Gitea vs GitLab CE
| Feature | Gitea | GitLab CE |
|---|---|---|
| Category | DevOps & Infra | DevOps & Infra |
| Sub-category | CI/CD | CI/CD |
| Maturity | stable | mature |
| Complexity | beginner | intermediate |
| Performance tier | medium | medium |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| License type | permissive | permissive |
| Pricing | fully free | fully free |
| GitHub stars | 47.0K | 24.0K |
| Contributors | 800 | 3.0K |
| Commit frequency | weekly | weekly |
| Plugin ecosystem | none | none |
| Docs quality | good | good |
| Backing org | Gitea Community | GitLab Inc |
| Funding model | community | open_core |
| Min RAM | 256 MB | 4 GB |
| Min CPU cores | 1 | 4 |
| Scaling pattern | single_node | horizontal |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
| K8s native | No | No |
| Offline capable | No | No |
| Vendor lock-in | none | none |
| Languages | Go | Ruby, Go |
| API type | REST | REST |
| Protocols | HTTP | HTTP |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, binary |
| SDK languages | — | — |
| Team size fit | solo, small, medium | small, medium, enterprise |
| First release | 2020 | 2020 |
| Latest version | — | — |
When to use Gitea
- ✓ Primary: lightweight-git-hosting
- ✓ Primary: code-review
- ✓ Primary: ci-cd
When to use GitLab CE
- ✓ Primary: source-code-management
- ✓ Primary: ci-cd-pipelines
- ✓ Primary: project-management
Gitea anti-patterns
- ✕ Smaller ecosystem than GitLab
- ✕ Actions less mature than GitHub Actions
- ✕ Limited project management
GitLab CE anti-patterns
- ✕ Heavy resource requirements
- ✕ CE missing many EE features
- ✕ Complex self-hosted upgrades