Gitea vs GitHub
A source-aware comparison of pricing, documented capabilities and workflow fit.
Short answer
- Price: not directly comparable — Gitea is pricing not verified, GitHub is free tier available.
- How to start: Gitea is pricing not verified, GitHub is free tier available.
- Where they differ: only Gitea has open source / self-hostable; both offer public api and sso (saml).
These lines are generated from the pricing we track, not from a paid placement. How we score tools.
What Gitea is
What Gitea isGitea is a self-hosted, all-in-one software development service covering Git hosting, code review, team collaboration, a package registry and CI/CD, released as open source under the MIT licence. It is built to be lightweight and to answer quickly even on repositories with long histories and large files, which is what makes it practical on modest hardware where a heavier forge would not fit. It is fully Git compatible, so existing tools and workflows keep working, and access controls restrict who can read or modify a repository. It runs on a range of operating systems, and because it is self-hosted the repositories and the data behind them stay under your own control. A managed cloud edition and a Gitea Enterprise edition with SSO, audit logs and SLA support are sold alongside the free version.
What GitHub is
What GitHub isGitHub is the social network of the software world and the largest code-hosting platform on earth. It is a Git-based system that allows millions of developers to collaborate on open-source and private projects. Beyond version control, GitHub Actions manages CI/CD processes, while GitHub Copilot provides AI-driven coding support. Whether you're managing a solo project or a massive engineering team, GitHub is the heart of the modern software development lifecycle where code is stored and reviewed.
Side by side
| Gitea | GitHub | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Developer Tools | Developer Tools |
| How to start | Not verifiednot a monthly price | Free tiernot a monthly price |
| Public API | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile app | not checked | Yes |
| Open source / self-hostable | Yes | No |
| SSO (SAML) | Yes | Yes |
| Visit | Gitea ↗ | GitHub ↗ |
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What Gitea is built to do
- All-in-one forge
- Git hosting, code review, issues, pull requests, package registry and CI/CD in one service.
- Lightweight to run
- Built for quick response on large repositories and long histories, including on small hardware.
- Full Git compatibility
- Existing Git tools and workflows work unchanged against a Gitea server.
- Access control
- Repository permissions restrict who can read and modify code.
- Self-hosted and MIT licensed
- Open source under MIT with repositories and data kept on your own infrastructure.
What GitHub is built to do
- GitHub Actions
- Automatically test and deploy your code directly from your repository.
- GitHub Copilot
- An AI assistant that predicts your code and writes entire functions for you.
- Pull Requests
- Review, comment on, and approve code changes collaboratively with your team.
- Dependabot
- Automatically updates your project's libraries and patches security flaws.
Choose Gitea if
- Teams that want a lightweight, MIT-licensed, self-hosted Git service with CI and packages for free
- Organisations needing SAML SSO and audit logs: Enterprise self-managed at $9.50–$19/user/month
- Nonprofits and small organisations that qualify for discounts
Skip Gitea if
- You want a hosted service with a published price — Gitea Cloud pricing was not shown on the page
- You need GitHub's marketplace and Copilot ecosystem
- You have nobody to maintain a server
Choose GitHub if
- Anyone who needs private repositories at no cost — the free plan gives unlimited ones
- Open-source projects: Actions minutes and package storage are free for public repos
- Small teams: Team is $4/user/month
Skip GitHub if
- You run heavy CI — the free plan includes 2,000 Actions minutes a month on private repos
- You need SAML SSO or an audit log API; those are Enterprise at $21/user/month
- You store large packages: free gives 500MB, Team 2GB
Evidence and freshness
Where a claim on this page comes from a vendor page, it is linked here.
Gitea: pros & cons
- Runs on very little hardware
- Familiar interface for GitHub users
- Open source with no seat limits
- Fewer features than GitHub or GitLab
- You handle backups and upgrades
- Smaller plugin ecosystem
GitHub: pros & cons
- World Standard: Acts as a digital resume for developers; this is where the industry lives.
- Open Source Power: Provides access to millions of ready-made libraries and codebases.
- GitHub Copilot: The most effective AI pair programmer support in history.
- Security: Automatically detects vulnerabilities and dependency errors in your code.
- Learning Curve: Requires knowledge of Git concepts like merging, rebasing, and conflicts.
- Enterprise Pricing: Advanced security and management features can be expensive for firms.
- Storage Limits: Not ideal for storing gigabytes of large binary files.
Our verdict on Gitea
The pragmatic self-hosted choice. GitLab does more; Gitea does enough with far less overhead.
Our verdict on GitHub
The de-facto standard for modern software development; the true home of code.
Published plans, side by side
Every figure below was read from the vendor's own pricing page and is shown with the sentence it came from. Where a vendor publishes no plan prices, we say so rather than guess.
Gitea
- Enterprise self-managed$9.5/user/mo
Enterprise self-managed $9.50–$19/user/month, 30-day trial, SAML SSO, audit logs
GitHub
- Free$0/mo
Free $0 with unlimited private repositories, 2,000 Actions minutes/month and 500MB package storage
- Team$4/user/mo
Team $4/user/month with 3,000 Actions minutes and 2GB storage
- Enterprise$21/user/mo
Enterprise $21/user/month with 50,000 Actions minutes, 50GB storage, SAML SSO and audit log API
Gitea vs GitHub: common questions
- Does Gitea or GitHub have a free plan?
- We have not verified a free plan for Gitea, while GitHub has a free tier with limits.
- Which is cheaper once you start paying, Gitea or GitHub?
- GitHub has the cheaper first paid step: Team at $4/user/mo, against Enterprise self-managed at $9.5/user/mo for Gitea — 2.4× the price. Both figures come from the vendors' own pricing pages.
- What is the difference between Gitea and GitHub?
- On the criteria we check, only Gitea has open source / self-hostable; both offer public api and sso (saml). The table above lists every criterion side by side.