Compare Pi-hole and Forgejo on pricing, features, platforms, and ratings — both DevOps tools, Free vs Open Source / Free pricing to decide which fits your team.
At a Glance
Pi-hole
Forgejo
Primary category
DevOps
DevOps
Rating
Not documented
Not documented
Pricing model
Free
Open Source / Free
Starting price
Free
Free (self-hosted)
Free plan
Not documented
Yes
Free trial
Not documented
Not documented
Platforms
Not documented
Web
Team collaboration
Not documented
Not documented
AI features
Not documented
Not documented
Public API
Yes
Yes
Pricing Compared
Starting price reflects the lowest paid tier, not the full cost for every team size or usage level.
Completely free and open source with no subscription required
Blocks ads and trackers network-wide, covering devices that cannot run browser extensions
Runs well on inexpensive, low-power hardware like a Raspberry Pi
Large, active community maintaining blocklists and documentation
Web dashboard gives clear visibility into network-wide DNS activity
Can double as a DHCP server, simplifying home network setups
Cons
Does not block ads embedded within the same domain as the content itself (e.g. some in-app ads)
Requires basic networking knowledge to configure DNS or DHCP settings correctly
A single Pi-hole instance is a single point of failure for network DNS unless a backup is configured
Some sites detect and work around DNS-level ad blocking, requiring blocklist maintenance
No official commercial support channel since it is a volunteer-run project
Forgejo
Pros
Fully free and open source with no licensing cost for self-hosting
Nonprofit, community-based governance under Codeberg e.V. reduces the risk of a future for-profit takeover
Lightweight resource footprint makes self-hosting accessible on modest, inexpensive hardware
GitHub-Actions-compatible CI/CD eases migration for teams already using GitHub Actions workflows
Actively shipping federation features (ForgeFed) that no major competing forge currently matches
Cons
Federation remains an early, in-progress feature; full pull request, issue, and identity federation are not yet delivered
No official first-party commercial hosted tier, so non-technical users must rely on third-party or community hosting
Smaller ecosystem of integrations and enterprise support compared to GitHub or GitLab
Ongoing divergence from Gitea since the 2024 hard fork means the two projects may increasingly require separate evaluation over time
Use Cases
Pi-hole
Home network ad blocking — Home users install Pi-hole on a Raspberry Pi or home server to block ads and trackers across every device on their home Wi-Fi network.
Homelab and self-hosting infrastructure — Self-hosting enthusiasts run Pi-hole alongside other self-hosted services as part of a broader homelab DNS and network management setup.
Small office network protection — Small offices deploy Pi-hole to reduce ad and tracker traffic across office devices without purchasing a commercial ad-blocking appliance.
Forgejo
Self-hosted GitHub alternative — Development teams and organizations self-host Forgejo to get GitHub-like repository hosting, pull requests, issues, and CI/CD while keeping full control of their infrastructure and data.
European data sovereignty and public-sector hosting — European companies and public-sector bodies choose Forgejo for its non-profit governance and self-hosting model to keep source code and CI/CD data within jurisdictions they control, avoiding dependency on US-based commercial platforms.
Open-source project hosting under community governance — Open-source projects host their code on community-run Forgejo instances like Codeberg.org to avoid dependency on a single for-profit platform vendor.