SourceForge
Ranked 13 of 22 Git forges by recommenders
Free long-running host for open source projects that supports many version control systems; critics cite ads, adware bundled in installers and a decline since its sale.
Free long-running host for open source projects that supports many version control systems; critics cite ads, adware bundled in installers and a decline since its sale.
71 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 16
- criticize it
- 55
- approval share
- 23%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 16 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Clean, simple, reliable interface
“Compared to installing Apache, Wiki, Roundup, CVS, and Mailman on your own server, SourceForge's UI was fantastic”
Comment from 27 Nov 2025 in “Migrating the main Zig repository from GitHub to Codeberg” “very clean, simple and reliable, and popular”
Comment from 28 Apr 2026 in “Ghostty is leaving GitHub” Owners seen as less shady
“Owned by companies that do not help the US Federal Government illegally spy on their own citizens and murder children overseas”
Comment from 23 Mar 2026 in “GitHub appears to be struggling with measly three nines availability” “I don't think Slashdot Media have been up to the same shady stuff.”
Comment from 8 Apr 2026 in “Veracrypt Project Update”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Ads and adware in downloads
“Really sad when they started blasting people with ads and swapping out installers with adware”
Comment from 28 Apr 2026 in “Before GitHub” “Over time these added annoying ads, mandated 2FA, shut down, and dropped support for Mercurial support”
Comment from 8 Sep 2026 in “Forges Shouldn't Have Opinions About Your Code” “Wrapping Windows downloads in adware installers was only one of those many crazy unforced errors.”
Comment from 10 Sep 2026 in “Version control second coming” - Comment from 31 Mar 2026 in “GitHub backs down, kills Copilot pull-request ads after backlash”
- Comment from 29 Apr 2026 in “Ghostty is leaving GitHub”
- Comment from 8 Apr 2026 in “Veracrypt Project Update”
Malware in downloads
“once definitive central source of truth was bought out and became a vector for malware”
Comment from 3 Mar 2026 in “I'm losing the SEO battle for my own open source project” “Sourceforge is horrible to use and was at one point actively pushing malware”
Comment from 8 Apr 2026 in “Veracrypt Project Update” “Remember also how Sourceforge decided to basically inject malware that time?”
Comment from 5 Nov 2025 in “Removing XSLT for a more secure browser” Projects need approval to list
“it had two major problems in DevEx: first you couldn't just get your open source project published. It had to be approved.”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “Zig quits GitHub, says Microsoft's AI obsession has ruined the service” “SF required application form, where you had to explain why you are worthy to have your git repo hosted by SF.”
Comment from 31 Mar 2026 in “GitHub backs down, kills Copilot pull-request ads after backlash” Seen as outdated, unmaintained
“I see "sourceforge" and immediately I think "this project is way behind time"”
Comment from 9 May 2026 in “Bun's experimental Rust rewrite hits 99.8% test compatibility on Linux x64 glibc” “an ad-infested user-unfriendly site where there's just old and mostly unmaintained projects”
Comment from 31 Oct 2026 in “Common Desktop Environment available now as open-source”
Other Git forges people recommend
The four most recommended other Git forges, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 22 Git forges, rankedWhat people said
40 of the 74 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“an ad-infested user-unfriendly site where there's just old and mostly unmaintained projects”
“Wrapping Windows downloads in adware installers was only one of those many crazy unforced errors.”
“Over time these added annoying ads, mandated 2FA, shut down, and dropped support for Mercurial support”
“We've seen this happen with SourceForge, with Tigris, and now with GitHub.”
“although I find its interface a little clunky”
“SourceForge is your better “pre-git” analogue here, and it, like SVN, still exists and is actively maintained and used.”
“Source forge was shoving adware into the software from their site.”
“Prior to that they had Windows installers which did the same, but that also only lasted a few months.”
“I see "sourceforge" and immediately I think "this project is way behind time"”
“sourceforge was one of the few left that supports a whole pile of VCSs”
“an undeniably shitty platform that tried to install adware on their user's computers”
“the (what felt to me) very serious process of coming up with a project name”
“It just came at a time when sourceforge was being heavily enshittified.”
“SF.net wasn't great compared to any of the current generation of hosting services.”
“I also remember SourceForge fondly, before the ad infested thing.”
“very serious process of coming up with a project name and reserving it on sourceforge”
“very clean, simple and reliable, and popular”
“Really sad when they started blasting people with ads and swapping out installers with adware”
“My first Open Source project easily got off the ground just by being listed in SourceForge.”
“it became a massive ad farm that started injecting ads into people's tarballs”
“Sourceforge is horrible to use and was at one point actively pushing malware”
“I don't think Slashdot Media have been up to the same shady stuff.”
“they started tampering with installers to put adware inside of them”
“It wasn’t always scummy… but there was a definite shift after they got bought. It’s kept getting worse since then.”
“the legit download button was surrounded by banner ads made to look like download buttons”
“It was much better than the closed source SourceForge which existed before it”
“SF required application form, where you had to explain why you are worthy to have your git repo hosted by SF.”
“Sourceforge has been putting ads on open source projects for decades”
“they did the exact same thing with installers and it killed them”
“SourceForge injecting ads into installers of projects hosted there”
“SourceForge was abandoned due to UX issues and the adware debacle”
“Owned by companies that do not help the US Federal Government illegally spy on their own citizens and murder children overseas”
“once definitive central source of truth was bought out and became a vector for malware”
“sourceforge removed the user spaces and did not respond my email about it”
“Long time ago Sourceforge and then GitHub promoted into the current default the model of open source distribution”
“I lost all my college projects due to source forge bullshit decades ago.”
“it had two major problems in DevEx: first you couldn't just get your open source project published. It had to be approved.”
“eventually entered its what's now called "enshittifcation phase"”
“Compared to installing Apache, Wiki, Roundup, CVS, and Mailman on your own server, SourceForge's UI was fantastic”
“Remember also how Sourceforge decided to basically inject malware that time?”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.