# cgit

18 Hacker News commenters recommended cgit and 4 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 10 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** People recommend cgit as a simple, easy-to-deploy browsable web view for git repositories, especially for read-only sharing. Critics say it is CPU-heavy on crawlers and large repos.

## Why people recommend it

- Simple browsable web view for repos (4 comments): "I think cgit is the simplest one that provides a browsable http version of the repository if that's what you want." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48621874)) "If you ever find yourself wishing for a web UI as well, there's cgit" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46099100)) "Add _cgit_ if you need to be able to view the repos online" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50021317))
- Good for read-only code sharing (3 comments): "Even a self-hosted cgit or static page git browser will do it for read-only." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49341691)) "For read-only code sharing, I would say use cgit and a VPS." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48612407)) "cgit is pretty good for exporting repos" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49340789))
- Pairs with gitolite for repo hosting (3 comments): "switched to gitolite and CGit primarily because Gitea (and Forgejo) force you into a flat organization/project structure" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45931691)) "use git + cgit for collaboration and they manage just fine" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47722797)) "use gitolite with cgit, or alternatively gitweb." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47925761))

## What people warn about

- CPU-heavy on static pages and large repos (3 comments): "why is cgit scanning 340 MB to answer this question? Is cgit not using good indexes?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49505518)) "it's got to be a lot less intensive than having cgit generate it every single time" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49499053)) "burning a ton of CPU power on purely static pages" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49505397))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Gitdot](https://hackerapproved.com/p/gitdot.md): 38 recommend
- [gitweb](https://hackerapproved.com/p/gitweb.md): 6 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "cgit", https://hackerapproved.com/p/cgit/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).