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EU VETTED

European alternatives to GitLab

US-incorporated DevOps platform (GitLab Inc., Delaware; NASDAQ: GTLB). Direct CLOUD Act exposure despite remote-first roots.

Codeberg (Germany, Berlin, non-profit, EU-hosted, free, CLOUD Act exposure: None) and Codebahn (Swedish operator, France-hosted, paid and supported with a public DPA, CLOUD Act exposure: None) are the strongest European alternatives to GitLab.com. Both run the open-source Forgejo engine. GitLab.com is operated by GitLab Inc. (US, NASDAQ: GTLB) and carries direct CLOUD Act exposure; note that self-hosting GitLab's own Community Edition on EU infrastructure is a separate, valid path, because there you are the operator, not GitLab Inc.
Alternatives
4
CLOUD Act · none
3
Free tier
2

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Which are the closest GitLab alternatives?

Ordered by feature parity and migration friction, which is weighted higher than feature breadth.

Figure 1Closest matches to GitLab

Pick 1
Planio
Germany · Founded 2009
EU-Sovereign

Berlin-based hosted Redmine (Planio GmbH) with unlimited Git and SVN repositories, on the company's own German servers; account-gated Art. 28 DPA.

Public DPA: No Sub-processors: No Open source: No
From
€19/mo
CLOUD Act
None
Pick 2
GitLab by Stackhero
France
EU-Based

French-operated managed GitLab CE (Stackhero) on a dedicated EU-region VM; ISO 27001:2022, public DPA; hosting region is customer-selected.

Public DPA: Yes Sub-processors: Yes Open source: Yes
From
€49/mo
CLOUD Act
Minor
Pick 3
Codeberg
Germany · Founded 2018
EU-Sovereign

Berlin non-profit (Codeberg e.V.) running the open-source Forgejo forge: free, EU-hosted, community-governed GitHub alternative.

Public DPA: No Sub-processors: No Open source: Yes
From
—
CLOUD Act
None

How do the 4 European alternatives to GitLab compare?

All 4 alternatives, benchmarked against GitLab.

Feature comparison

Beyond compliance: how these alternatives compare on the capabilities you actually use day to day.

Table 2Capabilities by product
Feature Planio GitLab by Stackhero Codeberg Codebahn
Self-hostable No Yes Yes Yes
CI/CD No Yes Yes Yes
Pull/merge requests No Yes Yes Yes
Issue tracking Yes Yes Yes Yes
Package registry No Yes Yes Yes
Container registry No Yes Yes Yes
Repo import/migration Yes Yes Yes Yes
Free tier Yes No Yes No

Source: vendor documentation, as of Jul 2026.

What are you leaving behind with GitLab?

Listed for transparency. Every product on this page is benchmarked against this baseline.

US-based
GitLab US-incorporated

US-incorporated DevOps platform (GitLab Inc., Delaware; NASDAQ: GTLB). Direct CLOUD Act exposure despite remote-first roots.

Ownership
US-owned
CLOUD Act
Direct

Why look for a GitLab alternative?

GitLab is often assumed to be the European-friendly answer to GitHub, but the hosted GitLab.com service is operated by GitLab Inc., a US-incorporated public company (Delaware, listed on NASDAQ as GTLB). That places GitLab.com within reach of the US CLOUD Act in the same way as Microsoft-owned GitHub, covering repository content, CI logs, tokens, and issue history. This page maps the European alternatives against GitLab.com, checking who legally owns each service, where the data sits, and what compliance posture each can evidence for a Schrems II transfer impact assessment.

There are two routes to a European posture. The first is to move to a European forge: both options here build on Forgejo, the open-source engine governed by Codeberg e.V. in Germany. Codeberg (Germany, Berlin, non-profit, EU-hosted, free, CLOUD Act exposure: None) is the community-governed home for open-source projects, and Codebahn (Swedish operator, France-hosted, paid and supported, CLOUD Act exposure: None) is the commercial managed option with a public DPA and an all-EU sub-processor chain. The second route, specific to GitLab, is to keep the software but self-host GitLab Community Edition on EU infrastructure, which removes direct US exposure while preserving the exact feature set.

What do you keep, and what do you trade off?

So what actually carries over from a GitLab.com account?

  • Git repositories with full branch and tag history (portable by design).
  • Issues, merge requests (imported as pull requests), labels, milestones, and releases.
  • Code review with inline comments and branch protection rules.
  • Hosted CI/CD (Codeberg CI on Woodpecker, or Codebahn's EU runners).
  • Package registry and container registry.
  • Webhooks and a REST API for your own integrations.

Not everything makes the trip, though:

  • GitLab's full DevOps platform. Built-in security scanning (SAST, DAST, dependency and container scanning), the value-stream analytics, and the tightly integrated compliance features are broader than the Forgejo-based forges cover. This is the main reason some teams choose to self-host GitLab CE instead.
  • GitLab CI/CD syntax. The CI concepts carry over, but .gitlab-ci.yml pipelines need translating to Woodpecker or the Codebahn CI format.
  • GitLab-specific integrations. Marketplace and one-click integrations built for GitLab may need webhooks or API wiring on a smaller forge.
  • Group and sub-group hierarchy. GitLab's deep nested-group model maps onto organisations and teams on the alternatives, but very large, deeply nested structures may need flattening.

How do you migrate from GitLab?

Moving off GitLab.com comes down to a handful of steps, whichever destination you pick.

  1. Decide between a European forge and self-hosted GitLab CE first. If your team depends on GitLab's security-scanning and DevOps breadth, self-hosting GitLab CE on EU infrastructure keeps the feature set; if you mainly use the core forge workflow, a Forgejo-based service is lighter to run.
  2. Use the Forgejo migration importer. For Codeberg or Codebahn, the "New Migration" flow accepts a GitLab source URL and access token and pulls the code plus issues, merge requests, labels, milestones, and releases in one pass. A bare git push --mirror covers a code-only move.
  3. Translate your CI pipeline. Convert .gitlab-ci.yml into a Woodpecker pipeline (Codeberg) or the Codebahn CI format, and replace GitLab-specific job templates with equivalent steps.
  4. Re-point clones, runners, and integrations. Update each developer's git remote set-url, register new CI runners where needed, and re-point deployment webhooks and bots to the new forge's API.
  5. Reissue tokens and CI/CD variables. Secrets and deploy keys do not migrate; recreate them on the destination and rotate anything that was exposed.
  6. Keep the GitLab project as a read-only mirror for 60 days. Archive rather than delete, so CI jobs elsewhere, package pulls, and documentation links do not break silently during the cutover.

Which GitLab alternative should you pick?

Which route fits depends on what you rely on GitLab for.

  • For open-source or personal projects, Codeberg is the natural choice: free, non-profit, community-governed, EU-hosted, on the Forgejo engine.
  • For a business that wants a managed European forge with contractual guarantees, Codebahn fits: a paid service from €9 per month with a public DPA, an all-EU sub-processor chain, hosted CI, and support.
  • For teams that depend on GitLab's full DevOps and security suite, self-host GitLab Community Edition on EU infrastructure (Hetzner, OVHcloud, Scaleway, IONOS, STACKIT). You keep the exact feature set and workflow, run by your own EU entity, in exchange for operating it yourself.

Frequently asked questions

Is GitLab.com a European service?
No. GitLab Inc. is US-incorporated (Delaware, listed on NASDAQ as GTLB), so the hosted GitLab.com service falls within reach of the US CLOUD Act in the same way as Microsoft-owned GitHub. GitLab's remote-first culture and European staff do not change the incorporation of the operating company. Self-hosting the open-source GitLab Community Edition on EU infrastructure is a different matter, because there the operator is you.
Which GitLab alternative has the strongest compliance profile?
Codebahn (Swedish operator, France-hosted) is the strongest on paper: it publishes a public DPA, names an all-EU sub-processor chain (Scaleway, Hetzner, Mollie, Crisp), and carries CLOUD Act exposure: None. Codeberg (Germany) is a non-profit run on the association's own hardware in Berlin, EU-owned and EU-hosted with CLOUD Act exposure: None; as a free community service it does not sign a commercial DPA.
Will my repositories and history transfer from GitLab?
Yes. Both alternatives run Forgejo, whose migration importer accepts a GitLab source and preserves the full git history along with issues, merge requests (imported as pull requests), labels, milestones, and releases in most cases. The git data itself is portable, so a bare `git push --mirror` moves every branch and tag regardless.
Do the alternatives match GitLab's full DevOps feature set?
Not entirely, and this is the main trade-off. GitLab is a broad DevOps platform (CI/CD, container registry, security scanning, package management, and more in one product). The Forgejo-based alternatives cover the core forge workflow well (repositories, code review, issues, CI/CD, package and container registries) but do not replicate GitLab's full built-in security and compliance-scanning suite. Teams that rely heavily on those specific features should weigh self-hosting GitLab CE on EU infrastructure instead.
Does GitLab.com fall under the US CLOUD Act?
Yes. GitLab Inc. is a US-incorporated public company, so the CLOUD Act can in principle compel production of repository content, CI logs, and metadata regardless of storage location. The European alternatives here are not US-incorporated: Codeberg (Germany) carries CLOUD Act exposure: None and Codebahn (Swedish operator) carries CLOUD Act exposure: None. Self-hosted GitLab CE run by an EU entity is likewise outside direct US reach.
Is there a free European alternative to GitLab?
Yes. Codeberg is a free, donation-funded non-profit forge, ideal for open-source and personal projects. Codebahn is a paid, commercially supported service from €9 per month, better suited to businesses that need a contractual DPA, hosted CI, and support. Both run the open-source Forgejo engine.
Can I keep GitLab but host it in the EU myself?
Yes, and for GitLab specifically this is a common path. The open-source GitLab Community Edition can be self-hosted on any EU infrastructure such as Hetzner, OVHcloud, Scaleway, IONOS, or STACKIT. Running it under an EU legal entity removes direct US CLOUD Act exposure while keeping the exact GitLab feature set and workflow your team already knows. The trade-off is that you take on operations, upgrades, backups, and security patching.

How we verified each row above

For every product we read the public DPA, sub-processors document, hosting region declaration, and corporate ownership records. Each is timestamped. Signals are editorial, re-verified quarterly. We never accept self-attestation.

Reviewed by the EU Vetted editorial team · Editorial guidelines

Last verified July 2026

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