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.
Thanks for your effort on compiling this list. However, if would be more helpful if it clearly distinguished between hosting services, self-hostable forge servers, and client apps. FWIW here’s a breakdown:
* hosting services: Gitlab.com, Sourceforge.net, BitBucket.org, Launchpad.net. Others not mentioned include Savannah.gnu.org, Notabug.org, Codeberg.org.
* self-hostable forge servers: Gitlab CE (Community Edition), BitBucket Server, Gogs, GitBucket, Kallithea, Gitea, Phabricator. Others not mentioned include Pagure, FusionForge, Rhodecode, Tuleap.
* client apps: GitKraken
In case you don’t need the whole suite of git functionality, a simpler alternative might be better – https://stansa.org
I agree that Microsoft kind of destroyed skype
Nokia was already dying before so hard to say
Linkedin to me is still a very high level service that I still use for free without any major issue
We see they are trying different templates or features, but so does/did other platforms including npm or github…
I’m not yet in hurry for moving anywhere else from github
One of the biggest advantage of Github, to me, is its social network combined with its authentication and the fact it is supported most ci (continuous integration services) like Travis, CircleCi, Coverall, Inch Ci, Green Keeper, Node Security Platform…. Even many module loaders like npm or bower natively support github username/projectName notations as shortcuts to its hosted projects…
And Microsoft is not the badest guy anymore regarding OSS
Now looking for the proposed options…
Gitlab is not an option to me.
It’s awesome for self hosted project, as can be jenkins for self hosted CI, but it will keep your projects on their island…
Sourceforge on its side is probably the worst solution and is a perfect example of a profit-oriented service (ads everywhere, and subscription invitations every time, blowing away service efficiency).
It was one of my open source reference in the past, but now… Sad to say my last experiences with it were…. very bad…
Atlassian Bitbucket is a very good Github alternative.
Its difference is that it initially focused more on professional usage than on community one
while Github startup to focus on the community (like many startups) before creating & highlighting business solutions
Last time I checked, open source usage was still more limited than Github one’s, and for sure people looking for OSS projects & contributors almost never think about it…
So, in the end, from this article, I will probably give a deeper look into GitKraken & Phabricator, but I’m not expecting to move there any time soon… Only big project owners are “almost” sure to see contributors & users following them anywhere.
It’s not a surprise if Apache projects, like Cordova, which have their own repo server, provide a mirrored project on Github, or if even the W3C & TC39 started to use Github for their specification processes. They are not there for Git, they are there for the community and the contribution tools.
Regards
Alexandre
Indeed it’s a very in-depth analysis on what to use and when to move regarding making and hosting open source projects. I believe users will be benefited from your suggestion and experience. Thanks for your valuable comment.
GitKraken is only a GUI client, not a hosting provider!