GitHub is a cloud-hosted, feature-rich platform with 100+ million repositories and extensive integrations, while Gitea is a lightweight, self-hosted Git service designed for organizations wanting complete control and lower infrastructure costs. GitHub dominates for open-source collaboration; Gitea excels for private, on-premise deployments.
GitHub vs Gitea — Side-by-side comparison on A Versus B
Cloud-hosted collaborative Git repository platform owned by Microsoft with 100+ million repositories.
Lightweight, self-hosted Git service written in Go with minimal resource requirements.
Hosting Model. Repository Count. Memory Footprint. Built-in CI/CD. Community & Ecosystem. Cost for Private Repos. Data Sovereignty Control
Choose GitHub if you need a robust, feature-complete platform with native CI/CD, extensive integrations, and want to tap into the world's largest developer community—ideal for open-source projects, startups, and enterprise teams already in the Microsoft ecosystem. Choose Gitea if you require complete data sovereignty, minimal resource overhead, lower long-term costs at scale, and prefer a self-hosted solution for sensitive codebases or compliance-heavy organizations.
GitHub: 2000 minutes with Actions | Gitea: N/A
GitHub: Enterprise edition only ($231/user/year minimum) | Gitea: N/A
GitHub: Unlimited LFS (with 1GB free tier) | Gitea: N/A
GitHub: Advanced with CodeQL (free on public repos) | Gitea: N/A
GitHub: Over 100 million developers | Gitea: N/A
GitHub: Yes, with unlimited repositories | Gitea: N/A
GitHub: 2,000 minutes (GitHub Actions) | Gitea: N/A
GitHub: $4/user/month (GitHub Team) | Gitea: N/A
GitHub: GitHub Functions (beta/limited) | Gitea: N/A
GitHub: Via GitHub Pages or custom workflow | Gitea: N/A
GitHub: Version control & code collaboration | Gitea: N/A
GitHub: Unlimited repos, 100 GB/repo max | Gitea: N/A
GitHub: Basic insights for Actions only | Gitea: N/A
GitHub: 2,000 (GitHub Actions) | Gitea: N/A
GitHub: GDPR-compliant (multiple regions) | Gitea: N/A
GitHub: User analytics enabled by default | Gitea: N/A
GitHub: GitHub Enterprise (paid, proprietary) | Gitea: N/A
GitHub: 2,000 (public) / 500 (private) | Gitea: N/A
GitHub: Unlimited (97M+ total) | Gitea: N/A
GitHub: Configurable required reviewers + CODEOWNERS enforcement | Gitea: N/A
GitHub: N/A (requires external CI/CD) | Gitea: N/A
GitHub: Unlimited (via Actions) | Gitea: N/A
GitHub: No (code storage only) | Gitea: N/A
GitHub: Community integrations only | Gitea: N/A
GitHub: Unlimited (via GitHub Actions) | Gitea: N/A
GitHub: $231+ (GitHub Enterprise) | Gitea: N/A
GitHub: GitHub Actions (separate workflow service) | Gitea: N/A
GitHub: Pull Requests with detailed approval workflows | Gitea: N/A
GitHub: Audit logs, SSO, IP allowlisting (Enterprise only) | Gitea: N/A
GitHub: GitHub Apps marketplace plugin | Gitea: N/A
GitHub: No, Enterprise tier required ($231/user/year) | Gitea: N/A
GitHub: 10,000+ GitHub Apps | Gitea: N/A
GitHub: Unlimited repositories (1GB LFS limit) | Gitea: N/A
GitHub: US-based servers, limited EU compliance | Gitea: N/A
Built-in Code Scanning & Security Features
GitHub: Advanced (SAST, secret scanning, dependency alerts) | Gitea: N/A
GitHub: For-profit (Microsoft subsidiary) | Gitea: N/A
GitHub: $19.25/user/month ($96.25 total) | Gitea: $0 (one-time setup)
GitHub: N/A (managed cloud) | Gitea: 50-100 MB minimum
GitHub: 6,000 minutes (GitHub Actions) | Gitea: 0 (requires external tool)
GitHub: 20,000+ marketplace apps | Gitea: ~50 official integrations
GitHub: Limited (Microsoft cloud) | Gitea: Complete (self-hosted)
GitHub: 5-10 minutes (sign up) | Gitea: 15-30 minutes (Docker/binary)
GitHub: 5,000+ GitHub contributors | Gitea: 300+ Gitea contributors
GitHub: $13,800 (GitHub Teams: $21/month per user) | Gitea: $299-999 (one-time license + hosting)
GitHub: N/A | Gitea: 3 (PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite)
GitHub vs Gitea — Structured Comparison Data
Machine-readable comparison dataset for GitHub vs Gitea. Contains 81 attribute comparisons, 5 FAQ pairs.
GitHub vs Gitea — Attribute Category Vocabulary
Taxonomy of attribute categories used to classify comparison data for GitHub vs Gitea.
Can I run Gitea behind a firewall on my own servers?
Yes, Gitea is specifically designed for self-hosting on your own infrastructure, whether on-premise or private cloud. It supports Docker, Kubernetes, and bare-metal deployments. GitHub offers GitHub Enterprise Server (self-hosted) but it's expensive ($231/year minimum per seat) and has been deprecated in favor of cloud-only GitHub Enterprise Cloud.
Does Gitea have built-in CI/CD like GitHub Actions?
No, Gitea has no native CI/CD system. You must integrate external tools like Drone, GitLab Runner, Woodpecker CI, or Jenkins. GitHub includes Actions natively with 6,000 free minutes/month and a large marketplace of pre-built workflows.
What are the minimum hardware requirements to self-host Gitea?
Gitea can run on as little as 50-100MB RAM and 1GB disk space. It's commonly deployed on Raspberry Pi, small VPS instances ($5-10/month), or Kubernetes clusters. GitHub Enterprise Server requires significantly more resources (minimum 2 cores, 4GB RAM, 40GB storage).
How many integrations does Gitea support?
Gitea has approximately 50 official integrations via webhooks and OAuth providers (Slack, Discord, Jira via webhooks). GitHub has 20,000+ apps available in its Marketplace, including 500+ CI/CD integrations alone.
Gitea is open-source and free forever, with costs limited to your hosting infrastructure. GitHub is free for public repositories and small teams, but scales to $21-231/month per user for larger teams. At 50+ users, Gitea's one-time cost ($299-999) vs. GitHub's annual cost ($13,800+) makes Gitea significantly cheaper.
Hosting Model: GitHub has Cloud-hosted (SaaS) or self-hosted enterprise, while Gitea has Self-hosted only.
Repository Count: GitHub has 100+ million repositories, while Gitea has Typically thousands per instance.
Memory Footprint: GitHub has N/A (cloud service), while Gitea has 50-100MB RAM minimum.
Built-in CI/CD: GitHub has GitHub Actions included, while Gitea has None (third-party integration required).
Community & Ecosystem: GitHub has Largest developer community, 500K+ public libraries, while Gitea has Growing community, limited ecosystem.
Cost for Private Repos: GitHub has Free tier + $4-21/month paid plans, while Gitea has One-time license ~$299 or free open-source.
Data Sovereignty Control: GitHub has Limited (GitHub owns infrastructure), while Gitea has Complete (self-hosted on your servers).