Best Self Hosted Alternatives to Garage (Git hosting by GitButler)

Soft Serve is a self-hostable Git server designed for developers who prefer working from the command line. It provides an SSH-accessible terminal UI (TUI) for browsing and managing repositories, alongside standard Git cloning and pushing workflows.

Key Features

• SSH-accessible TUI for navigating repositories, commits, and files
• Clone and fetch via SSH, HTTP, or the native Git protocol (git daemon)
• Git LFS support (HTTP and SSH backends)
• Repository management over SSH, including creating repositories on demand
• Public-key SSH authentication with configurable access control
• Public/private repositories, optional anonymous access, and collaborator management
• User access tokens for authenticated operations
• Configurable via YAML config file and environment variables
• Supports SQLite (default) or PostgreSQL for metadata storage

Use Cases

• Run a lightweight internal Git server for small teams or homelabs
• Provide an SSH-first Git hosting experience for terminal-centric workflows
• Host repositories with Git LFS assets without deploying a full web forge

Limitations and Considerations

• Focused on SSH/TUI workflows; it is not a full Git forge with issues/PRs
• Git LFS pure-SSH transfer is disabled by default and may require enabling

Soft Serve is a strong fit when you want a simple, fast Git server with practical repository browsing and administration directly over SSH. Its single-binary deployment and flexible clone protocols make it easy to adopt for smaller, self-managed setups.

cgit is a lightweight, high-performance web interface for browsing Git repositories. It is implemented as a CGI application written in C and focuses on fast rendering and simple deployment.

Key Features

• Repository browsing: commit logs, diffs, trees, tags, and file views
• Side-by-side and unified diffs, plus basic time/author statistics
• Caching of generated HTML for improved performance
• Cloneable “dumb HTTP” URLs for Git over HTTP
• Atom feeds for repository and commit activity
• On-the-fly archive/snapshot generation for tags and commits
• Repository discovery and support for Gitweb-style project lists
• Extensible filtering framework, including script filters and an optional built-in Lua interpreter
• Simple virtual hosting support via macro expansion

Use Cases

• Publishing a fast, minimal Git repository browser for internal or public projects
• Hosting a read-only Git web UI alongside an existing Git server
• Offering snapshots and feeds for users who follow repository activity

cgit is a solid choice when you want a straightforward, resource-efficient Git web frontend with familiar browsing features, optional filtering, and easy integration into traditional web server setups.