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Self-Hosting Gitea: Your Own GitHub

Gitea is a lightweight, self-hosted Git service. Repositories, pull requests, issues, CI/CD — everything GitHub offers, on your own server.

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Why Self-Host Git?


  • Keep proprietary code off third-party servers
  • No per-user pricing ($4/user/month on GitHub adds up)
  • Full control over CI/CD pipelines
  • No vendor lock-in
  • Faster clone/push for teams on the same network

    • Why Gitea?


    Gitea stands out among self-hosted Git options for its efficiency. Written in Go, it runs on minimal resources while providing a full-featured experience.


    Gitea vs Alternatives


    **Gitea vs GitLab**

  • Gitea: 200 MB RAM, instant startup
  • GitLab: 4+ GB RAM, minutes to start
  • Gitea for small teams, GitLab for enterprise

    • **Gitea vs Forgejo**

  • Forgejo is a Gitea fork with community governance
  • Feature-equivalent for most uses
  • Choose based on governance preference

    • Features


    Code Hosting

  • Unlimited repositories
  • Branch protection rules
  • Code review and pull requests
  • Web-based file editor

    • Issue Tracking

  • Issues with labels, milestones, and assignees
  • Project boards (Kanban)
  • Templates for issues and PRs

    • CI/CD: Gitea Actions

  • GitHub Actions-compatible workflows
  • Run the same YAML workflows you already have
  • Self-hosted runners

    • Package Registry

  • Container images (OCI)
  • npm, PyPI, Maven, NuGet packages
  • Generic file hosting

    • Deployment


    1. Deploy Gitea on TinyPod (needs just 1 CPU, 512 MB RAM)

    2. Create your admin account

    3. Configure SSH access

    4. Mirror existing GitHub repos or start fresh

    5. Invite your team


    Migration from GitHub


    Gitea has a built-in migration tool:

    1. Go to New Migration

    2. Enter your GitHub repo URL

    3. Gitea imports: code, issues, PRs, labels, milestones, releases

    4. Update your local git remotes


    The entire history comes with you — nothing is lost.