Gitea: the lightweight self-hosted GitHub alternative for your VPS

Gitea is a self-hosted Git service, the lightweight GitHub alternative that runs on almost nothing. You get repositories, issues, pull requests, code review, a wiki, CI/CD (via Gitea Actions), package registries, and a clean web interface, all in a single binary that barely uses any resources.

Gitea is written in Go, so it compiles to a single executable with no runtime dependencies. You can run it on a VPS with as little as 512 MB of RAM (compare that to GitLab’s 4 GB minimum) and it stays responsive.

Why Gitea instead of GitHub

GitHub is great. Most people should use it for public, open-source projects. But there are good reasons to self-host your Git with Gitea.

Your code stays on your server

Proprietary code, client projects, anything you don’t want on someone else’s infrastructure: self-hosting Gitea means your code never leaves your VPS. No third party has access to your repositories, issues, or CI/CD logs.

No per-user pricing

GitHub charges per user for private repositories on team and enterprise plans. Gitea is free for unlimited users and unlimited private repositories. For teams of 5-10+ developers, the savings compound quickly.

No vendor dependency

GitHub has gone down before, and when it does, development workflows grind to a halt. Your own Gitea instance only goes down if your server goes down, and that’s something you control.

Mirror repos

Common setup: GitHub for public projects and open-source, but mirror everything to Gitea as a backup. If GitHub has issues, your team keeps working.

What Gitea gives you

Gitea covers most of what you’d use GitHub for:

• Repositories with web-based file browsing, blame, and history
• Issues and milestones for project tracking
• Pull requests with code review and merge options
• Gitea Actions for CI/CD (compatible with GitHub Actions workflow syntax)
• Package registries for Docker, npm, PyPI, Maven, and more
• Wiki per repository
• Organizations and teams with granular permissions
• OAuth2 and LDAP for authentication
• Webhooks for integrations with other tools

Gitea resource requirements

This is where Gitea shines. It’s incredibly lightweight:

Setup	RAM	vCPUs	Storage
Small team (1-5 users)	512 MB	1	10 GB
Medium team (5-20 users)	1 GB	2	20 GB
Larger team with CI/CD	2-4 GB	2+	50 GB+

Storage depends on repo size and count. Git is efficient unless you’re storing large binaries.

Compare with GitLab (4 GB minimum, typically needs 8 GB+ to run comfortably). Gitea can share a VPS with other applications without breaking a sweat.

Quick Gitea Docker setup

Fastest path:

mkdir -p /opt/gitea
cd /opt/gitea

docker run -d \
  --name gitea \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  -p 3000:3000 \
  -p 2222:22 \
  -v /opt/gitea/data:/data \
  gitea/gitea:latest

That’s it. Open http://your-vps-ip:3000 and walk through the setup wizard. Configure the database (SQLite works fine for small teams, PostgreSQL for larger setups), create your admin account, done.

For production: add a reverse proxy (Nginx or Caddy) with SSL, back up /opt/gitea/data regularly.

Gitea Actions: built-in CI/CD

Since version 1.21, Gitea includes Actions, compatible with GitHub Actions workflow syntax. If you already have GitHub Actions workflows, they work on Gitea with minimal changes.

Run the Action runner on the same VPS or a separate machine. Your CI/CD pipelines run on your own infrastructure. No GitHub Actions minutes bills, no usage limits.

Who uses Gitea

• Freelancers and small agencies wanting private repos without GitHub’s per-seat pricing
• Companies needing source code on their own infrastructure for compliance or security
• Developers with a personal Git server for side projects
• Teams wanting GitHub Actions-compatible CI/CD without the GitHub dependency
• Anyone wanting a backup of their GitHub repos on infrastructure they control

Gitea vs alternatives

vs GitHub: GitHub has a larger ecosystem (Actions marketplace, Copilot, Dependabot). Gitea gives you control and no per-user fees.

vs GitLab: GitLab has more built-in features (container registry, DevSecOps, monitoring). But it’s heavy. Really heavy. Gitea does 80% of what GitLab does at 10% of the resource cost.

vs Forgejo: Forgejo is a Gitea fork with a community governance focus. Very similar. Pick whichever community you prefer.

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Deploy Gitea on a Linux VPS with as little as 512 MB RAM. It’s one of the lightest self-hosted tools you can run. Pick a data center and have Gitea running in 5 minutes.