Forgejo vs GitHub vs gitlab

I've used Github a bunch. We use our own GitLab instance at $DAYJOB (I help maintain the CI configurations and machines backing it). I've also been contributing on Codeberg projects lately.

Forgejo feels like Github in terminology, UI, and such. GitLab definitely has its own separate feel from either. I don't like that Forgejo continued Github's conflation of the issue and PR ID domains[1]. GitLab's review workflow is far better than Github (discussions, resolutions, etc.), so it is unfortunate that Forgejo copied Github instead.

However, GitLab is a monster. We have a "wait 60 seconds for things to settle" in an end-to-end test script just because it can take that long for the services behind the scenes to actually be ready. Forgejo is a Golang binary and is said to be ready in seconds. GitLab is also open core and the company does seem quite…distracted by shinies compared to useful feature considerations. They've accepted my patches (and we need very few these days). Take that as you will.

[1] One can migrate to GitLab while preserving issue/PR IDs, but cannot go the other way as !1 != #1 on GitLab which cannot be represented on the other forges.