750 MiB of Git storage or 1.5 GiB of packages, LFS and attachments, and each account has a limit of 100 repositories unless you request more.

For CI, Codeberg runs a Woodpecker CI instance at ci.codeberg.org. You fill out a form, a volunteer reviews it, and builds target linux/amd64 only. Hosted Forgejo Actions are offered in a limited open alpha, and you can connect your own Forgejo runner, even one on a machine at home with no public IP.

• Best for: free and open-source projects, public documentation and personal notes from people who contribute to free software.
• Price: free. Donations and membership are welcome but optional.
• What it lacks: room for a company's closed code and guaranteed CI capacity. Pull mirrors from other forges aren't allowed either, so you mirror by pushing with git push --mirror instead.

2. GitHub

GitHub is run by GitHub, Inc., and its terms of service fall under US federal law and the law of California. The Free plan gives individuals and organizations unlimited public and private repositories, 2,000 CI/CD minutes a month and 500 MB of Packages storage. Team costs $4 per user a month and adds 3,000 minutes, repository rules, required reviewers and code owners. Enterprise costs $21 per user a month, includes 50,000 minutes and Copilot access, and lists SOC 1 and SOC 2 type 2 reports.

GitHub Actions on standard GitHub-hosted runners is free in public repositories and doesn't draw from your included minutes. In private repositories, runner usage counts against the plan's allowance, and extra use is billed to the repository owner.

For data location, GitHub Enterprise Cloud offers data residency on a dedicated GHE.com subdomain, with an EU region that includes Azure regions in Norway and Switzerland. GitHub lists data residency as an Enterprise feature, so the Free and Team plans don't include it.

• Best for: private and commercial code, teams that rely on Actions and its marketplace, and projects that want the most potential contributors.
• Price: Free at $0, Team at $4 and Enterprise at $21 per user a month, in USD.
• What it lacks: a company based in Europe. The terms name GitHub, Inc., and the data residency page changes where data is stored without naming a different company.

3. Forgejo on your own server

Codeberg recommends Forgejo, the software it runs, to anyone who needs private repositories for commercial work. You install it on a server in a country you choose, so issues, pull requests and code stay on hardware you rent, and Forgejo Actions runs on runners you add. You get Codeberg's interface without its licence rules, and you also take on upgrades, backups, mail delivery and security fixes. European alternatives to GitHub covers Forgejo, self-managed GitLab, SourceHut and Gitea side by side.

• Best for: companies that want a European home for private code and can look after a server.
• Price: the software is free; the server and the time to run it are your cost.
• What it lacks: a support team for outages. If the server fails at night, fixing it falls to you.

Moving from GitHub to Codeberg

1. Check your licence. Every public repository needs a free or open licence that Codeberg accepts.
2. Create an access token on GitHub, then open New Migration on Codeberg and pick GitHub. The tool brings over issues, labels, the wiki, releases and milestones along with the code. Delete the token afterwards.
3. Rebuild your workflows. GitHub Actions files don't move by themselves, so plan for Woodpecker CI or a Forgejo runner. GitHub Actions alternatives compares the options.
4. Repoint whatever deploys your app so it listens to the new repository.

Deploying from either one

Your Git host and your hosting are separate choices. Eurobase deploys web apps from GitHub, GitLab, Codeberg, Forgejo or Gitea to European infrastructure run by Scaleway, a French provider. With Codeberg, you link the repository once with a read-only token limited to that repository and add a webhook, and every push to the project's branch starts a deployment. The steps are in Deploy from Codeberg.

Eurobase has a Free plan, then Starter at €10 and Pro at €20 a month + VAT for the whole workspace. There are no usage charges today: work over a limit is refused, apps on V8 isolates and Functions stop until the monthly reset, and containers and static sites keep serving. The company behind it is registered in Warsaw, Poland. Eurobase has no preview deployments, no managed Postgres and no Dockerfile builds, and its ISO 27001 and SOC 2 work isn't finished. When you connect GitHub, GitHub, Inc. is listed among its subprocessors as a US company.

How to choose

• Pick Codeberg for open-source work written mainly by people, when a non-profit in Germany matters to you more than CI capacity.
• Pick GitHub for private company code, heavy CI use, or work that is mostly written by AI coding agents.
• Pick self-hosted Forgejo when private code has to stay with a European provider and you can run a server.

Frequently asked questions

Is Codeberg free?

Yes. Codeberg has no paid plans and is funded by donations and membership fees of the association.

Can I use Codeberg for private or commercial projects?

Only in a small way. Private repositories are meant for things a free software project needs, such as secrets or security patches in preparation, plus small personal notes, with about 100 MB allowed for people who contribute to free software. Codeberg tells companies that need private repositories to run Forgejo themselves.

Does Codeberg have GitHub Actions?

It has Forgejo Actions, the CI built into Forgejo, but hosted runners are limited and in open alpha, so most projects connect their own runner. Codeberg's hosted CI is Woodpecker CI, which you request access to.

Can I host AI-generated code on Codeberg?

Not if the project is mostly written by generative AI tools. Codeberg's terms forbid such projects, citing unclear copyright and the risk of harmful code. Code from AI agents is a better fit for GitHub or a Forgejo server you run.

Can I keep GitHub and use Codeberg as a mirror?

Yes, but you push to Codeberg yourself. Codeberg doesn't allow pull mirrors from other forges, so add it as a second remote and push to both.

Sources

• What is Codeberg and Codeberg FAQ
• Codeberg terms of use
• Codeberg CI and Forgejo Actions on Codeberg
• Migrating repositories to Codeberg
• GitHub pricing and GitHub Actions billing
• GitHub terms of service
• GitHub Enterprise Cloud with data residency
• Eurobase pricing, Eurobase subprocessors and Deploy from Codeberg