I just half went down this rabbit hole, I’m thinking forgejo is the best option (for me) because:

• they dogfood (they actually use their own product, on the other hand gitea uses github and github actions). This makes me feel more confident in forgejo.
• is not “owned” by a for-profit entity that could change course in the future, creating a big hassle for me down the line if I need to swap to something else for whatever enshitified reason (since forgejo is no longer compatible with gitea).
• forgejo seems to be more at-the-ready for finding and fixing security vulnerabilities in their own app (as proclaimed on their site).
• future possibility for federation (gitea is not planning this according to forgejo site).

Forgejo explaining the differences: forgejo.org/compare-to-gitea/