Recently I started migrating my note-taking from Notion to Obsidian. Obsidian does not offer free syncing between devices and you will have to manually set up a method to sync your notes, either by using something like Dropbox, Google Drive, or Git.

So I thought it would be easier for me to set up a Git repository and keep my notes in sync between multiple devices. I’ve been a GitHub user for a very long time, but this time I was thinking of using something else to host my notes for a change.

I searched for a GitHub alternative that is based in Europe and came across Codeberg, a GitHub alternative based on the open-source GitTea framework.

Codeberg is based in Germany and offers a clear privacy document, that may be one of the easiest privacy agreements that I’ve read and, you don’t need to have a lawyer interpret it for you. It’s a nonprofit service backed by donations from its users.

Codeberg a privacy friendly GitHub alternative

Codeberg is a privacy-friendly GitHub alternative with one of the easiest to understand privacy policies that I’ve come across, and one that you can interpret without a lawyer.

We have a minimum-collection policy. Aside from essential data required to keep the service running, we are not collecting additional user or tracking data.

After deleting your data, backup files will be available for 30 days as per GDPR guidelines and server logs with IP addresses are kept only for 7 days according to GDPR guidelines.

After you deleted your data in your account, rotating offline backup files can continue to exist for up to 30 days according to GDPR guidelines.

Server log files can contain client IP addresses and user agent strings from connecting computers. These log files are destroyed automatically within at most seven days.

The Codeberg UI (Git tea UI) is quite similar to GitHub and you will not find it difficult to migrate between them. However, you won’t be getting the advanced features like automation or other integration and collaboration features provided by GitHub. Codeberg is just simple Git hosting, that is all you will get.

Does this mean I’m migrating away from GitHub? absolutely no. GitHub is still the place to be for open-source software and for collaborating with other developers. And I will be only hosting my notes on Codeberg for the time being.

However, if you are interested in a privacy-friendly GitHub alternative from Europe, I suggest you check out Codeberg.