Self-Host Forgejo: Open Source GitHub Alternative 2026

Q: Forgejo vs Gitea: Which to Choose?

Both are excellent. The practical differences in 2026: Choose Forgejo if: Open source governance matters to you (GPL 3.0, community non-profit) You want to contribute and ensure no future corporate pivot You prefer Codeberg.org as a codebase/community hub Choose Gitea if: You want the larger community and more third-party integrations MIT license preferred Enterprise support is on your roadmap Either works. Both share the same original codebase, both run the same Docker workflow, and both fully

TL;DR

Forgejo is a community-governed fork of Gitea — a self-hosted Git platform with repositories, issues, pull requests, Actions CI/CD, package registry, and Pages. GPL 3.0, ~10K stars. Forgejo was created in 2022 after Gitea's governance controversy (Gitea Ltd incorporated without community input). If you're choosing between Forgejo and Gitea in 2026: Forgejo has stronger community governance, Gitea has the more active codebase. Both run the same Docker image format and are 99% compatible.

Key Takeaways

Forgejo: GPL 3.0 (true open source), ~10K stars, Forgejo e.V. community governance
Forgejo vs Gitea: Same codebase origin; Forgejo focuses on community/open governance, Gitea on enterprise features
Actions: Full GitHub Actions-compatible CI/CD via forgejo-runner
Packages: Container registry, npm, PyPI, Maven packages
Resources: ~100MB RAM idle — runs comfortably on a $6/month VPS
Migration: Import repos from GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket with one click

Forgejo vs Gitea vs GitLab

Feature	Forgejo	Gitea	GitLab CE
License	GPL 3.0	MIT	MIT
Governance	Community (e.V.)	Gitea Ltd	GitLab Inc
GitHub Stars	~10K	~46K	~24K
RAM (idle)	~100MB	~100MB	2–4GB
Actions CI/CD	✅ (forgejo-runner)	✅ (act_runner)	✅ (GitLab Runner)
Container registry	✅	✅	✅
Pages	✅	✅	✅
Wiki	✅	✅	✅
Issue tracker	✅	✅	✅
Code review	✅	✅	✅
Merge trains	❌	❌	✅
RBAC	Basic	Basic	Advanced

GitLab vs Forgejo: GitLab CE is full-featured but needs 4–8GB RAM minimum. For small teams and personal use, Forgejo is far more resource-efficient.

Part 1: Docker Compose Setup

# docker-compose.yml
version: '3.8'

services:
  forgejo:
    image: codeberg.org/forgejo/forgejo:9
    container_name: forgejo
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"     # Web UI
      - "2222:22"       # SSH (map to non-standard host port to avoid conflict)
    environment:
      USER_UID: 1000
      USER_GID: 1000
      FORGEJO__database__DB_TYPE: postgres
      FORGEJO__database__HOST: db:5432
      FORGEJO__database__NAME: forgejo
      FORGEJO__database__USER: forgejo
      FORGEJO__database__PASSWD: "${DB_PASSWORD}"
      FORGEJO__server__DOMAIN: git.yourdomain.com
      FORGEJO__server__SSH_DOMAIN: git.yourdomain.com
      FORGEJO__server__ROOT_URL: https://git.yourdomain.com/
      FORGEJO__server__SSH_PORT: 2222
      FORGEJO__server__SSH_LISTEN_PORT: 22
    volumes:
      - forgejo_data:/data
      - /etc/timezone:/etc/timezone:ro
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
    depends_on:
      db:
        condition: service_healthy

  db:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      POSTGRES_DB: forgejo
      POSTGRES_USER: forgejo
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: "${DB_PASSWORD}"
    volumes:
      - forgejo_db:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U forgejo"]
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 5

volumes:
  forgejo_data:
  forgejo_db:

# .env
DB_PASSWORD=strong-database-password

docker compose up -d

Visit http://your-server:3000 → complete the setup wizard (admin account, instance settings).

Part 2: HTTPS with Caddy

git.yourdomain.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:3000
}

After adding Caddy, update your Forgejo app.ini (or Docker env vars) to reflect the HTTPS URLs.

Part 3: SSH Configuration

SSH is how Git push/pull works over SSH protocol. With port mapping 2222:22:

# Clone via SSH:
git clone ssh://git@git.yourdomain.com:2222/username/repo.git

# Add SSH key to Forgejo:
# Profile → Settings → SSH / GPG Keys → Add Key
# Paste your ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

SSH Config Shortcut

Add to ~/.ssh/config:

Host forgejo
    HostName git.yourdomain.com
    Port 2222
    User git
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

Then clone with:

git clone forgejo:username/repo.git

Part 4: Add forgejo-runner (Actions CI/CD)

Forgejo Actions is GitHub Actions-compatible — your existing .github/workflows/ files work with minor path adjustments.

Deploy forgejo-runner

# Add to docker-compose.yml:

  forgejo-runner:
    image: codeberg.org/forgejo/runner:6
    container_name: forgejo-runner
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - ./runner:/data
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock   # For Docker-in-Docker jobs
    environment:
      CONFIG_FILE: /data/config.yml
      FORGEJO_INSTANCE_URL: "https://git.yourdomain.com"
      FORGEJO_RUNNER_TOKEN: "${RUNNER_TOKEN}"
      FORGEJO_RUNNER_NAME: "docker-runner"
    depends_on:
      - forgejo

Get Runner Token

In Forgejo: Admin Panel → Runners → Create new runner
Copy the registration token
Add to .env: RUNNER_TOKEN=your-registration-token

Workflow Example (GitHub Actions-compatible)

# .forgejo/workflows/ci.yml  (or .github/workflows/ci.yml — both work)
name: CI

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
  pull_request:

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: docker
    container:
      image: node:20-alpine

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm ci

      - name: Run tests
        run: npm test

      - name: Build
        run: npm run build

  docker-build:
    runs-on: docker
    needs: test
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Build and push Docker image
        run: |
          docker login git.yourdomain.com -u ${{ github.actor }} \
            -p ${{ secrets.FORGEJO_TOKEN }}
          docker build -t git.yourdomain.com/${{ github.repository }}:latest .
          docker push git.yourdomain.com/${{ github.repository }}:latest

Part 5: Container Registry

Forgejo includes a built-in container registry at git.yourdomain.com:

# Login to Forgejo registry:
docker login git.yourdomain.com \
  -u your-username \
  -p your-access-token    # Create in Profile → Settings → Applications

# Tag and push:
docker tag myapp:latest git.yourdomain.com/username/myapp:latest
docker push git.yourdomain.com/username/myapp:latest

# Pull:
docker pull git.yourdomain.com/username/myapp:latest

Enable in Forgejo admin: Administration → Configuration → Packages → Enable.

Part 6: Migrate from GitHub

Forgejo supports one-click migration from GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket:

Explore → Create New Migration
Select GitHub
Enter GitHub personal access token (needed for private repos)
Select repositories to migrate
Options: migrate issues, pull requests, labels, milestones, wiki, releases

After migration, update your local git remotes:

# Update remote URL:
git remote set-url origin ssh://git@git.yourdomain.com:2222/username/repo.git

# Verify:
git remote -v

Mirror a GitHub Repository (keep in sync)

Explore → New Repository → Migration → Mirror

Forgejo pulls updates from GitHub on a schedule — useful for having a backup of public repositories you depend on.

Part 7: Webhooks and Integrations

Forgejo webhooks integrate with external services:

Repository → Settings → Webhooks → Add Webhook

Webhook to n8n/Slack on Push

Payload URL: https://n8n.yourdomain.com/webhook/forgejo-push Events: Push events, Pull request events

Deploy on Push (Watchtower-style)

# Simple deploy webhook:
curl -X POST 'https://your-app-server/deploy' \
  -H 'X-Forgejo-Signature: ...' \
  -d '{"ref": "refs/heads/main"}'

Part 8: Forgejo Pages

Host static sites directly from Forgejo repositories:

Create a repo named username.yourdomain.com or enable Pages in repo settings
Push a gh-pages branch or configure source branch
Site available at https://pages.yourdomain.com/username/repo

Requires: Setting FORGEJO__server__PAGES_DOMAINS=pages.yourdomain.com in config.

App.ini Configuration

For full control, mount a custom app.ini:

[server]
DOMAIN           = git.yourdomain.com
HTTP_PORT        = 3000
ROOT_URL         = https://git.yourdomain.com/
SSH_DOMAIN       = git.yourdomain.com
SSH_PORT         = 2222
DISABLE_SSH      = false
OFFLINE_MODE     = false

[database]
DB_TYPE  = postgres
HOST     = db:5432
NAME     = forgejo
USER     = forgejo
PASSWD   = your-password

[service]
REGISTER_EMAIL_CONFIRM            = false
ENABLE_NOTIFY_MAIL                = false
DISABLE_REGISTRATION              = true     # Disable after setup!
REQUIRE_SIGNIN_VIEW               = true     # Private instance
DEFAULT_KEEP_EMAIL_PRIVATE        = true
DEFAULT_ALLOW_CREATE_ORGANIZATION = true

[mailer]
ENABLED = true
FROM    = forgejo@yourdomain.com
PROTOCOL = smtp
SMTP_ADDR = smtp.yourdomain.com
SMTP_PORT = 587
USER     = forgejo@yourdomain.com
PASSWD   = smtp-password

[security]
INSTALL_LOCK = true
SECRET_KEY   = generate-with-openssl-rand-hex-32

Maintenance

# Update Forgejo:
docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

# Backup:
# Database:
docker exec forgejo-db pg_dump -U forgejo forgejo | \
  gzip > forgejo-db-$(date +%Y%m%d).sql.gz

# Repository data:
tar -czf forgejo-data-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz \
  $(docker volume inspect forgejo_forgejo_data --format '{{.Mountpoint}}')

# Run admin tasks:
docker exec -u git forgejo forgejo admin user list
docker exec -u git forgejo forgejo admin generate-secret SECRET_KEY

Forgejo vs Gitea: Which to Choose?

Both are excellent. The practical differences in 2026:

Choose Forgejo if:

Open source governance matters to you (GPL 3.0, community non-profit)
You want to contribute and ensure no future corporate pivot
You prefer Codeberg.org as a codebase/community hub

Choose Gitea if:

You want the larger community and more third-party integrations
MIT license preferred
Enterprise support is on your roadmap

Either works. Both share the same original codebase, both run the same Docker workflow, and both fully replace GitHub for self-hosted use.

See all open source GitHub alternatives at OSSAlt.com/alternatives/github.

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