Netherlands Launches Public Git Platform to Strengthen Digital Sovereignty
In November 2025, Jan Vlug, a software engineer writing for the Dutch government’s developer portal, published a detailed assessment of which Git forge the Netherlands should adopt for hosting government source code. His analysis arrived while the Ministry of the Interior (BZK) was already preparing a dedicated Git environment, but before any platform decision had been finalized. At the time, government code was split across GitHub and GitLab, neither operated under direct public control.
GitHub was excluded early because it is proprietary software, which conflicts with the Dutch government’s policy preference for open source when comparable options exist. GitLab advanced further but was ultimately rejected due to its open‑core business model, where only the Community Edition is fully free software while key features sit behind a proprietary Enterprise tier. These factors raised concerns about long‑term dependency and compliance with public sector openness principles.
Forgejo was selected as the preferred solution. It is fully free and open source software, licensed under GPLv3+, and governed by Codeberg e.V., a nonprofit with democratic oversight. Forgejo has no enterprise edition, no proprietary add‑ons, and no built‑in vendor lock‑in, aligning closely with requirements around digital sovereignty, transparency, and public accountability.
The platform, code.overheid.nl, had a soft launch on April 24, 2026, and is operated as a self‑hosted Forgejo instance on Dutch government infrastructure managed by SSC‑ICT (DAWO). It is free for government organizations and aims to support open source development, cross‑agency collaboration, and full control over hosting and data. Although still in a pilot phase with limited access, several ministries and municipalities have already joined, and repositories from bodies such as the Electoral Council (Kiesraad) and BZK are live. The gradual rollout reflects an approach focused on building the service together with its users.
