Gitea is not fundamentally different than Forgejo, Forgejo is just a better fork of it. Better in terms of: more contributors, more users, dogfooding (Gitea is built on Github 🤦).
But yes, GitLab is like the Mac of Git forges: everything is included, doing everything their own way, vendor lock, very expensive. There is a community edition but serious users will run into its limitations and it does not integrate neatly with external solutions.
Forgejo is IMO the Linux of Git forges: low on resources, expandable, hackable, stable.
Standing in line to eat the same food, giving your all to protect/help your comrades when they are vulnerable and can't fight for themselves, uniforms, sacrificing your individuality for the greater good.
Every Army ever is communism.