The alternatives
gitea
Git with a cup of tea! Painless self-hosted all-in-one software development service, including Git hosting, code review, team collaboration, package registry and CI/CD
go-gitea/gitea Updated 2026-05-06 gitlabhq
GitLab CE Mirror | Please open new issues in our issue tracker on GitLab.com
gitlabhq/gitlabhq Updated 2026-05-06 Comparison notes
Gitea and Forgejo (Gitea fork) are lightweight self-hosted Git hosting alternatives that cover pull requests, issue tracking, webhooks, and CI via Gitea Actions (GitHub Actions-compatible). GitLab CE provides a more direct Bitbucket Pipelines equivalent with an integrated CI/CD system. The main gaps: OSS alternatives have no native Jira integration — you lose automatic issue transitions on PR merge and branch-linked Jira tickets. Bitbucket's data residency guarantees and Atlassian Access SSO are enterprise features without OSS equivalents. Forgejo and Gitea are significantly lighter operationally than GitLab.
Migration tips
- Mirror repositories using 'git clone --mirror' and push to the new host; preserve all branches and tags
- Export Bitbucket pull request history using the Bitbucket API (/rest/api/1.0/projects/{key}/repos/{slug}/pull-requests) — most OSS tools cannot import PR history
- Recreate branch permission rules (required reviewers, merge checks) in the target platform's branch protection settings
- Audit Bitbucket Pipelines YAML and adapt to the target CI system — GitHub Actions-compatible runners in Gitea Actions can reuse some pipeline logic
- Update Jira project settings to point to the new repository URL for branch linking if you retain Jira
FAQ
Can I fully replace Bitbucket with an OSS tool?
Feature parity varies. Most OSS alternatives cover 70-90% of core workflows, but may lack polish, integrations, or specialized features. Pilot the alternative with a subset of your team before fully committing.
What's the cost of self-hosting?
Plan for ~$5-50/month in VPS costs (DigitalOcean, Hetzner, etc.) plus 2-8 hours/month in maintenance. For a team of 20+, self-hosting usually breaks even against SaaS pricing within 6-12 months.
Which alternative should I pick?
Sort by GitHub stars (a proxy for community health), check the last-pushed date (avoid unmaintained projects), and read recent issues to gauge responsiveness.