A source-code-hosting facility (also known as forge) is a file archive and web hosting facility for

source code In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a program is specially designed to facilitate the w ...

of software, documentation, web pages, and other works, accessible either publicly or privately. They are often used by

open-source software Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. Op ...

projects and other multi-developer projects to maintain revision and version history, or

version control In software engineering, version control (also known as revision control, source control, or source code management) is a class of systems responsible for managing changes to computer programs, documents, large web sites, or other collections o ...

. Many repositories provide a

bug tracking system A bug tracking system or defect tracking system is a software application that keeps track of reported software bugs in software development projects. It may be regarded as a type of issue tracking system. Many bug tracking systems, such as thos ...

, and offer release management, mailing lists, and

wiki A wiki ( ) is an online hypertext publication collaboratively edited and managed by its own audience, using a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages for the subjects or scope of the project, and could be either open to the pub ...

-based project documentation. Software authors generally retain their copyright when software is posted to a code hosting facilities.

General information

} , - ! scope="row" , Buddy , Buddy, LLC. , 2015 , , , , Cloud version free for 1 project with no limit on size. Self-hosted version free up to 10 users with Fair Source license applied. , - ! scope="row" , CloudForge ,

CollabNet CollabNet VersionOne is a software firm headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia, United States. CollabNet VersionOne products and services belong to the industry categories of value stream management, devops, agile management, application lifecyc ...

, 2012 , , , , , - ! scope="row" , Gitea , Gitea organization (open source community) , 2016-12 , , , , Gitea is an open-source software tool funded on Open Collective that is designed for self-hosting, but also provides a free first-party instance. , - ! scope="row" ,

GForge GForge is a commercial service originally based on the Alexandria software behind SourceForge, a web-based project management and collaboration system which was licensed under the GPL. Open source versions of the GForge code were released from 2 ...

, The GForge Group,Inc. , 2006 , , , Cloud version – free up to 5 users. On-premises version – free up to 5 users. ,

is free for open source projects. , - ! scope="row" ,

GitHub GitHub, Inc. () is an Internet hosting service for software development and version control using Git. It provides the distributed version control of Git plus access control, bug tracking, software feature requests, task management, continu ...

, Microsoft/GitHub, Inc , 2008-04 , , , , Denies service to Crimea, North Korea, Sudan, Syri
List of government takedown requests
, - ! scope="row" ,

GitLab GitLab Inc. is an open-core company that operates GitLab, a DevOps software package which can develop, secure, and operate software. The open source software project was created by Ukrainian developer Dmitriy Zaporozhets and Dutch developer ...

, GitLab Inc. , 2011-09 , , , , Denies service to Crimea, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Syria , - ! scope="row" ,

GNU Savannah GNU Savannah is a project of the Free Software Foundation initiated by Loïc Dachary, which serves as a collaborative software development management system for free Software projects. Savannah currently offers CVS, GNU arch, Subversion, Git, ...

Free Software Foundation The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded by Richard Stallman on October 4, 1985, to support the free software movement, with the organization's preference for software being distributed under copyleft (" ...

, 2001-01 , , , , For use by projects with GPL compatible licenses, subject to staff approval. Code access review. , - ! scope="row", Helix TeamHub ,

Perforce Software Perforce, legally Perforce Software, Inc., is an American developer of software used for developing and running applications, including version control software, web-based repository management, developer collaboration, application lifecycle mana ...

, 1995 , , , Cloud version – free up to 5 users. On-premises version requires a license. , Free cloud version has no limits on projects within 5gb storage limit. On-premises version has DevOps pipeline technology and free replicas. , - ! scope="row" , Launchpad ,

Canonical The adjective canonical is applied in many contexts to mean "according to the canon" the standard, rule or primary source that is accepted as authoritative for the body of knowledge or literature in that context. In mathematics, "canonical examp ...

, 2004 , , , , Supports Bazaar and Git for version-controlled repository hosting. , - ! scope="row" ,

OSDN OSDN (formerly SourceForge.JP) is a web-based collaborative development environment for open-source software projects. It provides source code repositories and web hosting services. With features similar to SourceForge, it acts as a centralized ...

, OSDN K.K. , 2002–04 , , , , For open-source projects only.

Ad-supported Online advertising, also known as online marketing, Internet advertising, digital advertising or web advertising, is a form of marketing and advertising which uses the Internet to promote products and services to audiences and platform users. ...

. , - ! scope="row" , Ourproject.org , Comunes Collective , 2002 , , , , For

free software Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, no ...

free culture The free-culture movement is a social movement that promotes the freedom to distribute and modify the creative works of others in the form of free content or Free content, open content without compensation to, or the consent of, the work's origin ...

and free content projects. , - ! scope="row" ,

OW2 OW2 is an independent non-profit international consortium dedicated to developing open-source software code infrastructure for middleware information systems. OW2 federates IT vendors and users, universities, and research centers from Europe, A ...

, OW2 , 2008 , , ,

, Oriented on

middleware Middleware is a type of computer software that provides services to software applications beyond those available from the operating system. It can be described as "software glue". Middleware makes it easier for software developers to implement c ...

technology. , - ! scope="row" , Phabricator , Phacility, Inc , 2010 , , , , End of life. , - ! scope="row" ,

SEUL Simple End User Linux is an advocacy group that promotes Linux programs in education and science. SEUL also hosts numerous free software projects and efforts, such as the WorldForge Project's website. The SEUL/Edu project seeks to further the use ...

, , 1997-05 , , , , , - ! scope="row" ,

SourceForge SourceForge is a web service that offers software consumers a centralized online location to control and manage open-source software projects and research business software. It provides source code repository hosting, bug tracking, mirroring ...

, BizX LLC , 1999-11 , , , , For use by open-source projects.

.
Subject to American

export restrictions Export restrictions, or a restriction on exportation, are limitations on the quantity of goods exported to a specific country or countries by a Government. Export restrictions could be aimed at achieving diverse policy objectives such as environ ...

, so denies service to Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Syria. , - ! scope="col" , Name ! scope="col" , Manager ! scope="col" , Established ! scope="col" , Server side: all free software ! scope="col" , Client side: all-free JS code ! scope="col" , Developed or used CDE ! scope="col" , Notes

Features

Version control systems

Popularity

Discontinued:

CodePlex CodePlex was a forge website by Microsoft. While it was active, it allowed shared development of open-source software. Its features included wiki pages, source control based on Mercurial, TFVC, Subversion or Git, discussion forums, issue tracki ...

, Gna!,

Google Code Google Developers (previously Google Code) , application programming interfaces (APIs), and technical resources. The site contains documentation on using Google developer tools and APIs—including discussion groups and blogs for developers usi ...

Specialized hosting facilities

The following are open-source software hosting facilities that only serve a specific narrowly focused community or technology.

Former hosting facilities

Alioth (Debian) Alioth was a FusionForge system run by the Debian project for development of free software and free documentation, especially software or documentation to do with Debian. Most of the projects hosted by Alioth were packaging existing software in ...

– In 2018, Alioth has been replaced by a GitLab based solution hosted on salsa.debian.org. Alioth has been finally switched off in June 2018. * BerliOS – abandoned in April 2014 * Betavine – abandoned somewhere in 2015. * CodeHaus – shut down in May 2015 *

– shut down in December 2017. * Fedora Hosted – closed in March 2017 * Gitorious – shut down in June 2015. * Gna! – shut down in 2017. *

– closed in January 2016, all projects archived. See http://code.google.com/archive/. *

java.net java.net was a Java technology related community website. It also offered a web-based source code repository for Java projects. It was shut down in April 2017. History java.net was announced by Sun Microsystems during JavaOne 2003. In Januar ...

– Java.net and kenai.com hosting closed April 2017. * Phabricator – wound down operations 1 June 2021, all projects continued to be hosted with very limited support after 31 August 2021. * Tigris.org – shut down in July 2020.

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Source code hosting facility comparison Online services comparisons Free software lists and comparisons