GitLab vs Gitea
Self-hosted for $4/mo on hetzner CAX11, versus $29-$99/user/mo on GitLab.
Side-by-side
| GitLab | Gitea (self-hosted) | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | $29-$99/user/mo | $4.13/mo flat (any team size) |
| Hosting | GitLab's servers | Your VPS (hetzner CAX11) |
| Data ownership | GitLab controls the data | Your disk, your encryption |
| Source code | Closed | Open (MIT) |
| Customization | API + integrations only | Full source access; modify freely |
| Maintenance burden | Zero | Backups + updates (manual) |
| Health score (ossreplace) | — | 79 / 100 |
Why teams leave GitLab
- Premium and Ultimate tiers gate basic CI/CD features
- Per-user pricing for orgs ($29-99/user/mo)
- Self-managed Community Edition lags behind cloud
- Many security/compliance features Ultimate-only
Gitea answers this by: Gitea Actions and Forgejo Actions give CI/CD + repo hosting at a fraction of the resource overhead.
The cost math
Assumes 5-person team using GitLab at the midpoint price ($64/user/mo).
| Period | GitLab | Gitea on hetzner | You save |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly | $320 | $4.13 | $315.87 |
| Yearly | $3840 | $49.56 | $3790.44 |
| 3 years | $11,520 | $149 | $11,371 |
Deploy Gitea now
One-click deploys at the cheapest provider for this workload:
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Common questions
Is Gitea a good alternative to GitLab?
Gitea is an open-source, self-hostable alternative to GitLab with an ossreplace health score of 79/100 — a composite of project activity, maturity, community, security, and adoption. It runs on your own hetzner VPS from $4.13/mo with full source access under the MIT license, versus GitLab's $29–99/user/mo hosted plans.
How much cheaper is Gitea than GitLab?
A 5-person team pays about $320/mo on GitLab. Self-hosting Gitea on hetzner CAX11 costs a flat $4.13/mo regardless of team size — roughly $11,371 less over three years (99% lower).
Is Gitea hard to self-host?
Gitea self-hosts on your own VPS. You handle the install, backups, and updates yourself in exchange for full data ownership and no per-seat fees.
Do you keep control of your data with Gitea vs GitLab?
Yes. Because Gitea runs on your own server, the data lives on your disk under your encryption. With GitLab, GitLab controls the hosting, storage, and access.