Gitea vs GitLab CE
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted git hosting & forges options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Gitea | GitLab CE |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | ≈5-minute setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Category | Git Hosting & Forges | Git Hosting & Forges |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Go | Ruby |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 4,096 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary, bare-metal | docker, helm, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 58,142 | ★ 24,000 |
| First released | 2016 | 2011 |
| Replaces | GitHub, GitLab | GitHub, Bitbucket |
What are Gitea and GitLab CE?
Gitea
Gitea is a lightweight, self-hosted Git service offering repositories, issues, pull requests, and CI integration. It targets developers and teams who want a fast, easy-to-run code platform. It is deployed via Docker or a single binary.
- Fast single-binary Git server
- Issues, PRs and wiki
- Built-in package registry
- Gitea Actions CI
GitLab CE
GitLab Community Edition is a complete DevOps platform covering source control, CI/CD, issue tracking, and container registry. It targets teams wanting an integrated, all-in-one development platform. It is deployed via Docker, Omnibus packages, or Helm.
- Integrated CI/CD pipelines
- Issue boards and milestones
- Container and package registries
- Built-in security scanning
Gitea vs GitLab CE: key differences
Gitea is written in Go, while GitLab CE is built with Ruby. Gitea is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 4,096 MB for GitLab CE. GitLab CE is the more established project (first released 2011), while Gitea arrived in 2016. Gitea has the considerably larger community, at 58,142 GitHub stars versus 24,000.
Why pick each one
Choose Gitea if…
- Very lightweight
- Easy to deploy
- Familiar GitHub-like UI
Watch out for
- Fewer features than GitLab
- Governance concerns spurred a fork
Choose GitLab CE if…
- All-in-one DevOps platform
- Powerful CI/CD
- Mature and feature-rich
Watch out for
- Resource hungry
- Complex to operate
Frequently asked questions
Is Gitea or GitLab CE better?
Gitea is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider GitLab CE if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Gitea and GitLab CE free and open-source?
Yes. Gitea is licensed under MIT and GitLab CE under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Gitea and GitLab CE with Docker?
Gitea: yes. GitLab CE: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Gitea or GitLab CE?
Gitea has the smaller minimum footprint at 256 MB of RAM, compared to about 4,096 MB for GitLab CE. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.