Private and open-source alternatives to GitHub
6 code hosting rated against the same public privacy criteria as GitHub, with our picks first.
Why look for an alternative?
- Open source: no. Closed source. Some tools, such as GitHub Desktop and GitHub CLI, are open source.
- No trackers or telemetry: no. The privacy statement allows third-party cookies for interest-based advertising, and the Exodus report finds Google Firebase Analytics and Crashlytics in the Android app.
- No ads or data sales: partial. Funded by subscriptions, but the privacy statement says third-party cookies may gather data for interest-based advertising.
- Independent audit: partial. SOC reports and ISO/IEC 27001 certification are only available to organization owners in account settings.
The alternatives
Forgejo Grade B
Self-hosted Git forge with issues, pull requests, package registries and CI through Forgejo Actions. A community fork of Gitea, with its domains held by the non-profit Codeberg e.V.
Forgejo scores 80 out of 100 (grade B) on the code hosting criteria. It meets 3 of 4 criteria: open source, no trackers or telemetry and no ads or data sales.
Gogs Grade B
Lightweight self-hosted Git service written in Go, with a web interface for repositories, issues, pull requests and wikis.
Gogs scores 80 out of 100 (grade B) on the code hosting criteria. It meets 3 of 4 criteria: open source, no trackers or telemetry and no ads or data sales.
Radicle Grade B
Open source peer-to-peer code collaboration stack built on Git, where repositories, issues and patches are replicated between nodes and signed with cryptographic identities, with no central server.
Radicle scores 80 out of 100 (grade B) on the code hosting criteria. It meets 3 of 4 criteria: open source, no trackers or telemetry and no ads or data sales.
SourceHut Grade B
Git and Mercurial hosting with ticket tracking, mailing lists, wikis and a CI build service. Can be self-hosted, or used through the hosted instance at sr.ht.
Based in the Netherlands (Nine Eyes). SourceHut scores 75 out of 100 (grade B) on the code hosting criteria. It meets 5 of 8 criteria: open source, no trackers or telemetry, no ads or data sales, tells users about requests and TLS configuration.
Codeberg Grade C
Non-profit Git hosting run by Codeberg e.V. in Berlin on the open source Forgejo software, with issues, pull requests, CI and static page hosting.
Based in Germany (Fourteen Eyes). Codeberg scores 66 out of 100 (grade C) on the code hosting criteria. It meets 4 of 8 criteria: open source, no trackers or telemetry, no ads or data sales and TLS configuration.
Gitea Grade F
Lightweight self-hosted Git service written in Go, with issues, pull requests, packages and CI through Gitea Actions. Maintained with commercial backing from CommitGo.
Based in the United States (Five Eyes). Gitea scores 30 out of 100 (grade F) on the code hosting criteria. It meets 1 of 4 criteria: open source.