5 Alternatives to GitHub

What is GitHub?

GitHub is a commonly used software development platform for storing and maintaining software. It hosts over 200 million repositories from 3 million organizations like Airbnb, Netflix, Instacart, and Lyft. But when Microsoft acquiring GitHub in 2018, some wondered if there were any other options out there. In this article, we will tell you about the top 5 alternatives available to GitHub.

GitHub Alternatives

Several GitHub alternatives are hosted or open-source and cover a wide range of features, integrations, and price points.

GitLab

GitLab is one of the best-known web-based platforms for DevOps work that begins with planning and creation, culminating in testing, deployment, and monitoring. Due to its high scalability, GitLab can be used with on-premise servers or cloud storage.

Pricing

You can choose from three pricing options:

• Free.
• Premium for $19/mo ($228 annually).
• Ultimate for $99/mo ($1,188 annually).

All plans come with unlimited repositories and can be self managed or used as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).

Features

GitLab has many great features to help you on your development journey:

• Version Control
• Agile Delivery
• Value Stream Management
• DevSecOps
• Day 2 Operations
• Application Performance Management

Operating Systems and Installation

The self-hosted Gitlab package can be installed on the following operating systems: 

• Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and 20.04 LTS
• Debian 9 and 10
• CentOS 7 and 8
• openSUS Leap 15.2
• Raspberry Pi OS

GitLab has all of the main features that you would expect for a solid alternative to using GitHub. So go ahead and try out a free trial to test out the features ahead of time or get started today!

BitBucket

BitBucket allows your team to collaborate on coding, testing, and deployment in one place for all of your projects.

Pricing

Three plan options are available:

• Free with up to 5 users.
• Standard (starting at $3/user/mo) with unlimited users.
• Premium (starting at $6/user/mo) with unlimited users.

A price calculator can determine your potential monthly cost based on the number of users required. Still, take additional requirement considerations for build minutes per month and file storage.

Features

The below features can assist in team collaboration:

• CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment): Pipeline development and deployment.
• Cloud Security: Utilizes IP allowlisting, enforced two-factor authentication, and data encryption in transit.
• DevSecOps: Anticipate potential vulnerabilities and implement
• Code Review: Helps to improve code quality during the review process.

Integrations

BitBucket offers many integrations:

• JIRA Software: An agile project management tool that can plan, track, and manage your development projects.
• Trello: A kanban-style project collaboration and management tool for teams.
• Bamboo: Link automated builds, tests, and releases into individual workflows.
• Opsgenie: Quickly troubleshoot code deployment incidents to resolve them faster.

Gogs

Gogs is a self-hosted, fully open-source, cross-platform system provided with the MIT license. 

Pricing

As Gogs is an open-source system, it is free.

Features

There are a variety of features specific to Gogs, especially when compared to similar platforms like GitLab and BitBucket:

• Low resource usage.
• Multiple OS support.
• Easy upgrade process.
• Web code editor.
• Issue tracker and templates.
• Custom Git Hooks.
• Slack and Discord integration.

Operating Systems and Installation

Gogs can get installed on the following operating systems/devices:

• Windows
• Mac OS X (provided Homebrew is already installed)
• Debian/Ubuntu
• Fedora
• RHEL/CentOS
• ARM
• Raspberry PI

Install Gogs on your system once you meet the specified prerequisites or follow our How to Install and Configure Gogs on CentOS 7 or How to Install and Configure Gogs on Ubuntu 18.05 articles.

Beanstalk

Get your workflow started by writing, reviewing, and then deploying your code with Beanstalk.

Pricing

There are six pricing packages available that meet a wide range of customer needs:

• Free: $0/mo with 100 MB of storage, 1 repository, and 1 user.
• Bronze: $15/mo with 3 GB of storage, 10 repositories, 5 users, and 3 servers/repository.
• Silver: $25/mo with 6 GB of storage, 25 repositories, 20 users, and 5 servers/repository.
• Gold: $50/mo with 12 GB of storage, 50 repositories, 40 users, and 10 servers/repository.
• Platinum: $100/mo with 24 GB of storage, 120 repositories, 100 users, and 20 servers/repository.
• Diamond: $200/mo with 60 GB of storage, 300 repositories, 200 users, and 40 servers/repository.

Features

Plenty of standard features are available when you use Beanstalk:

• Code review tools.
• Secure and redundant infrastructure.
• Revision history and log.
• Subversion and Git.
• Plus additional features are available for Gold, Platinum, and Diamond plans.

Integrations

Beanstalk can integrate with many different issue and timesheets systems as well as team discussion tools but it also allows for you to build your own:

• Jira
• FogBugz
• Lighthouse
• Zendesk
• Sifter
• Basecamp
• Noko
• Harvest
• Campfire
• HipChat

Google’s Cloud Source Repositories

Cloud Source Repositories allow teams to store, manage, and track their code on the Google Cloud Platform. You can debug in production, build your own integrations, and review detailed audit logs.

Pricing

While Cloud Source Repositories does not charge you based on the number of repositories that are created on your account, they do have pricing based on:

• Per-Project Users: Starts with 5 free project users per month and costs $1/project user after that.
• Storage: Provides 50 GB of storage and costs $0.10/GB/mo if you need to exceed the limit.
• Network Egress: Costs $0.10/GB of network egress per month for anything over the 50 GB limit.

Features

Cloud Source Repositories offers a number of helpful features:

• Source Browser: Filters the view of your repository so you can focus on one branch, tag, or commit.
• Perform Git Operations: Perform the operations that your workflow requires as a Git remote.
• Automatic Syncing: Connect and sync your Cloud Source Repositories to GitHub or Bitbucket when changes are rolled out.
• Proven Reliability: Google’s high availability infrastructure allows for easier management worldwide.

Installation

You’re able to get up and running quickly with Google’s Quickstart: Create a Repository guide.

There is plenty of documentation to help you once you get going.

Which Service?

Finding an alternative to GitHub is possible, but it will come down to matching your needs with each option’s cost, features, and integration capabilities. Just because something worked for someone you know, that doesn’t mean it is the right choice. Choose what is best for you.

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