## GitHub Alternatives for Hosting Open Source Projects Due to spam PRs, bot activity, and inflated stars on GitHub, here are the platforms developers are recommending: --- ### 🌐 Hosted Platforms (No Self-Hosting Required) **1. [Codeberg](https://codeberg.org)** ⭐ *Top community recommendation* - Powered by **Forgejo** (a Gitea fork), nonprofit, European-based - **Only hosts open source** — no commercial noise - Free to use; donations accepted - Growing community (Zig language moved there) **2. [SourceHut](https://sourcehut.org)** — *Best for spam resistance* - Minimalist, email-based patch workflow — **no pull requests at all**, which eliminates the spam vector entirely - Very affordable (~$2/month) - Open source and self-hostable - Creator Drew DeVault actively fights LLM scrapers - You may find the UI and policies unfamiliar, but the anti-spam stance is strong **3. [GitLab](https://gitlab.com)** - Most feature-complete GitHub alternative - Open source (can self-host) - Used by GNOME, GIMP, and many major projects - Free tier available; self-hosting via DigitalOcean for ~$20/mo **4. [Bitbucket](https://bitbucket.org)** — Atlassian - Free plan for small teams; community license for larger open-source projects - Integrates with Jira/Confluence **5. [SourceForge](https://sourceforge.net)** — Classic, still active - Long-standing open source hosting - Has import tools for migrating GitHub repos - Not the most modern UI, but functional **6. [Launchpad](https://launchpad.net)** — Canonical - Free, good for Ubuntu/Debian-related projects - Supports Git hosting and PPAs --- ### 🖥️ Self-Hosted Options (Full Control) **7. [Forgejo](https://forgejo.org)** ⭐ - Lightweight Gitea fork — ~200MB single binary - 75% of GitLab features with 5% of resource requirements - What Codeberg runs on **8. [Gitea](https://gitea.com)** - Very lightweight, runs on a Raspberry Pi - GitHub-like UI and API compatibility **9. [Gogs](https://gogs.io)** - Even lighter than Gitea (predecessor) - Can run on minimal hardware ($5/mo VPS) **10. [GitBucket](https://gitbucket.github.io/gitbucket-news/)** - Scala-based, GitHub API compatible, supports plugins --- ### 🛡️ Stay on GitHub but Reduce Spam GitHub added **new repository settings for configuring pull request access** (February 2026) — you may be able to restrict who can open PRs without leaving the platform entirely. --- ### 💡 Quick Recommendation | Need | Best Pick | |------|-----------| | Drop-in GitHub replacement (hosted) | **Codeberg** | | Maximum spam resistance | **SourceHut** | | Full control (self-hosted) | **Forgejo** or **Gitea** | | Feature parity with GitHub | **GitLab** | The Hacker News community particularly favors **Codeberg** and **SourceHut** as the most principled, spam-resistant alternatives for open source projects.