1 Best European GitHub Alternatives in 2026
Sovereignty-first software picks, all built in Europe — hand-picked to replace GitHub.
Our top pick this year is Forgejo
Most picks fall under Developer Tools. Jump into any of those categories if you want a wider shortlist beyond this list.
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Self-host Git repositories, issue tracking, CI/CD, and package registries on a lightweight open-source forge governed by a non-profit — with no corporate lock-in.
Forgejo is an open-source self-hosted software forge for Git repositories, issue tracking, pull requests, CI/CD pipelines, and package registries — governed by Codeberg e.V., a German democratic non-profit. Forked from Gitea in 2022 over governance concerns, it uses an order of magnitude fewer server resources than comparable forges and can run on a Raspberry Pi or minimal VPS.
Installation takes minutes on any Linux server or container host. ActivityPub federation is in active development to enable cross-instance interactions — following repositories and commenting on issues across independent Forgejo servers. A GitHub-compatible interface and API simplify migration from proprietary platforms without workflow disruption.
Key benefits:
- Full Git hosting — repositories, branches, tags, and LFS with a familiar web interface
- Issue tracking and PRs with labels, milestones, projects, and code review workflows
- Forgejo Actions — built-in CI/CD compatible with GitHub Actions workflow syntax
- Package registry for Docker, npm, PyPI, Maven, Cargo, and other formats
- ActivityPub federation for cross-instance interactions across the Fediverse
- Minimal resource footprint — runs comfortably on a Raspberry Pi or 1-vCPU VPS
- MIT licensed and governed by Codeberg e.V., a non-profit with no corporate investors
Forgejo is maintained by Codeberg e.V., a democratic non-profit registered in Berlin, Germany, under German law and GDPR. The project uses only Free Software for its own development and is hosted on Codeberg — not GitHub. Self-hosted deployments keep all code, issues, and CI data on infrastructure you control, with no telemetry by default.
The upstream project behind Codeberg, Europe's largest community-run Git platform — and the default forge for teams requiring full infrastructure ownership.
