List of Community-Hosted GitLab Instances

GitLab is one replacement for proprietary 'code forge' (software project management) platforms like GitHub. GitLab.com is the flagship instance hosted by the company that develops the software, using its Enterprise Edition (EE). Unlike GH, GitLab also offers a fully free code Community Edition (CE) that can be self-hosted as a ready-to-use code forge, although it lacks some "enterprise" features available in EE. Developers have a choice to either host their code on GitLab.com (both gratis and commercial options available), or they can host their own instance for their own use, or for a community of developers. Because all project data can be exported and imported, they can switch from one option to the other, and back again, as their circumstances require. --Strypey (talk) 08:39, 26 April 2018 (UTC)

Note: The lists of instances that use code forge software other than GitLab were out of the scope of this page, so the full list has been moved to List of Community-Hosted Code Forge Instances. This page may not be updated as often as that one. --Strypey (talk) 19:44, 11 October 2019 (UTC)

List of Independent GitLab instances

• Briar: https://code.briarproject.org/explore/ - used for development of the Briar P2P chat/social network app for mobile devices.

• Debian: https://salsa.debian.org/public - available for any free code software or any software that can be included in the Debian distribution or its repos.

• e Foundation: https://gitlab.e.foundation/explore/ - used for development of the /e/ project (formerly Eelo), which includes the /e/ OS mobile OS (forked from Android via LineageOS), and a suite of privacy-friendly apps and hosted services (mostly forked from bits of Android, and existing free code Android apps and server packages) designed to create a complete replacement for the mobile devices, apps, and services run by Apple, Google, etc.

• Federated Networks Association: https://git.feneas.org/explore/projects/ - used for a range of federated social networking projects that support the federation protocols used by Diaspora.

• FOSSCommunity.in: https://git.fosscommunity.in/explore/ - used for various projects supported by free software hackers in India

• FramaGit: https://framagit.org/public/projects/ - used for projects people involved in FramaSoft contribute to

• FreeDesktop.org: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/explore/groups/ - used for projects people involved in the freedesktop.org community contribute to

• Gajim: https://dev.gajim.org/explore/projects/ - used development of the Gajim XMPP client and related projects

• Git.coop: https://git.coop/explore/projects/ - for members of the UK based multi-stakeholder cooperative WebArchitects

• Gitgud.io: https://gitgud.io/explore - open access instance run by a user-supported company called Sapphire

• GNOME Project: https://gitlab.gnome.org/explore/projects/ - used for the development of the GNOME desktop environment and its many subsidiary projects

• GNU Project: https://git.gnu.io/explore/projects/ - used for development of various GNU social media projects, including the MediaGoblin media-hosting package, and the GNU Social micro-blogging server (and web client).

• Haskell: https://gitlab.haskell.org/explore/ - used for the development of various tools involved in the Haskell programming language

• Ind.ie: https://source.ind.ie/explore/projects/ - used internally by Ind.ie developers for their own projects

• Instant Infrastructure for Cooperation: https://gitlab.ii.coop/explore/projects/

• Jami (a GNU project, formerly Ring): https://git.jami.net/explore/projects/ - used for development of the various components of the GNU Ring P2P voice/ video chat app developed by the savoirfairelinux team

• Libreho.st: https://lab.libreho.st/explore/ - used for a suite of hosting packages developed and used by members of the librehosters network

• linux-kernel.at: https://git.linux-kernel.at/explore/ - a mostly private instance used for the development of ivatar, a decentralized replacement for Gravatar

• Mastodon: https://source.joinmastodon.org/explore/projects/ - for developers of Mastodon micro-blogging sever (and web client), and associated projects.

• NZ Open Source Society: https://git.nzoss.org.nz/explore/projects/ - available for developers associated with NZOSS to host their dev, or a mirror of their own repo elsewhere

• Open Educational Resources Universitas: https://git.oeru.org/explore/ - used by some developers and projects associated with the OERU and OER Foundation.

• 0xacab: https://0xacab.org/explore/projects/ - used by some developers and projects associated with RiseUp labs

• Pleroma: https://git.pleroma.social/explore/projects/ - used for development of the Pleroma micro-blogging server (and web client)

• Silence: https://git.silence.dev/explore - used for the development of Silence, a fork of Signal used for encrypting SMS/MMS on Android devices, and its website.

• Trisquel: https://devel.trisquel.info/groups/trisquel/ - used for development of the Trisquel GNU-linux distribution

• VideoLAN: https://code.videolan.org/explore/projects/ - used for development of the VLC media player and other VideoLAN projects

Hosted by GitLab on GitHost.io

GitHost.io was shut down by GitLab in June, 2019. Projects hosted there used to appear to be self-hosted, using their own domain name. They have all had to either move to GitLab.com, as did Snowdrift.coop), or move to self-hosting like git.gnu.io (see above).

Enabling federation across instances

There are three projects working on ways to enable self-hosted code forges like to form a federated network, allowing them to compete with the network effect of large, centralized services like GitHub and BitBucket:

• ForgeFed: https://notabug.org/peers/forgefed - extending the ActivityPub standard for code-sharing purposes. The reference implementation is a code forge called Vervis: https://dev.angeley.es/

• Sr.ht: https://drewdevault.com/2018/07/23/Git-is-already-distributed.html - using email protocols for code-sharing between web forges, the demo site is: https://sourcehut.org/

• Salut-à-Toi: https://salut-a-toi.org/ - using the XMPP standard for federated chat to allow federated access to code repositories and issue tickets. The demo site is: https://www.libervia.org/

An open standard for collaboration between code forges - like ForgeFed or Sr.ht - would theoretically enable projects to inter-operate across any code forge platform implementing the standard, not just GitLab.