Forgejo is a free, self-hosted Git forge and Gitea fork governed by the non-profit Codeberg e.V. See its features, licensing, federation roadmap, and rivals.
Category
DevOps
Pricing
Open Source / Free, from Free (self-hosted)
Verified
Not yet
Last updated
July 18, 2026
Founded
2022
Free PlanWeb AppAPIOpen SourceSelf-Hosted
Overview
Forgejo is a self-hosted Git forge, forked from Gitea in October 2022 after Gitea's trademark and domain were transferred to a new for-profit company without community consultation. Forgejo is governed under Codeberg e.V., a German non-profit that also runs the Codeberg.org community Git hosting platform.
It began as a 'soft fork' that tracked upstream Gitea changes, then became a full 'hard fork' in February 2024, diverging permanently after Gitea's v1.21 release. In August 2024 the project moved its overall license from MIT to the GNU GPL.
Key Features
Forgejo ships as a lightweight single static binary that runs on as little as 512MB of RAM, and includes pull requests, issue tracking, a wiki, a container registry, a package registry, Git LFS, and SSH access.
Forgejo Actions provides GitHub-Actions-compatible CI/CD with self-hosted runners, and the project is actively building ActivityPub-based federation (ForgeFed) toward the long-term goal of interconnected, decentralized forge instances, with federated repository stars already shipped as a first step.
Pricing
Forgejo is free and open source (GPL-licensed, with inherited Gitea code remaining MIT-licensed) with no first-party commercial hosted tier from the project or Codeberg e.V.
Organizations self-host Forgejo on their own infrastructure at no licensing cost, though third-party providers offer paid managed Forgejo hosting, and Codeberg.org itself offers free, donation-funded public hosting.
Key Features
Lightweight single-binary deployment — Forgejo ships as a single static binary that runs comfortably on as little as 512MB of RAM, making self-hosting practical on inexpensive infrastructure.
GitHub-Actions-compatible CI/CD — Forgejo Actions runs workflows written in GitHub Actions YAML syntax with self-hosted runners, easing migration from GitHub for teams with existing CI pipelines.
Pull requests, issues, and wiki — Full code review workflow support including pull requests, an issue tracker, and a per-repository wiki, matching core GitHub/GitLab functionality.
Container and package registries — Built-in container registry and package registry support let teams host their own artifacts alongside their source code.
ActivityPub-based federation (ForgeFed) — Forgejo is building federation on the ForgeFed protocol, already supporting federated repository stars across separate instances, with pull request, issue, and identity federation on the roadmap.
OpenID Connect tokens for Actions — As of v15.0, Forgejo Actions can request signed JWTs that external systems can verify as originating from a specific workflow, avoiding the security risks of static long-lived tokens.
Git LFS and SSH access — Supports Git Large File Storage for managing large binary assets and standard SSH-based repository access.
Community, non-profit governance — Developed under Codeberg e.V., a German non-profit, with governance explicitly structured to avoid the kind of unilateral trademark transfer that led to Forgejo's creation.
Pros & Cons
Pros
Fully free and open source with no licensing cost for self-hosting
Nonprofit, community-based governance under Codeberg e.V. reduces the risk of a future for-profit takeover
Lightweight resource footprint makes self-hosting accessible on modest, inexpensive hardware
GitHub-Actions-compatible CI/CD eases migration for teams already using GitHub Actions workflows
Actively shipping federation features (ForgeFed) that no major competing forge currently matches
Cons
Federation remains an early, in-progress feature; full pull request, issue, and identity federation are not yet delivered
No official first-party commercial hosted tier, so non-technical users must rely on third-party or community hosting
Smaller ecosystem of integrations and enterprise support compared to GitHub or GitLab
Ongoing divergence from Gitea since the 2024 hard fork means the two projects may increasingly require separate evaluation over time
Forgejo was forked from Gitea in October 2022 after the Gitea trademark and domain were transferred to a new for-profit company, Gitea Limited, without community consultation. When contributors' request to place the trademarks under community management was rejected, they forked the project as Forgejo under the non-profit Codeberg e.V.
Is Forgejo free to use?
Yes. Forgejo is free and open source (GPL-licensed) to self-host, with no first-party commercial hosted tier from the project itself. Third-party providers offer paid managed hosting, and Codeberg.org provides free, donation-funded public hosting.
How is Forgejo different from Gitea?
Forgejo started as a soft fork of Gitea that tracked upstream changes, but became a full hard fork in February 2024, diverging permanently after Gitea v1.21. Forgejo is also governed by the non-profit Codeberg e.V. rather than the for-profit Gitea Limited, and moved its overall license from MIT to GPL in August 2024.
Does Forgejo support GitHub Actions workflows?
Yes. Forgejo Actions runs workflows written in GitHub Actions YAML syntax with self-hosted runners, and as of v15.0 supports OpenID Connect tokens for secure, short-lived authentication between workflows and external systems.
What is ForgeFed and does Forgejo support it?
ForgeFed is an ActivityPub-based federation protocol designed for software forges. Forgejo is actively building on it, with federated repository stars across separate Forgejo instances already shipped, and fuller federation of pull requests, issues, and identities planned for the future.
How much RAM does Forgejo need to run?
Forgejo ships as a single static binary and is documented to run comfortably on as little as 512MB of RAM, making it practical to self-host on inexpensive VPS infrastructure.