Compare / Gitea vs GitLab
Gitea vs GitLab
Pick Gitea (or Forgejo) if you want a small git host with Actions-shaped CI. Pick GitLab CE if you want the larger DevOps suite and will skip ee/ unless you have a subscription.
Facts checked 18 Oct 2026. License, language, and GitHub activity come from the catalog or the project's own repo. "Not in the catalog row" means the public catalog dump does not store that number.
Gitea in the catalog GitLab in the catalogStart on Railway
How they compare
| Gitea | GitLab | |
|---|---|---|
| License | MIT (go-gitea/gitea) source | MIT Expat outside ee/; ee/ is GitLab EE (proprietary) source |
| Language | Go (catalog) | Ruby (GitLab.com project) |
| GitHub activity | 58,536 stars in the catalog source | 6,166 stars on GitLab.com in the catalog source |
| Self-host | One Go service + a volume + a database. | Multi-service omnibus. Heavier RAM/CPU than Gitea. |
| Best for | A small git host (or Forgejo). | Git + CI + the rest of GitLab CE, without ee/. |
Self-hosting and resource needs
Gitea is MIT (go-gitea/gitea) on /stacks/forgejo-git as the MIT sibling of Forgejo. GitLab CE outside ee/ is MIT Expat; ee/ is the proprietary EE license (gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab LICENSE). GitLab is a heavier Ruby suite (Postgres, Redis, Sidekiq, Gitaly). Forgejo remains the published c17 git-host default — /compare/gitea-vs-forgejo.
FAQ
- Gitea or Forgejo?
- Forgejo is the published stack. Gitea is MIT if you already operate that lineage — /compare/gitea-vs-forgejo.
- Is GitLab CE open source?
- Code outside ee/ is MIT Expat. ee/ requires a GitLab EE subscription for production. Skip ee/ for OSS-only.
- Will GitHub Actions YAML run?
- Not unchanged. Gitea Actions and GitLab CI use their own files. That is the CI stack FAQ.
- How do I deploy Gitea/Forgejo?
- Open /stacks/forgejo-git. Persist repos and the database.
Related pages
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