Comparison of source-code-hosting facilities
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A source-code-hosting facility (also known as forge software) is a file archive and web hosting facility for source code of software, documentation, web pages, and other works, accessible either publicly or privately. They are often used by open-source software projects and other multi-developer projects to maintain revision and version history, or version control. Many repositories provide a bug tracking system, and offer release management, mailing lists, and wiki-based project documentation. Software authors generally retain their copyright when software is posted to a code hosting facilities.
General information
| Name | Developer | Initial release | Free server? | Free client? | Associated collaborative development environment | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assembla | Assembla, Inc. | 2005 | No | Unknown | Unknown | |
| Azure DevOps Server | Microsoft | 2012[1] | No | No | Azure DevOps Services | Most features are free for open source projects or teams of 5 members or less[2] |
| Bitbucket | Atlassian | 2008 | No | No | Atlassian BitBucket Server, JIRA and Confluence | Denies service to Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Syria[3] |
| CloudForge | CollabNet | 2012 | No | Unknown | Unknown | |
| Codeberg | Codeberg e.V.[4] | 2019[5] | Yes | Yes | Forgejo | Codeberg e.V. is a non-profit which operates a public Forgejo-based software forge and bug tracker, and related services such as Codeberg Pages, a Weblate translation server, and CI/CD features via Woodpecker CI. |
| Gitea | CommitGo, Inc.[6] | 2016-12[7] | Yes | Yes | Gitea | Gitea is an open-source software tool funded on Open Collective that is designed for self-hosting, but also provides a free first-party instance. |
| Gitee | OSChina (CN) | 2013 | Gitee is a proprietary online forge. | |||
| GForge | The GForge Group, Inc.[8] | 2006 | Partial | Yes | Cloud version – free up to 5 users. On-premises version – free up to 5 users. | GForge is free for open source projects. |
| GitHub | GitHub, Inc. (A subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation) | 2008-04 | No | Yes | Unknown | Denies service to Crimea, North Korea, Sudan, Syria[9] |
| GitLab | GitLab Inc. | 2011-09[10] | Partial[11] | Yes[12] | GitLab FOSS – free software GitLab Enterprise Edition (EE) – proprietary |
Denies service to Crimea, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Syria[13] |
| GNU Savannah | Free Software Foundation | 2001-01 | Yes | Yes | Savane | For use by projects with GPL compatible licenses, subject to staff approval.
Code access review.[14] |
| Helix TeamHub | Perforce Software | 1995 | No | No | Cloud version – free up to 5 users. On-premises version requires a license. | Free cloud version has no limits on projects within 5gb storage limit.
On-premises version has DevOps pipeline technology and free replicas. |
| Launchpad | Canonical | 2004 | Yes | No | Launchpad | Supports Bazaar and Git for version-controlled repository hosting.[15][16] |
| OSDN | OSDN K.K. | 2002–04 | Unknown | Yes | Unknown | For open-source projects only.[17] Ad-supported. Defunct as of April 9, 2025. |
| Ourproject.org | Comunes Collective | 2002 | Yes | Yes | FusionForge | For free software, free culture and free content projects. |
| OW2 | OW2 | 2008 | No | No | GitLab | Oriented on middleware technology. |
| Phabricator | Phacility, Inc. | 2010 | Yes | Yes | Phabricator | End of life.[18] |
| SEUL | Unknown | 1997-05 | Unknown | No | Unknown | |
| SourceForge | Slashdot Media | 1999-11 | Yes[19][20] | Yes | Apache Allura | For use by open-source projects.[21] Ad-supported. Subject to American export restrictions, so denies service to Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria.[22] |
| Name | Manager | Established | Server side: all free software | Client side: all-free JS code | Developed or used CDE | Notes |
Features
| Name | Code review | Bug tracking | Web hosting | Wiki | Translation system | Shell server | Mailing list | Forum | Personal repository | Private repository | Announce | Build system | Team | Release binaries | Self-hosting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assembla | Yes[23] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes[24] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Unknown | No |
| Azure DevOps Server | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Commercially (Azure DevOps Server) |
| Bitbucket | Yes[25] | Yes[a] | Yes[26] | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes[b] | No | Yes[27] | Yes | No[28] | Commercially (Bitbucket Server formerly Stash)[c] |
| Buddy | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes[d] | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| CloudForge | Unknown | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | No |
| Codeberg | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes[e][29] | Unknown | Yes[30] | Yes | Yes | Yes (Forgejo) |
| GForge | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Gitea | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Unknown | Yes[31] | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GitHub | Yes[32] | Yes[33][f] | Yes[34] | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes[35] | Yes | Yes | Commercially (GitHub Enterprise) |
| GitLab | Yes[36] | Yes | Yes[37] | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes[38] | Yes | Yes[39] | Yes[g] |
| GNU Savannah | Yes[40] | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No[41] | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | Unknown | Yes |
| Helix TeamHub | Yes[42] | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes, with hooks. Jenkins, TeamCity, etc. | No | Yes | Yes |
| Kallithea | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | Unknown | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Launchpad | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes[h] | Yes | Yes[i] | Yes | Unknown | Yes |
| OSDN | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Ourproject.org | Unknown | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Unknown | Yes | Yes | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Yes |
| Phabricator | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Unknown | Yes | Unknown | Yes | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Yes |
| RhodeCode | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | Unknown | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SourceForge | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes[j] | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Name | Code review | Bug tracking | Web hosting | Wiki | Translation system | Shell server | Mailing list | Forum | Personal repository | Private repository | Announce | Build system | Team | Release binaries | Self-hosting |
Version control systems
| Name | CVS | Git | Hg | SVN | BZR | TFVC | Perforce | Fossil |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assembla | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
| Azure DevOps Server | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| Bitbucket | No | Yes | Until Feb 2020[c] | No | No | No | No | No |
| Buddy | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Codeberg | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| GForge | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Gitea | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| GitHub | No | Yes | No | Partial, until Jan 2024[43][44] | No | No | No | No |
| GitLab | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| GNU Savannah | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes[45] | No | No | No |
| Kallithea | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
| Launchpad | Import only | Yes[16][46] | Import only[47] | Import only | Yes | No | No | Unknown |
| Ourproject.org | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | Unknown | Unknown |
| OW2 | Dropped[48] | Yes | No | Dropped[48] | No | No | No | No |
| Perforce TeamHub | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
| Phabricator | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| RhodeCode | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| SEUL.org | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | Unknown | Unknown |
| SourceForge | Dropped[49] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Dropped[50] | No | Unknown | No[51] |
| Name | CVS | Git | Hg | SVN | BZR | TFVC | Perforce | Fossil |
Popularity
| Name | Users | Projects |
|---|---|---|
| Assembla | Unknown | 526,581+[52] |
| Bitbucket | 5,000,000[53] | Unknown |
| Buddy | Unknown | Unknown |
| CloudForge | Unknown | Unknown |
| Codeberg | 110,000[54] | 138,000[54] |
| Gitea | Unknown | Unknown |
| GitHub | 94,000,000[55] | 330,000,000[55] |
| GitLab | 31,190,000[56] | 546,000[57][k] |
| GNU Savannah | 93,346[58] | 3,848[58] |
| Launchpad | 3,965,288[59] | 40,881[60] |
| OSDN | 54,826[61] | 6,294[61] |
| Ourproject.org | 6,353[62] | 1,846[62] |
| OW2 | Unknown | Unknown |
| SEUL | Unknown | Unknown |
| SourceForge | 3,700,000[63] | 500,000[63] |
| Name | Users | Projects |
Discontinued: CodePlex, Gna!, Google Code.
Specialized hosting facilities
The following are open-source software hosting facilities that only serve a specific narrowly focused community or technology.
| Name | Ad-free | CVS | Git | SVN | Arch | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drupal | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | Only for Drupal related projects. |
| freedesktop.org | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | Only for interoperability and shared base technology for free software desktop environments on Linux and other Unix-like operating systems, including the X Window System (X11) and cairo (graphics). |
| mozdev.org | Yes | Yes | Unknown | No | No | Only for Mozilla-related projects. Defunct as of July 2020. |
| Name | Ad-free | CVS | Git | SVN | Arch | Notes |
Former hosting facilities
- Alioth (Debian) – In 2018, Alioth has been replaced by a GitLab based solution hosted on salsa.debian.org. Alioth has been finally switched off in June 2018.
- BerliOS – abandoned in April 2014[64]
- Betavine – abandoned somewhere in 2015.
- CodeHaus – shut down in May 2015[65]
- CodePlex – shut down in December 2017.
- Fedora Hosted – closed in March 2017[66]
- Gitorious – shut down in June 2015.
- Gna! – shut down in 2017.
- Google Code – closed in January 2016, all projects archived. See http://code.google.com/archive/.
- java.net – Java.net and kenai.com hosting closed April 2017.
- OSDN - shut down in April 2025.[67]
- Phabricator – wound down operations 1 June 2021, all projects continued to be hosted with very limited support after 31 August 2021.[18]
- Tigris.org – shut down in July 2020.[68]
- Mozdev.org - shut down in July 2020.
See also
Notes
- Anyone can submit Bug Reports without logging in.
- Limited to 5 users on free plan (see Pricing – bitbucket.org)
- Self hosted version is known as BitBucket Server and only supports Git repositories
- Builds are run in Docker containers
- Codeberg is only for public open-source code, private repositories exist but are not officially permitted except as needed to support FLOSS projects
- Requires one to log in to report a Bug.
- Has an open source FOSS edition and commercial Enterprise Edition
- Currently only available for security vulnerability updates
- Ubuntu
- Private repositories can be used to set up a project before going live. However, SourceForge requires that the project remains open source. See SourceForge Support.
- GitLab is not fundamentally organized by projects, so the count is somewhat difficult.