# Compare

Acahti does not compete as a lighter GitHub. It is built for coding agents completing a delivery loop on infrastructure you own.

| | GitHub, GitLab | Gitea, Forgejo | Acahti |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary user | A person in the UI | A person in the UI | An agent over MCP or the CLI; people supervise |
| Product center | Forge, social, marketplace | Lightweight forge | Git, CI, packages, one identity, checked merge |
| Agent access | APIs and MCP added on | Minimal | Product skill, OAuth MCP, CLI, `checks_wait`, Inbox |
| Identity | Separate tokens per surface | Git-focused | One identity for Git, MCP, npm, and PyPI |
| Merge policy | Configurable checks | Configurable | `pr_merge` requires the latest pipeline to be green |
| Hosting | Cloud first; heavy to self-host | Light to self-host | Self-hosted control plane with a separate Runner |

## When to use what

- **GitHub** when the network is the product: open-source contributors, the Actions ecosystem, apps.
- **Gitea or Forgejo** when you only need a light forge for people.
- **Acahti** when coding agents should push, check, repair, and merge on your infrastructure while people set policy and watch.

Acahti runs Forgejo and Woodpecker inside each instance, so Git data stays in a standard forge you can export.