GitHub is really two products fused together: a git host, and a social network for code where issues, pull requests, and a public profile put your project in front of an audience. Only the first half can be self-hosted. Moving your repositories to your own server is straightforward and gives you private code off a vendor's platform, predictable uptime, and no usage tiers - but it will not hand you GitHub's contributor graph or its drive-by visibility. The open source forges below cover the part that genuinely has to run on your own hardware: repositories, code review, issues, and often CI and a package registry, from a single binary you control.
Gitea is a self-hosted Git service for teams that want to run their own software development platform. It brings Git hosting, code review, team collaboration, a package registry, and CI/CD together in one place, aiming to be the easiest, fastest, and most painless way to set up a self-hosted Git server.
Gogs is a self-hosted Git service for hosting repositories, users, organizations, and collaboration workflows on infrastructure you control. It aims to be simple, stable, extensible, and easy to set up, using independent Go binary distributions across platforms Go supports, including Linux, macOS, Windows, and ARM-based systems.
OneDev is a Git server for teams that want code hosting, CI/CD, issue tracking, Kanban, and packages in one self-hosted DevOps platform. It supports pull requests, code review, project organization, and service desk workflows that link emails with issues.
How much of GitHub you are replacing decides which forge fits.
Closest all-in-one GitHub stand-in: Gitea Gitea brings git hosting, issues and pull requests, code review, a built-in package registry, and CI/CD through Gitea Actions together in one Go binary that runs on Linux, macOS, or Windows. It ships a CLI called tea and an action runner, so a small team can rebuild most of a GitHub organization on a single modest server. Of these three, it is the nearest one-to-one replacement.
For a lightweight, low-resource forge: Gogs Gogs covers the essentials - repositories over SSH, HTTP, and HTTPS, issues, pull requests, wikis, and webhooks for Slack or Discord - as independent Go binaries light enough to run on a Raspberry Pi or a small cloud instance. It supports PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, or SQLite, and can authenticate against LDAP or an existing GitHub login. Choose it when you want hosting and review without the extra CI and registry services.
For code search and built-in CI/CD: OneDev OneDev is a self-hosted DevOps platform built around code intelligence: language-aware symbol navigation, regex code search, and inline diff discussions, plus GUI-created CI/CD jobs with matrix builds and Kubernetes or container runners. Automated Kanban boards and built-in package registries round it out. It suits teams who relied on GitHub's code search and Actions and want those specific strengths self-hosted.
The repositories are the easy part. A full mirror clone carries every branch, tag, and commit intact, and any of these forges can host the result within an afternoon. The work is everything wrapped around the code: pull request review rules, required checks, issue triage, labels and milestones, release automation, and the webhooks and integrations that assume GitHub's API. Inventory those events - from opening a change to publishing a release - before you pick a target, because that list, not the repository count, decides whether the move is a configuration exercise or a process redesign.
Match the forge to how much of GitHub you are trying to replace. Gitea folds git hosting, code review, a package registry, and CI through Gitea Actions into one modest Go binary, which makes it the closest single-tool stand-in for a small GitHub organization. Gogs shares that lineage but stays deliberately lean, running on Raspberry Pi-class hardware when you only need repositories, issues, and pull requests without the extra services. OneDev leans the other way, adding language-aware symbol search, regex code search, and GUI-built CI/CD pipelines for teams who lived in GitHub's code navigation and Actions.
Data beyond the git history needs an explicit export. Pull issues, pull requests, labels, milestones, releases, and wikis through the GitHub API, and map user identities before import or comments and review history lose their authorship. After the data lands, repoint remotes, deploy keys, secrets, webhooks, badges, and documentation links, then leave the GitHub side read-only long enough to catch references you missed.
Do not assume workflow files run unchanged. Gitea Actions executes similar job definitions and provides its own runner, and OneDev offers GUI-built CI/CD with matrix jobs and Kubernetes support, but secrets, cache behavior, event names, and status reporting often need adjustment. Migrate the required checks for your main branch first, then move release and scheduled jobs once the basic review flow works.
Issues usually migrate more cleanly than pull requests, because a pull request bundles branch refs, review state, inline comments, checks, labels, and user identity. Imports can preserve useful history, but exact review states and threaded code comments may not map perfectly. Test with one representative repository that has tags, old branches, large files, and signed commits before moving everything, and expect to clean up stale assignments and links to old GitHub objects.
This is the honest limit of self-hosting. GitHub's value for public projects is its network: existing accounts, saved notification habits, familiar pull request flow, and search visibility. A self-hosted forge will not reproduce that reach. You can soften the friction with clear contribution instructions, account creation guidance, a read-only GitHub mirror, and visible links from the old location to the new canonical home, but expect fewer drive-by contributors.
It depends on the forge. Gitea bundles a package registry and CI through Gitea Actions, and OneDev includes both package registries and GUI-built CI/CD, so a single install can cover commit to release. Gogs stays deliberately minimal - repositories, issues, pull requests, wikis, and webhooks - and expects you to add CI and artifact storage separately. Match that choice to whether you want one tool or a smaller core plus dedicated services.
Map permissions before importing users. GitHub organizations, teams, repository roles, outside collaborators, and branch protection rules may not have one-to-one equivalents. Decide who can create repositories, force-push, manage secrets, and approve releases. If you use single sign-on, test group synchronization and deprovisioning through LDAP or an external identity provider so former employees do not keep access through local accounts that were never linked.
Yes, and it is a common transition strategy. Gogs and Gitea both support repository mirroring, so you can push the canonical repository to your own forge while keeping a read-only GitHub copy for visibility and old links. That lets outside contributors still find the project, buys time to update documentation and badges, and gives you a fallback while you confirm nothing important was left behind.
Self-hosting gives you control over data location, upgrade timing, and network access, but you own uptime, backups, mail delivery, and runner capacity. A hosted open source option reduces operations work while keeping the software portable - Gitea, for instance, offers a hosted service alongside self-hosting. For most teams the deciding factor is whether repository access must sit inside an existing security boundary.
