Undoubtedly, GitHub is one of the best Git repository hosting services for any open-source project. However, there are several reasons why someone might be looking for alternatives to GitHub.
Some people might not agree with GitHub’s pricing plans, while others might be looking for additional features that aren’t available on GitHub. Additionally, some people might be concerned about GitHub’s ownership by Microsoft and may prefer to use a platform that is not owned by a large corporation.
Whatever the reason, there are numerous GitHub alternatives available that offer varying features and capabilities, making it easy for users to find an alternative that meets their specific needs.
Best GitHub Alternatives
In this article, I will be sharing a list of the top GitHub alternatives that offer sustainable and free packages for hosting Git repositories. Although these services do not provide free hosting for open source code, it’s still worth checking them out to see if they can meet your project’s requirements.
So, let’s take a look at this list of the ten best GitHub alternatives.
1. GitLab
Currently, GitLab is the most secure, reliable, and best GitHub alternative available in the market. It’s an open source software, and you can install it on your server. It’s very easy to migrate your open-source project to GitHub. Moreover, GitLab Ultimate and Gold packages are now free for educational and open-source projects.
2. SourceForge
SourceForge is one of the solid and popular names in this list of GitHub alternatives. There are many developers who have created lots of open source projects and let the users download the software through this versatile open-source code hosting site SourceForge.
It provides all the necessary tools and features required for developing an open source project effectively and smoothly. You, as a developer, can easily migrate the project from GitHub.
3. BitBucket
If you are looking for a high-performance and featured rich repository hosting service for your git source code, then BitBucket can be the best option for you as an alternative to GitHub.
It smoothly integrates Jira, HipChat, and Confluence project management tools, making this development platform valuable and desirable to big enterprise entities. Moreover, you can also use it for free for open-source projects using a community license.
4. GitKraken
In this list of best GitHub alternatives, GitKraken is a promising name for hosting open source code. This git client is steadily gaining popular momentum among developers.
The feature-rich tools, clean interface, and easy use of those features make it best to collaborate on software projects faster.
5. Gogs
Gogs is a remarkable one because of its open source, cross-platform, extensible, and lightweight nature. It comes so minimally that you can install it within no time and have a self-hosted git service for your open source project. Gogs are one of the best GitHub open-source alternatives available for you in the market.
6. Launchpad
Though Launchpad is a popular free git repository hosting service for Ubuntu, you can still use it to develop your own open-source projects. Canonical, the maker of Ubuntu Linux, creates Launchpad.
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It offers many features and tools worth mentioning, such as code hosting, bug tracking, mail listing, code reviews, etc. Despite the stale interface and different workflow methods, you can use it as a GitHub alternative for hosting open source code.
7. Kallithea
Kallithea is a free software source code management system that offers two version control systems – Mercurial and Git. It has both a self-hosted git client and web interface, and it is easy to install and use for both users and admin.
8. GitBucket
GitBucket is a high-extensible open-source GitHub alternative for hosting source code for software development.
It has a set of tools and features that help the developer to manage the project code easily. Issues tracker, documentation and wiki, repository viewer, pull requests, etc., are some of the best features it can offer to you for your open source code.
9. Gitea
Like Gogs, Gitea is also an open-source, multiplatform-supported, minimal self-hosted Git service for an open-source software development platform. It’s a community fork of Gogs.
Final Thought
This is all about from my side. I have tried to give you a shortlist of GitHub alternatives, which will help you get the best one. What’s your recommendation for hosting open source code?
Let the users know which one you like or recommend in the comment section. Let me know if any other software Git repository hosting platforms deserve a place on this list of Best GitHub Alternatives.
