Version Control Systems (GitHub Alternatives)

Site Development Tool Suggestions
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GitHub alternatives:

**Why Gitea is not recommended: #1, #2, #3, Open Core blogs: #4, #5

*** Gogs Development is slow compared to Forgejo and Gitea even though both forked from Gogs (Forgejo Forked from Gitea which forked from Gogs)

**** Why GitLab is not recommended: #1, Open Core blogs: #2, #3, Source / Full Post

Reason to avoid GitHub (Source / Full post):

Tor-hostile; forced execution of non-free software; access granted or denied based on national origin; copious ethical issues

Terms of Service; Didn’t Read (ToS;DR):

  • This service gathers information about you through third parties
  • Your personal data is given to third parties
  • This service tracks which web page referred you to it
  • The service can sell or otherwise transfer your personal data as part of a bankruptcy proceeding or other type of financial transaction.
  • Your data may be processed and stored anywhere in the world
  • This service may use your personal information for marketing purposes, with your consent.
  • The service may collect extra data about you through promotions, with your consent.
  • This service assumes no liability for unauthorized access to your personal information
  • The service does not guarantee that software errors will be corrected
  • Instead of asking directly, this Service will assume your consent merely from your usage.
  • Your account can be suspended, and your data deleted any time for any reason
  • This service uses third-party cookies for statistics
  • The service may use tracking pixels, web beacons, browser fingerprinting, and/or device fingerprinting on users.

Alternativeto Reviews:

Extra:

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I often use it on TOR with no problems

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  1. Github is Tor-hostile according to Tor project. GH has started forcing Tor users through an extra email verification step that effectively discourages bug reports:
    github-tor_hostility
    From Direct practical problems with using Microsoft Github

Clicking in the link “according to Tor project” will reveal this 3y post

Github Deletes the accounts created via Tor after some time with all associated information. And if you login to github via bad exit nodes unluckily, Github will flag your account
ListOfServicesBlockingTor · Wiki · Legacy / Trac · GitLab

Unsure if it is the case today, however this puts them into a neutral-negative relationship with the Tor Project

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Ok, tbf I only used it for downloading, I never connected to my account.

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One thing about Codeberg that should be noted by privacy users
Codeberg’s Attack on Transparency and on Cloudflare Opposition

I’m taking Codeberg side in this one, but read the blog above and the repo below and make your own conclusions

Don’t have proof, but i think they got taken down on GitHub as well, prob for the same reasons

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As a baby programmer, I was leaning towards Codeberg. Was wondering if anyone else had any other suggestions though :slightly_smiling_face:

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Are you contributing to a project? If so you will use whatever they use.

Are you creating a open source project and ready to publish your first alpha? Then read some of the above and pick your poison.

Are you working on stuff for yourself or are not ready to make it public? Most of my stuff is in this category and I just set up a repository on my NAS or local hard drive. Dirt simple and I don’t have to worry about the history or policies of a public repository service.

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The first project I’m working on is a fork of something else. My idea was to publish it eventually, and I feel like an online backup isn’t a bad idea as long as it’s private and secure.

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If it’s public it is not private.

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A NAS with RAID 1 or up is a pretty safe place to keep your work.

A nice thing about git is that it was designed for distributed development and each copy has the whole history. A nice thing about a local master repository is that you can learn how to manage things on git without worrying about breaking things for others. Things like branching, merging branches, reverting, etc.

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At the moment I’m not looking to be convinced of the merits of local storage FYI. I’m looking for the most private and secure alternative to Github that includes online functionality.

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I’m using codeberg for my personal projects as well, but its downtime is still quite noticeable, especially with codeberg page.

Right now it’s down again:

Luckily I’m just using for small personal projects, but it would be a big question for me if I want to put bigger and more important projects on it instead of github.

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Yes, a great point. I like what I have read on Codeberg so far, but frequent downtime is definitely an issue. I’m also considering something like DarkTea, which is onion-only. It’s nice in theory at least.

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The title implies GitHub is tied to Git but this isn’t true. Git was originally invented by Linus Torvalds, and is now used by GitHub but also GitLab, Codeberg, etc.