Codeberg vs GitHub

Why Consider Codeberg over GitHub?

GitHub is owned by Microsoft. Every repository and commit sits on Microsoft’s infrastructure under US jurisdiction. Microsoft has used GitHub data to train Copilot, and the platform is subject to US trade restrictions that have locked out developers in sanctioned countries.

Codeberg, operated by non-profit Codeberg e.V. in Berlin, offers code hosting as a public good. No corporation, no investors, no risk of your code training commercial AI without consent. It runs on Forgejo, a fully open-source forge, with all data stored in EU data centers.

Feature Comparison

Feature	Codeberg	GitHub
Price	Free (donation-funded)	Free tier / $4-$21/user/mo
Organization	Non-profit (e.V.)	Corporation (Microsoft)
Data location	Germany/EU	United States
GDPR compliant	Full	Partial (US entity)
Open source	Forgejo (fully open)	Proprietary
Git hosting	Yes	Yes
Issue tracking	Yes	Yes
Pull requests	Yes	Yes
CI/CD	Woodpecker CI (integrated)	GitHub Actions
Package registry	Basic	GitHub Packages
Community size	Growing (~100k+ users)	100M+ users
AI code training	Never	Used for Copilot
Tracking/telemetry	None	Present

Pricing

Codeberg’s pricing model is radical in its simplicity: everything is free, forever.

• Codeberg: Free — unlimited public and private repositories, unlimited collaborators, Woodpecker CI, issue tracking, pull requests, organizations, wikis, and project boards. Funded entirely by community donations.
• GitHub Free: Unlimited public/private repos, 2,000 Actions minutes/month, 500 MB packages
• GitHub Team: $4/user/month — protected branches, code owners, required reviews
• GitHub Enterprise: $21/user/month — SAML SSO, audit log, advanced security

If you find it valuable, you can support the project with a donation, but no feature is restricted based on payment.

Privacy and Data Sovereignty

• Operated by Codeberg e.V., a German non-profit with no corporate shareholders
• All data stored exclusively in EU data centers (Hetzner, Germany)
• Fully GDPR compliant under German and EU law
• Zero tracking, zero analytics, zero advertising
• Code is never used for AI training or commercial data mining
• Forgejo codebase is fully open source and independently auditable
• Financial transparency and democratic community governance

GitHub is subject to the US CLOUD Act, which allows authorities to compel access to data regardless of physical location. For European developers handling sensitive code, this is a legal risk that Codeberg eliminates.

Migration Guide

1. Create a Codeberg account at codeberg.org. (5 minutes)
2. Migrate repositories using the built-in migration tool — imports issues, PRs, labels, milestones, and wikis. (5-10 minutes per repo)
3. Set up organizations and team permissions. (15 minutes)
4. Configure CI/CD with Woodpecker CI (.woodpecker.yml pipeline files). (1-2 hours)
5. Update remote URLs: git remote set-url origin https://codeberg.org/your-org/your-repo.git (2 min/repo)
6. Set up mirrors (optional) to sync with GitHub during transition. (15 minutes)

Estimated time: 1-4 hours. Difficulty: Easy.

Company Background

Codeberg e.V. was founded in 2019 in Berlin as a registered non-profit (eingetragener Verein) dedicated to free code hosting as a public service. The organization was established after Microsoft’s acquisition of GitHub in 2018 raised concerns about corporate consolidation. Codeberg initially ran on Gitea but became a founding member of the Forgejo project — a community fork ensuring the software remains community-governed. The platform now hosts over 100,000 users and hundreds of thousands of repositories.

Integration Ecosystem

• Forgejo REST API for programmatic access to repositories, issues, and organizations
• Woodpecker CI for continuous integration with Docker-based pipelines
• Codeberg Pages for hosting static websites from repositories
• Webhooks for triggering external services on repository events
• Git LFS, OAuth2 provider, and mirror support for GitHub/GitLab sync

Who Should Switch?

Codeberg is ideal for open-source developers who want community-owned infrastructure, privacy-conscious developers who refuse AI training on their code, European developers wanting EU-only data storage, and students learning on a platform aligned with open-source values.

The Bottom Line

Codeberg is not a GitHub replacement for everyone. Its smaller community and less powerful CI/CD mean projects depending on GitHub’s network effects may find the trade-off difficult. But Codeberg offers code hosting as a genuine public good — free from corporate interests, AI data harvesting, and US jurisdiction. For private repositories, personal projects, and European open-source initiatives, it is the right home for your code.

Frequently Asked Questions

What software powers Codeberg?

Codeberg runs on Forgejo, a fully open-source, community-governed Git forge. Forgejo is a fork of Gitea, created to ensure the platform remains free from corporate influence. It provides Git hosting, issue tracking, pull requests, project management, and package registries — all under open-source licenses and maintained by an independent community.

Can I migrate my repositories from GitHub to Codeberg?

Yes. Codeberg provides a built-in migration tool that imports repositories from GitHub, including issues, pull requests, labels, milestones, and wikis. The process takes just a few minutes per repository. You can also set up mirrors to keep repositories synchronized during a transition period, allowing a gradual migration without disrupting collaborators.

How is Codeberg funded if everything is free?

Codeberg is funded entirely by donations from its community of users. As a German non-profit association (eingetragener Verein), it operates with full financial transparency and publishes regular reports. There are no paid tiers, no premium features behind a paywall, and no corporate sponsors influencing the platform's direction. If you find the service valuable, donations are welcome but never required.