Gitea vs SourceHut
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted git hosting & forges options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Gitea
Lightweight self-hosted Git service
VS
SourceHut
The hacker's forge, 100% free and open source
| Feature | Gitea | SourceHut |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | ≈5-minute setup | Read-the-docs project |
| Category | Git Hosting & Forges | Git Hosting & Forges |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Go | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary, bare-metal | bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 58,120 | ★ 2,000 |
| First released | 2016 | 2018 |
| Replaces | GitHub, GitLab | GitHub, GitLab |
What are Gitea and SourceHut?
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
SourceHut
SourceHut is a software development suite consisting of Git/Mercurial hosting, mailing lists, CI, bug tracking, and more. It is designed to be lightweight, JavaScript-free, and email-driven.
- Email-driven workflow
- No JavaScript required
- Git and Mercurial support
- Integrated CI builds
Gitea vs SourceHut: key differences
Gitea is written in Go, while SourceHut is built with Python. Licensing differs — MIT for Gitea versus AGPL-3.0 for SourceHut. Gitea is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 1,024 MB for SourceHut. Gitea is the more established project (first released 2016), while SourceHut arrived in 2018. Gitea has the considerably larger community, at 58,120 GitHub stars versus 2,000. Gitea lists first-class Docker deployment; SourceHut does not.
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 SourceHut if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- Active community (2k GitHub stars)
- Written in Python
Frequently asked questions
Is Gitea or SourceHut better?
Gitea is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider SourceHut if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Gitea and SourceHut free and open-source?
Yes. Gitea is licensed under MIT and SourceHut under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Gitea and SourceHut with Docker?
Gitea: yes. SourceHut: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Gitea or SourceHut?
Gitea has the smaller minimum footprint at 256 MB of RAM, compared to about 1,024 MB for SourceHut. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.