HN Explorer

Ask HN: Private Git repo hosting?

38 points by webmaven ↗ HN
Do you use the paid GitHub plan, the free BitBucket plan, Gitlab, something else, or self-host?

Update: Removed the running totals. I'll summarize later, didn't expect this to be quite so popular.

71 comments

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jacquesm
Paid github. And that's because I feel that when I pay for a service such as this they need to take my money in order to continue to survive. Anything else will sooner or later disappear.
rswail
gitlab... easy to set up and easy to use.
drinchev
I had a gitlab instance on one of my computers that is online 24/7. It is a good solution, but my system was compromised by exploiting ruby / gitshell . Also it took way too much system resources to operate.

Of course it's my responsibility to patch software I'm using, but after considering how much time I would need to run gitlab on my own host ( incl. server upgrade, security configuration, may be kernel + docker installation, etc. ) I decided to go to a paid repo at GitHub.

webmaven
Had you considered GitLab's free hosting?
drinchev
I didn't consider hosting from GitLab at all. The thing I considered was that GitLab is an open-source project, so I can modify it the way I want ( I actually contributed a super small patch ( https://github.com/gitlabhq/gitlab-ci-runner/pull/16 ) .

Anyway free hosting for me for a platform that you can install on your server has always been a no-option, because I want to control the content.

webmaven
So instead you'd rather choose a paid hosting account for a solution where you don't have that self-hosting option?
webmaven
Is that their hosted option, or self-hosted?
wlk
For private/small projects free BitBucket is enough. For larger projects I have used self-hosted Gitlab which was running very well on relatively low spec server.
nirix
I use BitBucket for small private projects. Never had any issues with it. For larger projects I'd go with a paid GitHub plan.
0x0
Started on the free bitbucket and went to the paid bitbucket when we needed more than 5 users. With 200+ repositories, we've already exceeded what is available for purchase on github.
logicuce
Bitbucket's no limit on number of repos is what made us take the final call as well. You don't want to be restricted on that when you strive hard to have a more organized code base.
mindcrime
We use paid GitHub.
[deleted]
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eldelshell
Paid GitHub.

It's great, not really expensive, almost every developer knows how it works.

Simply setting up your own Git repo would be more expensive than a few months of GitHub/BitBucket subscription.

michaelmior
I'm not arguing about GitHub being great, but it really only takes a few minutes to spin up an EC2 instance and add a few user accounts with a shared folder. That's really all that's required to set up a shared repo.
justincormack
Plus backups., security updates etc. OK you can not backup got as someone probably has a copy but...
michaelmior
Plus assuming you're running an EBS-backed instance, it's already backed up. And it's easy enough to set your instance to automatically apply security updates. If all it's doing is hosting a few git repos, breaking things isn't really a huge concern. I love GitHub, but I wouldn't pay for it as a way of saving money, I'd pay for the extra features.
[dead] michaelmior
Plus assuming you're running an EBS-backed instance, it's already backed up. And it's easy enough to set your instance to automatically apply security updates. If all it's doing is hosting a few git repos, breaking things isn't really a huge concern. I love GitHub, but I wouldn't pay for it as a way of saving money, I'd pay for the extra features.
troels
You can put the bare repo on a server and then use ssh. Dead simple and works great if you have a dev server where all developers have access to anyway.
drinchev
Yeah, pretty much that's what I also find the most appropriate.

GitHub seems to be the second-best option ( sometimes the first ), but when you have unlimited non-paid private repos your mind goes also unlimited : I serve my important configuration files, various scripts, small personal projects, even my bank statements on a git repo, hosted on my personal server. But if every repo costed me 2$ per month, I doubt I would do that.

talkingtab
I use my own git repo. I have a very small digitalocean server as well as a mac. I rsync the repos for backup. I have used github a bit but in my admittedly limited experience I see no benefit and therefore no need for anything else. Really it just seems trivial.
modinfo
I use my own git repos with web cgit, on my dedicated ovh server.
bruo
i'm with you! i can't be happier with cgit!
drakmail
Free GitLab account on gitlab.com
taspeotis
Atlassian Stash [1]. Gets regular updates and it plays nicely with JIRA and Bamboo.

[1] https://www.atlassian.com/software/stash/whats-new

serve_yay
It works but it's not great. It's rather slow and the interface leaves some things to be desired (for example, you can't close a pull request without letting Stash merge it for you).
gonewest
You can decline / reject / whatever they call it in stash and it won't be merged...
nsfmc
if you already have a tiny vps running somewhere, take a look at gitolite. it's free, it supports multiple users, allows for complex access control, but has a tiny bit of a learning curve attached to it.

on the upside, you learn a bunch about ssh in the process!

rokche123
+1 for Gitolite. It is not that hard, more like an afternoon spent figuring things out. Great access control. It has no interface and no pull requests but that is not what git is about after all.
_1009
Free Bitbucket, works just fine.
Argorak
Github private, both for my personal and my company account. Mainly because if the ease of giving others access, as most of my peers use it as well. I don't want to have multiple accounts at multiple services for that.

I use Stash at one client and like it, especially when integrated with JIRA. Not that I have much love for JIRA, but if you track all details, it's the tool to go for.

gbraad
Bitbucket (free) and self-hosted without a fancy interface (linode, synced to digital ocean, dreamhost)
lini
Self-hosted Gitlab. We have more than 20 projects in it but only a few of them can be called large.
yalue
We also use self-hosted Gitlab. Its workflow is generally very sensible, the web interface is great, and it was easy to integrate with a homemade CI server (unfortunately their provided CI server wasn't nearly as easy to set up as Gitlab itself).
Outlaw11A
Paid Github through the student license
privong
I use both github (I recently finished a PhD and so had access to the education discount) and free bitbucket (a budding collaboration hosts their private code there). I am the sole user for most of my repos (mostly software for data analysis and LaTeX drafts for papers), so bitbucket's five user limit for free accounts has not affected my workflow in any way. I do use github for code I want to release to the public (e.g., code associated with publications, side-projects that I want to share), as it seems like there is more of an ecosystem there and the website seems more conducive to easily finding other peoples projects.
hackerboos
Gitlab on Digital Ocean using their image.
nilved
Host your own server. It's easy, cheap and offers more features.
robinhoodexe
I use a free BitBucket plan. The unlimited private repos are perfect for me, since I have a lot of small projects that I'll likely never finish. Also, i have Pass[1] set up with Git, so everything is backed up, under version control and is pushed to my Raspberry Pi so I can access all my passwords on my iPhone as well.

Also, I use Git for large academic projects and papers in LaTeX, so public Github is not really ideal.

[1]http://www.zx2c4.com/projects/password-store/

ryanmacg
I used to use github but I’ve moved towards gitlab in the past while as my need for private repos dropped in scale
shooster
I'll try to summarize my choice depending on org size.

If it fits in BitBucket's free plan or you're solo, use that. It'll just work.

If it doesn't fit in BitBucket's free plan, pay for GitHub (sorry BitBucket).

If you need it behind your firewall and want to manage yourself, you can afford to (and should do) an eval of solutions like GitLab.

If you need it behind your firewall and your org is already large and complicated, then try GitHub enterprise.

noselasd
Self hosted repos accessed with ssh on a vSphere CentOS VM