# Forgejo vs GitHub Enterprise

GitHub Enterprise is the default choice for a large engineering organization,
and for an open-source project it is the right one: the ecosystem gravity is
real and the free tier is generous. For a Swiss enterprise or regulated
organization running its own Git platform behind its own network, the
calculation looks different. This page compares Forgejo, operated by VSHN,
with GitHub Enterprise on the five factors that matter at that scale.

For the self-service comparison against GitHub's free and Team tiers, see
[Codey.ch's comparison page](https://www.codey.ch/comparison/). This page is
about the enterprise tier and the enterprise buyer.

## Quick comparison

| | VSHN Managed Forgejo | GitHub Enterprise |
|---|---|---|
| **License** | GPL-3.0-or-later, no per-seat fee | $21/user/month (Enterprise Cloud), scales with headcount |
| **CI/CD minutes** | Runners VSHN operates for you; no metered minute budget | 50,000 minutes/month included on Enterprise Cloud, additional usage billed |
| **Data location** | Switzerland (your choice of cloud), or your own infrastructure | US (Azure), or self-hosted on GitHub Enterprise Server |
| **Governing law** | Swiss law | US law, CLOUD Act exposure |
| **Roadmap** | Set by the Forgejo community under Codeberg e.V. | Set by Microsoft |
| **If you leave** | Ordinary git, PostgreSQL and S3-compatible storage; fork the project if you disagree with its direction | Export tooling exists; the platform itself cannot be forked |

## License economics

GitHub Enterprise Cloud starts at $21 per user per month. That is a cost that
grows every time the organization hires, independent of how much Git hosting
or CI those new hires actually use. GitHub Enterprise Server, the self-hosted
deployment, ships under the same per-seat Enterprise plan rather than as a
separate flat license.

Forgejo carries no per-seat license. VSHN's managed Forgejo pricing scales
with the instance, not with headcount, so adding developers does not add a
line item. Forgejo is GPL-3.0-or-later, which matters beyond the price: a
vendor that later changes its terms cannot take the software away, because
the license already guarantees the right to keep running it, or to fork it,
without renegotiating anything.

Per-seat tools elsewhere have moved the other way. ti&m reported roughly a
900% increase in Atlassian licensing costs between 2023 and a projected 2027,
driven by Atlassian's forced Server to Data Center to Cloud migration path.
That is a different vendor and a different product, cited here as a third-party
example of what happens when a platform you depend on controls both the price
and the migration timeline, not as a claim about GitHub.

## CI cost accounting

GitHub Enterprise Cloud includes 50,000 CI/CD minutes per month, after which
further usage is billed. That minute budget is separate from the per-seat
license, so a team with a lot of hosted-runner CI pays for both headcount and
compute.

Forgejo Actions uses the same workflow syntax as GitHub Actions, so pipelines
largely carry over. VSHN runs the CI infrastructure as part of the managed
service, which moves the cost from a metered line item on someone else's
invoice to infrastructure VSHN sizes and operates for you. The marketplace
ecosystem stays GitHub-exclusive: a workflow that depends on a third-party
GitHub Action from the Marketplace needs that step rebuilt or replaced.

## Data residency and jurisdiction

GitHub Enterprise Cloud runs on Microsoft Azure, and Microsoft is a US
company subject to the CLOUD Act regardless of which region the data is
stored in. GitHub Enterprise Server can be self-hosted, which moves the
infrastructure question but not the vendor relationship.

VSHN operates Forgejo on Swiss infrastructure under Swiss law, with no CLOUD
Act exposure. This is covered in full, including the EU Cloud Sovereignty
Framework self-assessment, on the [sovereignty page](/sovereignty/).

## Roadmap influence

GitHub's roadmap is Microsoft's to set. A feature request, a deprecation, or
a pricing change happens on GitHub's timeline, and a customer's only lever is
to ask or to leave.

Forgejo's roadmap is set by its own community under [Codeberg
e.V.](https://codeberg.org/), a non-profit with open governance. Forgejo's
own history is the proof this works: it exists because the Gitea project's
trademark was transferred to a private company without community
consultation, and the community forked it rather than accept a decision made
for them. Where Forgejo itself lacks an enterprise feature an organization
needs, such as SCIM provisioning or an audit log, VSHN can build it as a
project and contribute it upstream, into the project everyone uses, rather
than into a private fork only one customer benefits from.

## The exit

A GitHub Enterprise organization's data lives inside GitHub's platform and
export tooling, which is Microsoft's to maintain and to change. Forgejo's own
data model is ordinary: Git repositories, a PostgreSQL database, and
S3-compatible object storage for large files. Nothing about leaving VSHN
requires leaving the platform. And because Forgejo is open source, forking
the project itself is always available as a last resort, which is exactly
what the Gitea community did when it needed to.

## Which option fits?

**Choose GitHub Enterprise** if your organization relies on the GitHub
Actions Marketplace ecosystem, needs the specific compliance certifications
GitHub Enterprise Cloud publishes, and per-seat licensing at your headcount is
an acceptable and predictable cost.

**Choose VSHN Managed Forgejo** if per-seat licensing is growing faster than
your headcount justifies, your organization needs Swiss data residency and
Swiss law, or you want a platform whose roadmap and licensing terms you are
not dependent on one vendor to set.

Already decided and migrating from GitHub Enterprise? See the
[migration guide](/github-enterprise-migration/).

## Get a migration assessment

Running on GitHub Enterprise and want to know what moving to a
VSHN-operated Forgejo instance would look like for your organization? [Book a
free migration assessment](https://vshn.cal.vs.hn/forgejo).