Best Self Hosted Alternatives to Upsource

SonarQube is a platform for continuous inspection that analyzes source code to surface maintainability, reliability, and security issues. It is typically used as part of the development and CI/CD process to enforce standards through Quality Gates and actionable findings.

Key Features

• Static code analysis for bugs, vulnerabilities, and code smells across many languages
• Quality Gates and quality profiles to enforce organization-wide standards
• Pull request and branch analysis to highlight newly introduced issues
• Security-focused analysis including security hotspots and vulnerability detection
• Integration into CI/CD workflows to automate code review checks

Use Cases

• Enforce code quality standards on every merge using Quality Gates in CI pipelines
• Centralize code health and technical debt tracking across teams and repositories
• Detect common security issues early during development and code review

SonarQube helps teams continuously improve code health by making quality and security feedback visible and actionable throughout the software delivery lifecycle.

Review Board is an open source, web-based platform for reviewing code and other project assets like images and documents. It helps teams manage review requests, discussions, and iterative revisions with detailed diffs and strong integration options.

Key Features

• Review requests that group code changes, files, and discussion threads in one place
• Advanced diff viewer with syntax highlighting, interdiffs, moved line detection, and indentation-aware changes
• Inline, multi-line commenting with threaded discussions and issue tracking for required fixes
• Image review and diffing with region-based comments and multiple comparison modes
• Document review workflows (including PDF and office-format review capabilities via extensions)
• Integrations with many SCM systems (including Git, Subversion, Mercurial, and Perforce) and common hosting providers
• Extensible API and extension framework for custom integrations and automation
• Dashboard for tracking incoming/outgoing reviews with filtering and bulk actions

Use Cases

• Team code review workflows outside of Git forge pull requests, especially for multi-repo or non-Git environments
• Reviewing design assets, screenshots, and documentation alongside code changes
• Enforcing review quality with structured discussions and tracked issues before approval

Review Board is well-suited for organizations needing a dedicated, extensible review system that supports both source code and non-code artifacts. Its mature diff tools and broad SCM integration make it a strong option for heterogeneous development environments.

Gerrit Code Review is a code review and project management tool for Git-based projects. It provides a structured review workflow around Git pushes, making it easier for teams to discuss changes and control how updates land in shared repositories.

Key Features

• Side-by-side diff viewer with syntax highlighting and inline comments
• Review-based workflow for proposing, updating, and approving changes
• Integrated Git repository hosting with SSH and HTTPS access for standard Git clients
• Delegatable access controls to manage projects, permissions, and workflows
• Repository maintenance support such as coordinating Git garbage collection across hosted repos
• Plugin architecture for extending server-side functionality

Use Cases

• Enforcing mandatory peer review before changes are submitted to shared branches
• Hosting and managing multiple Git repositories with centralized access control
• Running a review-driven workflow for large or regulated engineering organizations

Limitations and Considerations

• Gerrit’s review model and terminology can require onboarding for teams used to pull-request workflows
• Operating at scale typically involves tuning and operational planning (e.g., repository replication and maintenance)

Gerrit is well-suited for teams that want a rigorous, review-first workflow tightly integrated with Git hosting. Its extensibility and permission model make it a strong option for organizations with complex governance needs.

Phorge is an open source, self-hosted platform for software teams that combines code review, task tracking, and project collaboration in a single web application. It is a community-driven continuation of the Phabricator codebase and workflow.

Key Features

• Built-in code review workflow (Differential-style) and repository hosting/integration
• Task and project management with workboards (Kanban-style boards)
• Audit trails and activity feeds across code, tasks, and projects
• User and permission system for controlling access to projects and objects
• Web-based UI for browsing changes, reviewing revisions, and managing work

Use Cases

• Running an internal code review system for Git-based development
• Managing engineering tasks and projects alongside code changes
• Hosting an integrated collaboration hub for software teams and organizations

Limitations and Considerations

• Installation and maintenance can be more involved than lighter-weight tools due to its broad feature set and dependencies

Phorge fits teams that want an integrated, on-premises alternative to hosted developer platforms while keeping code review and work tracking tightly connected. It is particularly suited for organizations that prefer the Phabricator-style workflow and unified tool suite.

SourceHut is a suite of integrated tools for hosting and collaborating on software projects. It provides a minimal, performance-focused web UI and emphasizes standards-based workflows (notably email-driven collaboration).

Key Features

• Hosted Git repositories with public, private, and unlisted visibility options
• First-class Mercurial hosting alongside Git
• Fine-grained access control, including access for users without accounts
• Continuous integration with fully virtualized builds across multiple Linux distributions and BSDs
• Ad-hoc CI jobs and post-build triggers (email, webhooks, etc.)
• Mailing lists with web-based patch review tools and searchable, threaded archives
• Focused ticket tracking with support for private/security bug reports and email participation
• Markdown- and Git-driven wikis with flexible page organization
• Account security features such as TOTP-based 2FA, audit logs, and PGP-signed/encrypted service email

Use Cases

• Hosting open source projects that prefer email-based patch review workflows
• Running CI for multi-platform builds (Linux and BSD) with reproducible, isolated environments
• Managing project collaboration with integrated repos, tickets, wikis, and mailing lists

Limitations and Considerations

• Designed around a minimalist UI and email/SSH-centric workflows, which may differ from PR-centric forges
• The public service has historically been labeled as “alpha,” which may affect expectations around stability

SourceHut is well-suited to teams and communities that value simple interfaces, strong integrations, and standards-driven collaboration. It offers a cohesive set of tools for maintaining projects without relying on heavyweight, JavaScript-dependent web experiences.