Gitea vs Soft Serve
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?
Gitea
Lightweight self-hosted Git service
VS
Soft Serve
Self-hostable Git server for the command line
| Feature | Gitea | Soft Serve |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Git Hosting & Forges | Git Hosting & Forges |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary, bare-metal | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 57,266 | ★ 7,136 |
| First released | 2016 | 2021 |
| Replaces | GitHub, GitLab | GitHub |
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 Gitea or Soft Serve better?
Neither is universally better. Gitea has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Gitea and Soft Serve free and open-source?
Yes. Gitea is licensed under MIT and Soft Serve under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Gitea and Soft Serve with Docker?
Gitea: yes. Soft Serve: yes.