So, what's the actual real alternative ? The one that also supports open source projects ? Ironically gitlab is costlier than github, and not without their faults, but that's "maybe" the only other alternative here, anything else ?
Codeberg, Sourcehut, or self hosted Gitea.
have you read the submission? have of it is a list of alternatives
I've been running a self-hosted Forgejo. Extremely responsive and I've been really happy with it.
I just installed a gitea. It seems decent.