Soft Serve vs Gitness
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted git hosting & forges options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Soft Serve
Self-hostable Git server for the command line
VS
Gitness
Lightweight code hosting with built-in pipelines
| Feature | Soft Serve | Gitness |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Git Hosting & Forges | Git Hosting & Forges |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 7,136 | ★ 37,713 |
| First released | 2021 | 2023 |
| Replaces | GitHub | GitHub, GitLab |
Why pick each one
Choose Soft Serve if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 7.1k GitHub stars
Frequently asked questions
Is Soft Serve or Gitness better?
Neither is universally better. Gitness has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Soft Serve and Gitness free and open-source?
Yes. Soft Serve is licensed under MIT and Gitness under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Soft Serve and Gitness with Docker?
Soft Serve: yes. Gitness: yes.