Comparison of source code hosting facilities

A source code repository is a file archive and web hosting facility where large amounts of source code for software, but also for web pages are kept, either publicly or privately. They are often used by open-source projects and other multi-developer projects to handle various versions. They help developers submit patches of code in an organized fashion. Often these web sites support version control, bug tracking, release management, mailing lists, and wiki-based documentation.

People who write software retain their copyright when their software is posted to any code hosting facilities, including the "non-gnu" section of GNU Savannah—with the exception of contributors to FSF-copyrighted programs at GNU Savannah.^[1][2][3]

Overview

General information

Name	Manager	Established	Server side: all free software	Client side: all-free JS code	Developed and/or used CDE	Require free software on registration	Ad-free	Cost	Notes
Alioth	Debian Project	2003	Yes	Yes	FusionForge	Unknown	Yes	Free	Preference for Debian related projects
Assembla	Assembla, Inc	2005	No	Unknown	Unknown	No	Yes	7-day free trial. Commercial projects with customizable sets of tools and features.
Betavine	Vodafone	2007	No	Unknown	Unknown	No	No	Free
Bitbucket	Atlassian	2008	No	No	Unknown	No	Yes	Free private repositories are limited to 5 users
CloudForge	Collabnet	2000	No	Unknown	Unknown	No	Yes	No
CodePlex	Microsoft	2006-05	No	Unknown	Unknown	No	Yes	Free	Project must be OSS licensed
Freepository	Unknown	1999	Yes	No	Unknown	Unknown	Yes	Free accounts have web access only.	Freepository is ceasing operations on 2016-05-01
GitHub	GitHub, Inc	2008-04	No	No	Unknown	No	Yes	Free for public, paid for private.
GitLab	GitLab B.V.	2011-09[4]	Yes	Yes[5]	GitLab Community Edition (CE) free software, GitLab Enterprise Edition (EE) proprietary	No	Yes	Unlimited public and private repos, unlimited public and private collaborators[6]
Gna!	The Gna! people	2004-01	Yes	Yes	Savane	Yes	Yes	Free	Only for free software projects. Code access review[7]
GNU Savannah	Savannah Administration	2001-01	Yes	Yes	Savane	Yes	Yes	Free	Project by the Free Software Foundation and projects with a GPL compatible license. Code access review[8]
JavaForge	Intland Software	2005	No	Yes	Unknown	No	Yes	Free	For open-source projects only.
Launchpad	Canonical Ltd.	2004	Yes	No	Launchpad	No	Yes	Unknown	Supports Bazaar for version-controlled repository hosting. Git support is in beta.[9]
OSDN	OSDN K.K.	2002-04	Unknown	Yes	Unknown	No	No	Free	For open-source projects only.[10]
Ourproject.org	Comunes Collective	2002	Yes	No	Unknown	No	Yes	Free	For free software, free culture and free knowledge projects.
OW2 Consortium	OW2 Consortium	Unknown	Unknown	No	Unknown	No	Yes	Unknown	Oriented on middleware technology.
SEUL	Unknown	1997-05	Unknown	No	Unknown	No	Yes	Unknown
SourceForge	BizX LLC	1999-11	Yes[11][12]	Yes	Apache Allura	No	No	Free, commercial services are offered as well	For open-source projects only.[13] Blocked in Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Syria[14]
Tigris.org	(community)	2000	Unknown	No	Unknown	No	No	Unknown	Restricted to collaborative software development tools. Tigris.org is no longer accepting new project proposals.
Visual Studio Online	Microsoft	2012-10[15]	Unknown	No	Unknown	No	Yes	Free private repositories are limited to 5 users
Name	Manager	Established	Server side: all free software	Client side: all-free JS code	Developed and/or used CDE	Require free software on registration	Ad-free	Cost	Notes

Features

Name	Code review	Bug tracking	Web hosting	Wiki	Translation system	Shell server	Mailing List	Forum	Personal branch	Private branch	Announce	Build system	Team	Release Binaries	Self-hosting
Alioth	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Unknown	Yes
Assembla	Yes[16]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes[17]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	No
Bitbucket	Yes[18]	Yes[n 1]	Yes[19]	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes[n 2]	No	No	Yes	Yes	Commercially (Stash)[n 3]
CloudForge	Unknown	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	No
CodePlex	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No
GitHub	Yes[20]	Yes[21][n 4]	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes[n 5]	Yes	3rd-party (e.g. Travis CI, Appveyor and others)[22]	Yes	Yes	Commercially (GitHub Enterprise)
GitLab	Yes[23]	Yes	Yes[24]	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes[25]	Yes	No	Yes[n 6]
GNU Savannah	Yes[26]	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No[27]	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Unknown	Yes
JavaForge	Yes[28]	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	No
java.net/Project Kenai	Unknown	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	No
Launchpad	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes[n 7]	Yes	Yes[n 8]	Yes	Unknown	Yes
OSDN	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
Ourproject.org	Unknown	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Unknown	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Yes
SourceForge	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
tigris.org	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Unknown	No longer for new projects[n 9]	No
Visual Studio Online	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Name	Code review	Bug tracking	Web hosting	Wiki	Translation system	Shell server	Mailing List	Forum	Personal branch	Private branch	Announce	Build system	Team	Release Binaries	Self-hosting

Other features

• Alioth: Sample Code, Help Wanted, Anonymous FTP
• Assembla: Ticket backlog planning, Ticket flow control (Cardwall), Ticket tags that allow a better tasks organization,^[29] FTP, Time Tracking, StandUp Reporting, File Sharing, Google Docs Integration, API,^[30] Scripts Execution through SSH (i.e. automated deploys on commits), Viewing source code as webpage, Highly customizable Webhooks, Custom Tabs that allow to view external websites inside the project,^[31] Space Manager (tool for master/child relations between projects),^[32] Merge Requests,^[16] Protected Branches^[33]
• Bitbucket: OpenID, visualizations
• Codeplex: Windows Live ID
• GitHub: Public API,^[34] static web-page hosting,^[35] pastebin service Gist,^[36] 3D model support,^[37] support for OAuth 2.0 and SSH keys, Automatic Page Generator,^[38] Graphs: Contributors, Commit Activity, Code Frequency, Punchcard, Pulse and Network Graph, email notifications, Integrations Directory.^[22]
• JavaForge: Public remote API, Document management
• Launchpad: Blueprints, Karma, Answer, Mail interface, public API, OpenID Provider, Non-project branch
• Open Build Service: public API
• OSDN: Blog, Pastebin, MySQL^[39]
• SourceForge: Public API , Help Wanted, OpenID Relying Party, Piwik Web Analytics,^[40] support for Media Wiki, Blog , Pastebin , Support for OAuth 1.0 with bearer tokens and SSH keys, option to write reviews about projects, Freenode IRC Channel, option to migrate Trac tickets, Network Graph, public feature requests and site support tickets for Sourceforge and Allura , email notifications
• tigris.org: public API, extensive help

Available version control systems

Name	CVS	Git	Mercurial	SVN	Bazaar	TFS	Arch	Perforce	Fossil
Alioth	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
Assembla	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No
Betavine	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	Unknown	Unknown
Bitbucket	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
CodePlex	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No
Freepository	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	Unknown	Unknown
GitHub	No	Yes	Yes	Partial[41]	No	No	No	No	No
GitLab	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Gna!	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No
GNU Savannah	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes[42]	No	Yes	No	No
java.net	No	Yes[43]	Yes[43]	Yes[43]	No	No	No	No	No
JavaForge	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Unknown	Unknown
Launchpad	Import only	Yes[9][44]	Import only[45]	Import only	Yes	No	No	No	Unknown
OSDN	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Unknown	Unknown
Ourproject.org	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	Unknown	Unknown
OW2 Consortium	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	Unknown	Unknown
SEUL.org	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	Unknown	Unknown
SourceForge	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No longer for new projects[46]	No	No	Unknown	Yes
Tigris.org	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	Unknown	Unknown
Name	CVS	Git	Mercurial	SVN	Bazaar	TFS	Arch	Perforce	Fossil

Popularity

Name	Users	Projects	Alexa rank (lower = more popular)
Alioth	22,731[47]	1,106[47]	N/A (subdomain not tracked)
Assembla	Unknown	526,581+[48]	10,635 as of 6 December 2015[49]
Bitbucket	Unknown	Unknown	1,127 as of 24 January 2016[50]
CodePlex	Unknown	107,712[51]	2,947 as of 6 December 2015[52]
GitHub	14,000,000[53]	35,000,000[53][n 10]	72 as of 4 April 2016[54]
GitLab	20,000[55]	100,000+[55][n 11]	8,563 as of 21 September 2015[56]
Gna!	8,710	1,450	160,996 as of 6 December 2015[57]
GNU Savannah	67,746[58]	3,704[58]	61,543 as of 7 December 2015[59]
Google Code	Unknown[n 12]	250,000+[60]	N/A (subdomain not tracked)
JavaForge	Unknown	Unknown	816,023 as of 4 April 2015[61]
Launchpad	2,946,697[62]	37,567[63]	5,992 as of 6 December 2015[64]
OSDN	50,871[65]	5,952[65]	16,814 as of 17 June 2015[66]
Ourproject.org	Unknown[n 12]	1,411[67]	N/A (subdomain not tracked)
SourceForge	3,700,000[68]	430,000[68]	314 as of 4 April 2016[69]
Tigris.org	Unknown	Unknown	101,435 As of December 2015[70]
Name	Users	Projects	Alexa rank (lower = more popular)

Specialized hosting facilities

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

Name	Ad-free	CVS	Git	SVN	Arch	Notes
Drupal	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Only for Drupal related projects.
freedesktop.org	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Only for interoperability and shared base technology for free software desktop environments on Linux and other Unix-like operating systems, including the X Window System (X11) and cairo (graphics).
mozdev	Yes	Yes	Unknown	No	No	Only for Mozilla related projects.
Name	Ad-free	CVS	Git	SVN	Arch	Notes

Former hosting facilities

• BerliOS - Abandoned in April 2014^[71]
• Google Code - Closed in January 2016, all projects archived. See http://code.google.com/archive/ .

See also

• Forge (software)
• Revision control (source code management) systems
• Source code escrow for closed source software
• Distributed revision control
• List of revision control software
• Comparison of revision control software
• List of free software project directories

Notes

1. Anyone can submit Bug Reports without logging in.
2. private branch limited to 5 users on free plan, see Pricing and plans — bitbucket.org
3. Self hosted version is known as Stash and only supports Git repositories
4. Requires one to log in to report a Bug.
5. private branches are only available with paid plans, not with the free plan, see Plans and Pricing GitHub
6. Has an open source Community Edition and commercial Enterprise Edition
7. Currently only available for security vulnerability updates
8. Ubuntu
9. "Open Source Software Engineering". Tigris.org. Retrieved 2015-05-20.
10. GitHub is not fundamentally organized by projects, so the count is somewhat difficult. This figure is likely to be far higher at the present.
11. GitLab is not fundamentally organized by projects, so the count is somewhat difficult.
12. Data not available.

References

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2. Sourceforge. "terms of use". says "PLEASE NOTE THAT YOU RETAIN OWNERSHIP OF ANY COPYRIGHTS, ... IN ANY CONTENT YOU SUBMIT."
3. Github. "Github terms of service". says "We claim no intellectual property rights over the material you provide to the Service."
4. "About". GitLab.com. Retrieved 16 August 2013.
5. Gerwitz, Mike (2015-05-20). "GitLab, Gitorious, and Free Software". GitLab.com. GitLab. Retrieved 2016-03-19.
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13. "About (SourceForge)". SourceForge. Retrieved 2013-08-25.
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18. — Using Mercurial Queues And Bitbucket.org
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External links

• Project Hosting at DMOZ