--- title: "Go Away Microsoft! The Netherlands is Quietly Building Its Own GitHub Replacement" url: https://daily.dev/posts/go-away-microsoft-the-netherlands-is-quietly-building-its-own-github-replacement-terk236fn source_url: https://feed.itsfoss.com/link/24361/17335236/netherlands-forgejo-migration type: article source: "It's Foss" published: 2026-05-06T05:04:44.670Z updated: 2026-07-30T02:12:35.725Z tags: ["forgejo", "github", "open-source", "self-hosting"] reading_time: 3 upvotes: 199 comments: 22 language: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Go Away Microsoft! The Netherlands is Quietly Building Its Own GitHub Replacement **[It's Foss](https://daily.dev/sources/itsfoss)** · 3 min read · 199 upvotes · 22 comments ## Summary The Netherlands is building a sovereign, self-hosted Git platform for government source code using Forgejo, a fully open source forge licensed under GPLv3+. GitHub was ruled out for being proprietary, and GitLab for its open-core model. The platform, code.overheid.nl, soft-launched on April 24, 2026, and is already hosting repositories from the Dutch Electoral Council, the Ministry of the Interior, and several municipalities. Still in pilot phase, it aims to reduce duplicate development across agencies and give the government full control over its infrastructure. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@qwertydiy** · 19 upvotes > Yeah, GitHub has been so popular that even well funded large companies can't replace it. Good luck with that. **@bjro** · 8 upvotes > Cool direction. I just wish the default instinct was ‘support existing nonprofit infrastructure’ rather than ‘build another instance’. **@mdshafinahmed** · 5 upvotes > Oh My gosh. > I was waiting for this news. > Awesome. **@sam7work** · 5 upvotes > many companies do use a self hosted gitlab , so the practice is not new , but i wonder how well Forgejo would work, i may set up an instance for myself and see how it works, or even better, we can start a project , rent a vps and use a Forgejo there , and do our projects on it, then we find out if it has any friction points **@cypheroxide** · 4 upvotes > Gitlab has been the defacto DevOps platform for a lot of companies, but the public platform has a few good features locked behind paid memerships and the self-hosted option requires heavy customization and setup for solid hosting. Gitea, and its fork ForgeJo, are nice lightweight options, along with Codeberg. > > > I think the biggest hurdle to replace GitHub is going to be the networking and visibility, as well as some of the additional features like Actions and Codespaces. Gitea-based options have some of this, and GitLab is a comprehensive DevOps platform, but having something as simple and... ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Soft launch of open-source code platform for government](https://daily.dev/posts/soft-launch-of-open-source-code-platform-for-government-u78wivqlc) · Hacker News · 46 upvotes · 3 comments - [Why I'm leaving GitHub for Forgejo](https://daily.dev/posts/why-i-m-leaving-github-for-forgejo-8ezk0te27) · Hacker News · 145 upvotes · 30 comments - [Initial Dutch government OSPO call](https://daily.dev/posts/initial-dutch-government-ospo-call-ol8z9luy3) · Hacker News · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#forgejo](https://daily.dev/tags/forgejo), [#github](https://daily.dev/tags/github), [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source), [#self-hosting](https://daily.dev/tags/self-hosting) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/go-away-microsoft-the-netherlands-is-quietly-building-its-own-github-replacement-terk236fn)