The archive · Developer & Business Tools · Product decision · 2026
Pushin.eu bets EU devs will move Git hosting that never leaves Europe
Solo Dutch developer Peter Ullrich's EU-only Git host drew 306 HN points in a day, betting sovereignty and no-AI-training can lure code away from GitHub.
Pushin.eu
What the business is
Pushin.eu is an EU-only Git hosting platform started by Dutch developer Peter Ullrich in April 2026: public and private repositories run on bare-metal servers in Scaleway's Paris datacenter, with a GitHub-compatible REST API, a pun CLI, full-history imports from GitHub, invite-only beta, and plans to charge subscription prices comparable to GitHub and GitLab once generally available in early 2027.
How it started
Ullrich is a roughly ten-year software developer based in Leiden, Netherlands, with earlier products (Letter to Yourself, Indie Courses) and security work with the Erlang Ecosystem Foundation — he says he ranks around 108th globally in reported CVEs. He began building Pushin.eu in April 2026 and launched the beta in early September 2026.
What happened
The launch page states five values: no US kill-switch (only European law), slop blocked, built for humans rather than AI features, always online, and no model training on customer code. GitHub imports preserve full history, issues and pull requests and run on the user's machine so the GitHub token never leaves it; one-way mirrors let users try Pushin.eu without leaving GitHub. The team publishes its missing-features list (Git LFS, webhooks, releases, code search and more) instead of hiding it, and plans vouching-based reputation signals to assess low-quality contributions.
How it ended up
As of 2026-09-06 Pushin.eu is in invite-only beta, free for public and private repositories, with paid subscriptions and general availability planned for early 2027. No user counts, revenue or funding have been disclosed.
Background
Pushin.eu is a European Git hosting platform that developer Peter Ullrich started building in April 2026 from Leiden, the Netherlands. Its one-sentence pitch — 'Git hosting that never leaves Europe' — went to the top of Hacker News on 2026-09-05, drawing 306 points and 150 comments in its first day, and coverage in several languages within 48 hours. Ullrich is a roughly ten-year software veteran whose prior projects include Letter to Yourself and Indie Courses, and who does security work with the Erlang Ecosystem Foundation.
The product hosts public and private repositories on bare-metal servers in Scaleway's Paris datacenter — infrastructure owned by a French company with no US parent, which the founder argues removes the CLOUD Act exposure a Microsoft-owned GitHub carries. The launch page's five values are no US kill-switch, slop blocked, built for humans, always online, and no model training on customer code, with invite-only registration and a planned vouching system as the anti-slop mechanics.
Migration is the conversion tool: a pun CLI import pulls full git history, issues and pull requests from GitHub, running on the user's machine so their GitHub token never leaves it, while one-way mirrors let developers try the platform without leaving GitHub. The REST API mirrors GitHub's request and response shapes so existing scripts need only a new base URL, and the company openly lists missing features — Git LFS, webhooks, releases, org-wide search — rather than claiming parity it does not have.
Pushin.eu is free during the invite-only beta for public and private repositories, with paid subscriptions comparable to GitHub and GitLab planned when it becomes generally available in early 2027. It launched into a moment when European institutions are pushing sovereign cloud: the EU Commission's 180-million-euro Cloud III award in April 2026, the CADA data package presented in May 2026, and a Dutch veto of the Solvinity-Kyndryl acquisition all turned 'where does the code live' into a procurement variable.
What has to be true
- The CLOUD Act reaches US-owned companies regardless of server location, so only European ownership of the whole stack removes that legal surface — hence Scaleway's French-owned Paris bare metal.
- GitHub's AI-training stance and slop-saturated open-source contributions create demand for a host that promises neither, differentiating Pushin.eu without matching GitHub's feature list.
- EU policy momentum — Cloud III, the CADA package and sovereignty vetoes — is turning data residency into a procurement requirement rather than a niche preference.
- Full-history, local-run imports plus mirrors lower switching costs, letting an invite-only beta convert curiosity into migration without asking users to leave GitHub first.
What can be applied
Sell jurisdiction, not features: a solo EU host can win attention by promising data residency and no AI training where GitHub won't, but must convert that buzz before the feature gap closes.
Aftermath
As of 2026-09-06 Pushin.eu is days past its launch: invite-only beta, free for public and private repos, with general availability and paid plans targeted at early 2027. No user, revenue or funding figures are disclosed, and skeptics on HN noted the absence of company details, legal pages and a privacy policy at launch. The bet is unproven: GitHub remains the default, the platform starts without Git LFS, webhooks, releases and other features serious teams need, and a one-person operation must earn trust that its sovereignty and no-training promises outlast commercial pressure.
Sources
- Git hosting that never leaves Europe (306 points, 150 comments)
- Pushin.eu: Git hosting 100% en la UE sobre Scaleway
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