Open-source alternative to Azure Artifacts

Open-source alternative to Azure Artifacts for teams that want packages on their own servers

No single open-source tool matches every Azure Artifacts feed type. Pulp covers the widest set of formats, with content plugins for Maven, npm, Python and other ecosystems, while Gitea and Forgejo cover the common ones, such as npm, PyPI, Maven and container images, alongside the Git hosting they already run. Azure Artifacts is one module of Azure DevOps, so Repos, Pipelines and Boards can stay where they are while you move only the feeds. Teams usually start this move for one of three reasons: storage charges above the free 2 GiB, a residency or licensing concern, or a wish to keep packages next to self-hosted Git. Each reason points to a different tool choice, so decide which reason applies before you pick a platform.

Start by inventorying every feed, its format, its upstream sources and its consumers. Export the list of Universal Packages and any NuGet feeds separately, because Universal Packages is the format least likely to have a direct open-source match and may need a file store instead. Check the maturity of each plugin before you commit. Pulp's pulp_maven and pulp_npm releases were still 0.x in October 2026, and pulp_rust is labeled a tech preview whose APIs may change without notice, so confirm the current status with the project. Ask Gitea and Forgejo whether their registries cover your NuGet and Universal Packages needs, since neither is listed among the formats in your supplied references.

Plan the cutover feed by feed rather than all at once. Run the new registry in parallel, point a test pipeline at it, and keep the Azure Artifacts upstream in place until every consumer resolves packages from the new source. Pull-through caching lets the new registry fetch and store upstream packages on first use, which reduces the risk of a build breaking on a missing dependency. Confirm authentication behavior with the vendor or project before you rely on it, because pulp_maven's deploy feature does not use authentication and does not distinguish SNAPSHOT from release repositories. Cost is mostly staff time and the storage and compute you run yourself, so request a written scope that names each feed, its format and its acceptance test.

Which open-source registry covers each Azure Artifacts feed type

This table maps each Azure Artifacts feed type to the open-source registry options that may cover it, with the maturity signal and the check to run for each row. Read the Pulp rows for plugin versions, the Gitea and Forgejo rows for registry scope, and treat any row marked for confirmation as a gap to test before committing to a cut-over.

Feed type	Pulp plugin	Gitea or Forgejo registry	What to verify
NuGet	No Pulp NuGet plugin is listed in the supplied Pulp plugin set	Not among the registry types named in the supplied Gitea documentation, so confirm before relying on it	Confirm NuGet support in the exact Gitea or Forgejo version, plus push, restore and symbol workflows with your Visual Studio and dotnet clients
npm	pulp_npm, a 0.x release at 0.10.2, with mirroring, pull-through caching and npm publish or yarn publish support	npm is among the more than 20 package registry types Gitea supports	Test publish and install with your exact npm and yarn versions, scoped packages, and access tokens; pulp_npm is pre-1.0
Maven	pulp_maven, a 0.x release at 0.35.0, usable as a pull-through cache for Maven Central; its deploy feature has no authentication and no SNAPSHOT or release separation	Maven is among the supported Gitea registry types	Plan access control outside the deploy feature for Pulp, and confirm how your Gradle or Maven builds resolve snapshots and releases
Python	pulp_python, past version 1.0 at 3.37.1	PyPI is among the supported Gitea registry types	Test twine upload and pip install against your index URLs and authentication model, including any private dependency mirror
Universal Packages	No direct equivalent in the supplied Pulp plugin set, so confirm whether a generic File plugin meets the need	Generic package storage is not confirmed in the supplied facts, so confirm it	Map how your pipelines publish and version universal packages, then test that path end to end on the candidate platform
Upstream sources	Pulp syncs from upstream registries such as registry.npmjs.org and Maven Central through pull-through or sync configurations	Gitea supports proxying of packages from the registry types it lists, to be confirmed for each type	Inventory every upstream URL your feeds use, and confirm whether the candidate caches or mirrors each one with the access rules you need
Container images	pulp_container, past version 1.0 at 2.30.0, syncs Docker, OCI and Cosign content; pull-through cache is a tech preview	Container images are among the supported Gitea registry types	Consider whether Harbor is a better fit for OCI content, and confirm the pull-through mode is not required for production
Authentication and permissions	Feed-level access control depends on the plugin and deployment, so confirm it per plugin	Organization and repository scoping exist in Gitea and Forgejo, to be confirmed for package scopes	Test that a read-only build identity cannot publish, and that revoked tokens stop access immediately

Pulp, Gitea or Forgejo: which registry fits which feed mix

Azure Artifacts combines several feed types behind one billing model, so the replacement depends on which formats your teams publish and consume. The options below differ in format coverage, upstream caching, license and maturity, and each has one gap to test before you commit.

Pulp for multi-format feeds

Pulp is a multi-format repository manager built from pulpcore and content plugins, and it is the option that covers the widest range of Azure Artifacts feed types in one service. Its npm and Python plugins mirror upstream registries such as registry.npmjs.org and support pull-through caching, which suits teams that want build traffic to stay inside their network. Check which plugin versions your team depends on, because several are still 0.x releases. Plan operations for three services: the API, the content server and workers, backed by PostgreSQL.

Pulp Maven deploy gap

Pulp's Maven support can act as a pull-through cache for Maven Central, which covers the upstream half of most Maven feeds well. The deploy path is the risk: the documented Maven Deploy Plugin flow does not use authentication and does not separate SNAPSHOT from release repositories. If your Azure Artifacts feeds accept publishes from CI, put an authenticating reverse proxy in front of the deploy endpoint and enforce separate repositories yourself. Test this with a sample publish before you move any production artifacts.

Pulp Rust and container limits

Pulp's Rust and Cargo plugin is labeled a tech preview whose APIs may change without notice, and its README lists authentication, authorization and full registry syncing as not yet supported. Container pull-through caching is also a tech preview, even though container syncing from Docker Hub, Quay and other registries is documented. Treat both as limits to verify in a pilot: confirm access control for Cargo feeds and decide whether containers stay in Harbor or move to Pulp.

Gitea package registries

Gitea supports more than 20 package registry types, including npm, PyPI, Maven and container images, inside the same server that hosts your Git repositories. This suits teams that already keep source and packages together and want one authentication model, one backup and one upgrade path. Gitea is MIT licensed and offered with commercial support from CommitGo. Confirm that the formats your Azure Artifacts feeds use, including NuGet and Universal Packages, are covered, since format support is the first check to run.

Forgejo package registries

Forgejo is the GPL-3.0-or-later fork of Gitea from v9.0 onward, with earlier versions under MIT and domains held by Codeberg e.V. It uses the same package-hosting model as Gitea, so the same format checks apply. Choose Forgejo when your organization prefers a GPL project with a non-profit governance structure, or when you plan to upgrade an existing Gitea installation, which Forgejo documents as transparent up to Gitea v1.22. Confirm the package formats you need, because Forgejo registry coverage can differ from Gitea's in some releases.

Keeping Azure Pipelines and Repos while feeds move

If your pipelines stay in Azure Pipelines, only the package source changes. Pipeline definitions keep running where they are, but the tasks that restore, push or publish packages must point at the new feed. The safest pattern is to publish to the new registry in parallel, switch consumers feed by feed, and retire the Azure Artifacts feed last. Azure Pipelines can still reach a self-hosted feed through a service connection or a credential stored in a variable group, so the build agent needs network access to the new endpoint.

Feed URLs in NuGet.config and .npmrc: Each developer workstation and build image carries these files. Update the source entries and registry lines in one change, then search the repositories for the old feed URL.
Credentials in variable groups: Replace the Azure Artifacts authentication used by the NuGetAuthenticate and npmAuthenticate steps with a personal or service token stored as a secret variable. Secret variables cannot be read back, so record where the replacement value lives.
Upstream sources: Confirm which public registries the Azure feed proxied, then configure the same upstreams on the new server so restores resolve as before.
Agent reachability: Hosted agents reach public endpoints, but a self-hosted feed on your network needs a self-hosted agent or a route that the agent can use.

Before cutover, confirm the exact authentication method your Azure Pipelines tasks and the new registry support, since the supported options differ by package type.

Moving pipelines to Gitea or Forgejo changes the CI engine as well as the feeds, so workflow files, runners and secrets all move. Gitea Actions is designed to be compatible with GitHub Actions, while Forgejo Actions is designed to be familiar to GitHub Actions users but is not compatible with it. Azure Pipelines YAML does not run unchanged on either system, so each azure-pipelines.yml must be rewritten as a workflow and each task mapped to an action or script. Package publishing steps are usually the easiest part to port because they become plain commands against the new registry.

Workflow syntax: Translate stages, jobs and tasks into the workflow format of the target system, and test each one on a non-production branch.
Runners: Register runners on your own hosts with access to the new package registry and to any internal build tools.
Secrets: Recreate pipeline secrets in the forge's secret store. Values from Azure DevOps cannot be exported, so each one must be re-entered by its owner.
Package credentials: Create dedicated package tokens for the runner and rotate the Azure Artifacts credentials once no pipeline uses them.
Feed URLs: Update the same NuGet.config, .npmrc and Maven settings files that developers and runners read, as in the first tab.

Confirm which Azure Pipelines tasks have no equivalent in your target system before you commit to a date, and run both pipelines side by side for a period.

GitLab covers repositories, CI/CD and package registries in one platform, so teams often move the source, pipelines and feeds together. The GitLab CI/CD configuration lives in .gitlab-ci.yml, which is a different format from Azure Pipelines YAML and needs rewriting. GitLab's package registries are project or group scoped, so the feed structure you had in Azure Artifacts should be mapped to groups and projects before any URLs change. Repository history can be imported directly, since GitLab can import projects from Azure-hosted and other Git sources by URL, but the details of which Azure objects come across should be checked against the current import documentation.

Pipeline rewrite: Convert each pipeline into .gitlab-ci.yml, using project CI/CD variables in place of variable groups.
Feed structure: Map each Azure feed to a GitLab package registry scope, then update NuGet.config, .npmrc and Maven settings to the new URLs.
Upstream sources: Confirm whether each upstream is available as a remote proxy in the registry you plan to use, or whether a separate proxy is needed.
Credentials: Use deploy tokens or CI job tokens for package access, and plan a rotation of every Azure Artifacts credential.
Tier and limits: Check which GitLab edition covers the features your teams use, because some capabilities sit in the proprietary parts of the codebase.

Ask for the import scope in writing before migration starts, so reviews, issues and pipeline history are not assumed to move unless they are listed.

Moving feeds without breaking builds

The sequence keeps every existing build running while packages move to the new registry. Each feed is inventoried, re-published or re-mirrored, verified and then retired only after dependent pipelines have restored from the replacement.

Inventory every feed and upstream source
List each Azure Artifacts feed, its scope (organization or project), its package types (NuGet, npm, Maven, Python, Universal Packages), its upstream sources, and every pipeline, developer machine and build agent that reads or writes to it. Include the feed's retention settings and who holds publish rights. The step is done when the inventory names every consumer of every feed, and the owner of each feed has signed off on it. Confirm with your own team which feeds carry production dependencies, because those set the pace of the rest of the move.
Classify packages as re-publish or re-mirror
Split the packages in each feed into two groups. Packages you own, such as internal libraries, are re-published from source or from a verified artifact into the new registry. Packages pulled from public registries are re-mirrored through a proxy or sync configuration so the new registry fetches them from the upstream on demand. Check each package type against the plugin maturity of the target: pulp_rpm, pulp_python and pulp_container are past version 1.0, while pulp_maven, pulp_npm and pulp_gem are still 0.x. The output is a written list that records the method chosen for each package family and the reason for it.
Stand up the new registry in parallel
Deploy the target registry in your own infrastructure next to the existing feed, without changing any pipeline yet. Pulp can run as the multi-process image for a single host or as separate pulpcore-api, pulpcore-content and worker services for higher availability, with PostgreSQL as the task database. Configure storage, TLS, authentication and backup before loading any packages. The step is done when a test package can be published and pulled through the registry's own endpoints, and the restore of its database has been tested once.
Migrate packages and verify checksums
Load the re-published packages and set up the re-mirror configurations, then compare the results against the source feed. Record the package name, version and checksum on both sides for a sample of each package family and for every internal library. Confirm that the Maven deploy path, which does not use authentication and does not separate SNAPSHOT from release repositories, is either restricted by network controls or replaced by a different publishing method. The step is done when the checksums match for the sampled set and the open items have an owner and a decision.
Point builds at the new registry per pipeline
Change feed URLs and credentials one pipeline at a time, starting with a non-production branch or a low-risk project. Update the package manager configuration, such as the npm, NuGet, pip or Maven settings files, and the build agent credentials, and keep the Azure Artifacts source in place as a fallback during the pilot. Track restore times and failures in each run. The step is done when each pipeline has built and deployed successfully from the new registry at least once and the fallback is no longer used.
Verify clean restores from empty caches
Run restores on build agents and developer workstations with empty local caches so that packages must come from the new registry rather than from a warm cache. Include upstream-only packages, which should resolve through the mirror, and internal packages, which should resolve from the republished copies. Compare the resolved dependency tree with the one produced before the move. The step is done when clean restores succeed across every pipeline in the inventory and any version differences are explained and accepted.
Retire the old feed after a monitored period
Switch all remaining consumers to the new registry, make the Azure Artifacts feeds read-only, and monitor build failures and package requests for the agreed period. Export a final copy of each feed's packages and metadata before deletion, using the export path your team has confirmed with its own tooling and within the Azure DevOps API rate limits, because the researched facts do not establish a single tool that exports Azure Artifacts packages. The step is done when no consumer appears in access logs, the export archive has been checked, and the feed is deleted under a documented change record.

What the self-hosted registry costs to run

The main cost of a self-hosted registry is rarely the software, because the Pulp, Gitea and Forgejo packages are free to use. The recurring costs come from the infrastructure and people around them: compute for the pulpcore-api, pulpcore-content and pulpcore-worker processes, PostgreSQL as the task and metadata store, a Redis and Nginx layer if you use the multi-process image, and backups of the database and package storage. Object or block storage for package content is usually the line that grows fastest, because every mirrored upstream package and every cached Maven, npm or Python artifact adds to it. Ask the vendor or your platform team to size storage from your current Azure Artifacts usage report, then add headroom for upstream caching, since pull-through caches can keep more content than you publish yourself.

Some costs are one-time and others recur. One-time costs include the migration itself: exporting feeds, re-pointing .npmrc, pip.conf, Maven settings.xml and NuGet sources, changing pipeline authentication, and testing builds against the new feeds. Staff time for that work is the largest single item, and it grows with the number of feeds, pipelines and teams that depend on them. Recurring costs include patching and upgrades, which for Pulp means tracking releases such as pulpcore 3.122.2 and the separate plugin versions, since several plugins are still 0.x and may change between minor releases. Add on-call coverage for registry outages, because a stopped registry stops every build that resolves packages from it. Support contracts are optional for Pulp and Gitea, but Gitea Enterprise and other commercial support are priced by their vendors, so request those figures directly.

When you request a quote, base it on a written scope that lists the package formats in use, the number of feeds, expected storage growth, upstream sources to cache, high availability targets, backup retention, and the pipelines to migrate. Ask for each component to be priced separately: infrastructure, storage, database operations, migration work, testing, upgrade cycles and on-call support, and ask which items recur monthly or annually. Confirm plugin maturity for each format you depend on before you commit, particularly Maven, npm and Rust, because a 0.x plugin or a tech preview feature may need more testing and maintenance than a mature one. A clear scope lets you compare the self-hosted total with your current Azure Artifacts billing on equal terms.

Questions teams ask before replacing Azure Artifacts

How much effort does moving Azure Artifacts feeds to self-hosted registries take?

The effort depends mostly on how many feeds you run, which package types they hold, how many pipelines and developer machines point at them, and whether you need upstream sources. A single internal npm feed with few consumers is a small change. A set of NuGet, Maven and Python feeds with upstream sources, service connections in many pipelines and published packages that other teams depend on is a multi-week cut-over with a parallel run. No public figure for this work was supplied, so ask any provider for a breakdown by feed, package type and consumer, and confirm which Azure Artifacts storage you currently pay for before you size the target.

Can our team migrate Azure Artifacts feeds without outside help?

A team with platform engineering experience can usually do it in-house, provided it has time to test each package type. The hard parts are not the install. They are re-pointing every .npmrc, nuget.config, Maven settings.xml and pip configuration, rotating credentials, and checking that published versions and metadata behave the same way downstream. Teams that lack Kubernetes or PostgreSQL operations experience, or that must show evidence to an assessor, often choose a fixed-scope engagement for the setup and runbooks while keeping the feed content and day-to-day operations in-house.

What does the migration need from our engineering and operations staff?

Expect demand on three roles. Platform engineers install and run the registry, configure storage and backups, and set up the service that runs the upgrades. Build owners inventory the pipelines and developer setups that read each feed and test them against the new endpoints. Security or compliance staff review authentication, who may publish, and how the audit trail is kept. Ask your team to name owners for each role before the work starts, because unowned feeds are the most common source of delay in any cut-over.

Should we choose Pulp or Gitea for our package feeds?

Choose Pulp when you need a dedicated repository manager that mirrors and caches many upstream sources across formats, such as Maven, npm, Python and container images, under one API. Choose Gitea or Forgejo when your packages are a small addition to the Git hosting you are already moving, and your main formats are npm, PyPI, Maven and containers. Gitea documents support for more than 20 package registry types. Check that each format you need is available at the maturity level you accept: the Pulp maturity notes list several plugins as 0.x releases, and the Rust plugin is labeled a tech preview. Test your own NuGet and Universal Packages workflows, because neither should be assumed to match Azure Artifacts behavior.

Does upstream caching make our builds more reliable?

It can, because builds then read from a copy you control rather than calling a public registry on every run. Pulp's npm and Maven plugins both support pull-through caching, and pulp_container documents mirroring of Docker Hub and other registries, though its pull-through cache mode is a tech preview. Caching does not fix everything. A cache that is empty, misconfigured or unreachable still fails builds, and a build that resolves a new version of a dependency can change behavior. Pin versions, monitor cache health, and decide ahead of time what happens when the upstream is down.

What does a DeployOpen fixed-scope engagement cover for Azure Artifacts?

DeployOpen plans, implements, integrates, hardens, backs up, documents and supports self-hosted open-source platforms in your own cloud accounts, data centers or air-gapped networks. For this topic, a fixed-scope engagement would typically cover the feed inventory, the target registry design, installation, storage and backup setup, client configuration changes, the cut-over plan and documentation. Scope, deliverables and timelines are agreed in writing before work starts, and a quote follows from that written scope. Ongoing support and upgrades are available as a retainer. DeployOpen does not publish a price list, and it does not issue audit reports or certifications for your controls.

What should we confirm about licensing before we choose a package registry?

Confirm the license of each component you will run, and of any enterprise add-on you may need. Pulp is licensed GPLv2 or later. Gitea is MIT licensed, and CommitGo sells Gitea Enterprise, which adds features such as SAML 2.0 service provider support and audit logging. Forgejo is GPL-3.0-or-later from v9.0. Your legal team should confirm how those licenses fit your internal distribution and modification practices. Also check whether features your assessors expect, such as audit logging or SAML, are in the community edition or only in a paid tier.

Gaps to check before cutover

Before any feed moves, the first decision is which Pulp plugins are mature enough for your package types. Per the researched release data, pulp_rpm, pulp_python, pulp_container and pulp_deb are past 1.0, while pulp_maven, pulp_npm and pulp_gem are still 0.x releases, and pulp_hugging_face and pulp_ansible are also 0.x. Treat pre-1.0 plugins as a pilot-only decision: pin versions, read each plugin's release notes for breaking changes, and ask the Pulp project how it handles API changes between 0.x releases. The Rust and Cargo plugin is a tech preview whose APIs may change without notice, and its README lists authentication, authorization and full registry syncing as unsupported, so it should not hold any feed that needs access control. The Maven gap needs its own control. The pulp_maven deploy guide documents deploying projects with the Maven Deploy Plugin, but that path does not use authentication and does not distinguish SNAPSHOT from release repositories. Until you have confirmed otherwise with the maintainers, do not expose the deploy endpoint to anything beyond your build network, put it behind a reverse proxy or network policy you control, and keep the pull-through cache for Maven Central as the only read path your builds depend on. Access control parity is the other open question: Azure Artifacts feeds carry scoped roles per feed and per upstream source, and you must map each of those roles to a Pulp or Gitea permission and test them with a build identity that should be denied. Gitea's package scope is narrower in model terms. It supports more than 20 registry types, but it does not offer Azure's upstream source chaining or universal package type in the same way, so teams using Universal Packages should confirm the replacement with Gitea or use a separate Pulp repository. For the cutover, run a pilot feed with one NuGet or npm feed used by a non-critical pipeline, keep the Azure Artifacts feed read-only in parallel, and write a rollback plan that switches the package source back in the pipeline configuration and restores the previous feed credentials. Ask each vendor, and your own support contract, to confirm version support windows, licensing terms for the chosen edition, and whether the features your build identities need are covered.

How DeployOpen scopes and delivers an artifact registry replacement

DeployOpen plans, implements, integrates, hardens, backs up and documents self-hosted open-source platforms inside your own cloud accounts, data centers or air-gapped networks. For an Azure Artifacts replacement, we start from a written scope that names each feed type, upstream source and build pipeline before any migration work begins.

How we scope

Inventory every NuGet, npm, Maven, Python and Universal Packages feed, with its upstream sources and consuming pipelines.
Record which feeds need a pull-through cache and which need hosted publishing, since maturity differs by Pulp plugin.
Agree the written scope, deliverables and timeline in writing before work starts, as most engagements are fixed-scope.

How we build

Deploy Pulp or Gitea package registries in your environment, with storage, database and backup design agreed up front.
Test each package format against real build and restore paths, including authentication, since some plugins do not yet support it.
Configure service accounts, retention rules and upstream mirrors so builds resolve packages through the new registry.

How we hand over

Document feed endpoints, client configuration files and cut-over steps so build owners can verify each feed themselves.
Run a parallel period in which Azure Artifacts and the new registry both serve builds before the old feeds are retired.
Provide runbooks for restores, version upgrades and rollback, with evidence that supports your internal compliance review.

How we support

Ongoing support, upgrades and continuous testing are available as a retainer after handover.
Retainers can cover tracking of Pulp and Gitea release lines so security patches reach your registry on your schedule.
Ask us to confirm each vendor's current support window, because release lines and maintenance periods change over time.

Open-source alternative to Azure Artifacts