Hosting · Updated 10 November 2026 · 9 min read

European alternatives to GitHub for code hosting in 2026

Codeberg, Forgejo, self-managed GitLab, SourceHut and Gitea compared on who runs them, what they cost, private repositories and CI.

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For open-source work, Codeberg is a free forge run by a non-profit association in Berlin. For private or commercial code, the usual European route is to run Forgejo or GitLab yourself on a server in Europe, so the company holding your repositories is you. SourceHut is a paid, minimalist forge from the Netherlands, and Gitea suits teams that want the same self-hosted model with a commercial support contract.

GitHub alternatives at a glance

Platform	Who runs it	Where your code lives	Price	Private repositories
Codeberg	Codeberg e.V., Berlin, Germany	Mostly its own hardware in Berlin	Free	Only small amounts, tied to free software work
Forgejo, self-hosted	You	A server you choose	Free software, plus the server	Yes
GitLab, self-managed	You, with software from GitLab Inc.	A server you choose	Free tier at $0, Premium $29 per user a month billed annually	Yes
SourceHut	SourceHut, Hoorn, Netherlands	Its own colocated hardware, country not stated	€4, €8 or €12 a month excl. VAT	Not documented
Gitea	You, or Gitea Cloud from CommitGo, Inc.	Your server, or a cloud region you pick	Free software; Enterprise and Cloud priced separately	Yes

Prices are from each provider's own page, checked on 9 and 10 November 2026.

What to check before you move your repositories

What the host lets you store. A non-profit forge may accept only openly licensed projects. A company's closed source usually needs a paid forge or one you run.
Who holds the data. GitHub's terms name GitHub, Inc. and the laws of California. Moving to a European association, a Dutch business or your own server changes that. The difference is covered in EU region vs EU company.
Where your CI goes. GitHub Actions workflows don't run unchanged everywhere. Forgejo and Gitea have their own Actions, GitLab has CI/CD, and SourceHut has a separate build service.
What comes across. Plain Git history moves with a push. Issues, pull requests, wikis and releases need a migration tool, and not every forge has one for GitHub.
Who patches the server. Self-hosting gives you control, and also the upgrades, backups and security fixes.
What deploys from it. Your hosting platform has to accept pushes or webhooks from the new forge, or you keep a deploy step in CI.

1. Codeberg

Codeberg e.V., a registered non-profit association based in Berlin, runs codeberg.org on Forgejo software, and its members and donors pay for it. Most of its services run on its own hardware in a rented facility in Berlin, with some tasks such as backups placed at netcup and Hetzner. Its migration tool brings over issues, labels, wikis, releases and milestones from GitHub, not just the Git history. For CI, Codeberg hosts Woodpecker CI, offers hosted Forgejo Actions only in a limited way, and lets you connect your own runner.

Best for: free and open-source projects that want a community-run home in Germany.
Price: free, with donations or membership welcome.
What it lacks: room for closed code. Public content must carry a free licence, and the FAQ sets a 100 MB allowance of private content for people who contribute to free software. For a company's private repositories, Codeberg itself recommends running Forgejo. Projects above 750 MiB of Git storage should ask for more resources first.

2. Forgejo on your own server

Forgejo is the software behind Codeberg. It split from Gitea in 2022, became a hard fork in early 2024, and is licensed under GPL v3 or later from version 9. It describes itself as lightweight and low maintenance, and its domains are held by Codeberg e.V. while the project governs itself. You install it on a server in the country you want, so repositories, issues and pull requests stay on hardware you rent. A small Hetzner cloud server is one option: the CPX02 is listed at €5.49 a month excl. VAT in Helsinki or €6.49 in Falkenstein and Nuremberg, but Hetzner's cheapest plans couldn't be ordered on 10 November 2026.

Best for: companies and teams that need private repositories under their own control without a per-user licence.
Price: nothing for the software. Your costs are the server and the hours spent looking after it.
What it lacks: someone else doing the work. Upgrades, backups, mail delivery and runners for Forgejo Actions are yours to set up.

3. GitLab self-managed

GitLab's Self-Managed edition runs on your own infrastructure, so a server in Europe keeps code and CI data there. CI/CD is built in, and the paid tiers add planning, security and compliance features. The software comes from GitLab Inc., a US company, but on a self-managed install you operate the servers.

Best for: larger teams that already use GitLab CI or need its planning and security features.
Price: a Free tier at $0. Premium is $29 per user a month, billed annually.
What it lacks: a small footprint. GitLab's requirements set 8 vCPU and 16 GB of memory as the baseline for a single-node install, and at least 8 GB in a memory-constrained setup.

4. SourceHut

SourceHut is a hosted forge registered in Hoorn, the Netherlands. Its code is fully open source, so you can also run it on your own infrastructure. It's still a public alpha. While the alpha lasts, Git hosting is optional to pay for, but the build service and chat need a subscription. From the beta, unpaid accounts become read-only for their own projects.

Best for: developers who want a small, paid European forge and don't mind an alpha.
Price: €4, €8 or €12 a month excl. VAT. Every tier includes every service, so the amount is your choice.
What it lacks: a finished release, since it's still labelled a public alpha. Eurobase doesn't deploy from SourceHut.

5. Gitea

Gitea is the open-source forge Forgejo was forked from, with commercial support from CommitGo, Inc. You can run the free version yourself, buy Gitea Enterprise for SSO, audit logs and SLA support, or use Gitea Cloud, a single-tenant service managed by the company behind Gitea and deployed in the cloud region you choose.

Best for: teams that want self-hosted Git with a vendor support contract.
Price: free to self-host. Enterprise is charged per user a month with a one-year commitment, and its pricing page showed both $19 and a lower $9.5.
What it lacks: a stated company location. CommitGo's pages don't say where it's registered, so check the contract if you need an EU provider.

Deploying from a European Git host

Moving your code is half the job if your deploys still depend on GitHub. Eurobase isn't a Git host, but it deploys from Codeberg, Forgejo, Gitea and self-managed GitLab as well as GitHub and gitlab.com. Each repository is connected once, using an access token that can only read it plus a webhook, so new commits on your branch go live on European infrastructure run by Scaleway, a French provider. Its subprocessor list adds GitHub, Inc. or GitLab Inc. only if you link a repository there, so deploying from Codeberg or your own Forgejo keeps both US companies out of the chain.

The company behind Eurobase is registered in Warsaw, Poland. Paid plans cost €10 a month for Starter or €20 a month for Pro, + VAT, with a Free plan below them. It won't build from a Dockerfile, has no preview deployments and offers no managed Postgres, and it doesn't hold ISO 27001 or SOC 2 yet, as both are in progress.

The guides cover each forge: Codeberg, Forgejo, Gitea and GitLab. For a site you used to publish with GitHub Pages, see GitHub Pages alternatives in Europe.

How to choose

Your project is open source: Codeberg.
Your code is private and you can run a small server: Forgejo.
You rely on GitLab CI or have a large team with compliance needs: GitLab self-managed.
You want a paid hosted forge with a fee you pick: SourceHut.
You want self-hosting with a paid support contract: Gitea Enterprise.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a European GitHub?

No single European service matches GitHub for every use. For open-source projects, Codeberg is a close match. For private company code, most European teams run Forgejo, Gitea or GitLab on their own servers in Europe.

Can I use Codeberg for a commercial, closed-source project?

No. Codeberg's terms are written for free and open-source projects, and private content is limited to small amounts linked to that work. Codeberg points companies with private repositories to self-hosted Forgejo.

Can I move issues and pull requests from GitHub?

Yes, to Codeberg. Its migration tool imports issues, labels, wikis, releases and milestones from GitHub when you give it an access token. Plain Git history moves to any host with a single push.

What replaces GitHub Actions?

Forgejo and Gitea both have Actions, and you register your own runners for them. On Codeberg, the hosted CI is Woodpecker, and hosted Forgejo Actions are offered only in a limited way. GitLab has its own built-in CI/CD, and SourceHut has a separate paid build service. Plan time to port and test each workflow.

Does moving to gitlab.com get my code out of the US?

No. gitlab.com is run by GitLab Inc., a US company, so the provider holding your code is still American. The self-managed edition on a server you rent in Europe is different: GitLab supplies the software, and you run the machines that store the data.