Git hosting, in detail
Where the code lives decides half your other tools. Beyond the big three, the self-host ecosystem split in 2024 (Forgejo hard-forked from Gitea and went GPL) and the non-profit option matured. Seat prices below are the honest comparison — every vendor's free tier has a different catch.
| Tool | Free tier | Entry price | Billing unit | Watch out for | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub | Unlimited repos + collaborators | Team $4/user/mo | Per user | Fine print is in Actions/Packages metering, not seats | The default: ecosystem, OSS gravity, Copilot |
| GitLab | 5 users per top-level group | Premium $29/user/mo | Per user | The 5-user free cap (2023) is the classic surprise | All-in-one DevSecOps; real self-managed option |
| Bitbucket | 5 users, 50 build min/mo | Standard $2/user/mo | Per user | Server EOL'd Feb 2024 — cloud or Data Center only | Cheapest seats of the big three; Jira-native |
| Codeberg | Free for FLOSS projects | Donations (e.V. ~€24/yr) | Non-profit | ToS excludes closed-source/commercial repos | Non-commercial, no-tracking home for open source |
| Gitea Cloud | Trial; self-hosted Gitea free (MIT) | Managed from ~$19/mo | Per instance | Community split after commercialization → Forgejo fork | Managed instance of a lightweight GitHub-like |
| Forgejo (self-host) | Unlimited — OSS self-hosted | $0 | Your infra | Hard fork of Gitea (Feb 2024), GPL since v9 — diverging ecosystems | Community-governed self-hosted forge (powers Codeberg) |
| Azure DevOps Repos | First 5 users free | Basic $6/user/mo | Per user | Momentum is with GitHub (same owner) — feature velocity shows it | Microsoft-stack teams using Boards/Pipelines anyway |
Pricing models and free tiers change often — check each vendor for current terms. Compiled July 2026; the most volatile figures verified on official pricing pages.
Official pages: GitHub · GitLab · Bitbucket · Codeberg · Gitea Cloud · Forgejo (self-host) · Azure DevOps Repos
Entry price at a glance
Cheapest paid plan, USD per month — per-user plans shown for a single seat. Hatched bars are usage-based or quote-only; values marked ~ are approximate.
Notes & recent changes
- Forgejo hard-forked from Gitea in Feb 2024 and switched to GPL with v9 (Aug 2024) — pick a side consciously if you self-host, migrations get harder as they diverge.
- Codeberg is donation-funded and FLOSS-only by its terms of service; it also fought AI-crawler traffic waves through 2025.
- Bitbucket's $2/user Standard is the cheapest paid seat among hosted forges (per Atlassian's pricing page, verified Jul 2026).
Which one should you pick?
- Default, ecosystem, hiring → GitHub.
- Self-managed with the same features as cloud → GitLab.
- Cheapest seats inside Atlassian → Bitbucket.
- Self-host with community governance → Forgejo; managed lightweight → Gitea Cloud.