# Source control hosting for small business buyers: what AI models recommend, November 2026

Gane Index, November 2026 Edition. Asked as "source control hosting platform" and as "Git hosting service", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of a small B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/developer/source-control-hosting/smb

**Standing:** GitHub leads with 86% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 57 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [GitHub](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/github/index.md) | 86% | 12% | 85 |
| 2 | [GitLab](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/gitlab/index.md) | 11% | 14% | 80 |
| 3 | [Bitbucket](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/bitbucket/index.md) | 2% | 14% | 78 |
| 5 | [Azure DevOps](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/azure-devops/index.md) | 0% | 17% | 29 |
| 6 | [Gitea](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/gitea/index.md) | 0% | 27% | 30 |
| 7 | [Forgejo](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/forgejo/index.md) | 0% | 28% | 18 |
| 9 | [Codeberg](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/codeberg/index.md) | 0% | 17% | 12 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 40 products named; products with the same share are tied, and the order among them carries no meaning. The table lists those with at least 10 labels.

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: GitHub; alternatives Bitbucket, GitLab
- GPT-5.4 mini: GitHub; alternatives Bitbucket, GitLab
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: GitHub; alternatives Azure Repos, GitLab
- Perplexity Sonar: GitHub; alternatives Azure Repos, Bitbucket, GitLab
- Grok 4.20: GitHub; alternatives Azure DevOps, Bitbucket, GitLab
- Mistral Small: GitHub; alternatives Bitbucket, GitLab
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: GitHub; alternatives Bitbucket, GitLab
- Llama 4 Maverick: GitHub; alternatives Assembla, Bitbucket, GitLab
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: GitHub; alternatives Bitbucket, GitLab
- Kimi K2: GitHub; alternatives Bitbucket, GitLab
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Bitbucket, GitHub; alternatives Forgejo, GitLab, Gitea
- MiniMax M2.5: GitHub; alternatives Bitbucket, GitLab
- GPT-6 Luna: GitHub; alternatives Bitbucket, GitLab
- Muse Glimmer 30B: GitHub; alternatives Bitbucket, GitLab

## Sources the answers cite

67 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- g2.com: 32 answers, 40 citations
- github.com: 30 answers, 50 citations
- toolradar.com: 24 answers, 42 citations
- bitbucket.org: 22 answers, 25 citations
- guptadeepak.com: 16 answers, 16 citations
- docs.github.com: 15 answers, 25 citations
- about.gitlab.com: 14 answers, 17 citations
- en.wikipedia.org: 14 answers, 14 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://g2.com/categories/version-control-hosting/small-business (30 answers)
- https://github.com/pricing (21 answers)
- https://toolradar.com/best/version-control (21 answers)
- https://guptadeepak.com/tools/top-5-git-hosting-platforms-2026 (16 answers)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_source-code-hosting_facilities (14 answers)
- https://bitbucket.org/product/code-repository (13 answers)
- https://buildd.co/p/GitHub-GitLab-Bitbucket (10 answers)
- https://hiraditya.github.io/posts/where-should-your-code-live (10 answers)
- https://about.gitlab.com/pricing (9 answers)
- https://toolradar.com/guides/best-version-control-tools (9 answers)

## Warned against

- GitLab: 11 of 80 labels negative. "not recommended for budget-conscious small teams scaling past 5 users" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, budget prompt)
- GitHub: 10 of 85 labels negative. "GitHub Free for organizations if you need organization-wide administration, SSO, or stronger support: private repositories are available, but some organization features require a paid plan." (GPT-6 Luna, negative prompt)
- Bitbucket: 11 of 78 labels negative. "Atlassian stopped selling new Data Center subscriptions to new customers on March 30, 2026... not a straightforward choice for a new business setup." (GPT-6 Luna, negative prompt)
- SourceForge: 6 of 6 labels negative. "Why avoid: SourceForge is historically designed for hosting open-source software distribution downloads" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt)

## Movement since October 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: GitHub at 86%.

- GitHub: 72% to 86%, +14. Cleared the floor by 3 points · rank 1 of 40, unchanged.
- Bitbucket: 12% to 2%, −10. Inside the floor by 1 point · rank 3 of 40, unchanged.
- GitLab: 12% to 11%, −1. Inside the floor by 10 points · rank 2 of 40, unchanged.
- Azure DevOps: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 6 → 5 of 40.
- Gitea: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 5 → 6 of 40.
- Forgejo: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 7 of 40, unchanged.
- Codeberg: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 8 → 9 of 40.
- AWS CodeCommit: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 22 → 39 of 40.

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, November 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/it.