Gitea leads in popularity with 57,114 stars vs 24,513 stars for GitLab. The 133% higher star count indicates stronger community adoption. In terms of developer contributions, Gitea has 6,952 forks, indicating strong developer engagement.

Both projects show recent activity, with Gitea last updated 9 hours ago and GitLab 11 hours ago.

Both tools share common technology foundations, being built with JavaScript, CSS, Bash, Golang, Vue. However, they differ in their additional technology choices: Gitea uses Typescript while GitLab leverages Python, SCSS, Ruby, Clojure.

GitLab has been in development longer, starting 15 years ago, compared to Gitea which began 10 years ago. This 5.2-year head start suggests GitLab may have more mature features and established processes.

Gitea is licensed under MIT, while GitLab's license terms are not publicly specified.

Both tools serve similar use cases in Git Platforms. However, they also have distinct specializations: GitLab extends into Project Management Suites, CI/CD Platforms.

Both Gitea and GitLab offer self-hosting capabilities, giving you full control over your data and infrastructure.