diff --git a/.forgejo/workflows/integration.yml b/.forgejo/workflows/integration.yml
index 1558dc2..d2768ad 100644
--- a/.forgejo/workflows/integration.yml
+++ b/.forgejo/workflows/integration.yml
@@ -31,3 +31,39 @@ jobs:
           forgejo-test-helper.sh run_workflow testdata/demo $url root demo setup-forgejo $token
           echo "============================ IPv6 ==================="
           forgejo-test-helper.sh run_workflow testdata/ipv6 $url root ipv6 setup-forgejo $token
+
+  binary:
+    runs-on: self-hosted
+    strategy:
+      matrix:
+        - binary: https://codeberg.org/forgejo/forgejo/releases/download/v1.21.2-1/forgejo-1.21.2-1-linux-amd64
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+      - shell: bash
+        run: |
+          set -x
+          export DIR=$(mktemp -d)
+          export PATH=$(pwd):$PATH
+          LXC_IP_PREFIX=10.0.10 forgejo-dependencies.sh
+
+          forgejo-binary.sh ensure_user forgejo
+          chown forgejo $DIR /usr/local/bin
+          su -c "DIR=$DIR bash -x forgejo-binary.sh setup root admin1234 ${{ matrix.binary }}" forgejo
+
+          su -c "DIR=$DIR bash -x forgejo-runner.sh setup" forgejo
+          export FORGEJO_RUNNER_LOGS=$DIR/forgejo-runner.log
+          url=$(cat $DIR/forgejo-auth-url)
+          token=$(cat $DIR/forgejo-token)
+
+          echo "============================ demo ==================="
+          FORGEJO_RUNNER_DIR=$DIR forgejo-test-helper.sh run_workflow testdata/demo $url root demo setup-forgejo $token
+
+          su -c "DIR=$DIR forgejo-binary.sh teardown" forgejo
+
+          echo "============================ verify zip downloading ==================="
+          export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
+          apt -q install -qq -y zip
+          mv $DIR/forgejo /tmp/forgejo
+          ( cd /tmp ; zip forgejo.zip forgejo )
+          forgejo-binary.sh download file:///tmp/forgejo.zip
+          cmp --quiet /tmp/forgejo $DIR/forgejo
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 40b7c3a..a70cb03 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -5,6 +5,12 @@
 
 Setup Forgejo and a runner.
 
+If `binary` is specified, Forgejo downloads the binary from the URL and uses
+it to start an instance.
+
+Otherwise, `image` and `image-version` must be specified and Forgejo
+runs from the corresponding container image using docker.
+
 The forgejo-test-helper.sh script is available to help test and debug actions.
 
 `forgejo=http://root:admin1234@${{ steps.forgejo.outputs.host-port }}`
@@ -40,10 +46,11 @@ that [provides a LXC container](https://forgejo.org/docs/next/user/actions/#jobs
 | --- | --- | --- | --- |
 | image | Container image | `false` | codeberg.org/forgejo/forgejo |
 | image-version | Container image version | `false` | 1.20 |
+| binary | URL to a Forgejo binary | `false` |  |
 | user | Administrator user name | `false` | root |
 | password | Administrator password | `false` | admin1234 |
 | runner | Runner repository | `false` | https://code.forgejo.org/forgejo/runner |
-| runner-version | Runner version. If it starts with @ (for instance @featurebranch), the runner will be built from source using the specified branch. | `false` | v3.0.1 |
+| runner-version | Runner version. If it starts with @ (for instance @featurebranch), the runner will be built from source using the specified branch. | `false` | v3.3.0 |
 | container | Name of the container running the Forgejo instance | `false` | forgejo |
 | lxc-ip-prefix | Class C IP prefix used by LXC | `false` | 10.0.23 |
 | install-only | Only install Forgejo and the Forgejo runner, do not launch them | `false` | false |
diff --git a/action.yml b/action.yml
index 2b7df44..44e27e3 100644
--- a/action.yml
+++ b/action.yml
@@ -4,6 +4,12 @@ author: 'Forgejo authors'
 description: |
   Setup Forgejo and a runner.
 
+  If `binary` is specified, Forgejo downloads the binary from the URL and uses
+  it to start an instance.
+
+  Otherwise, `image` and `image-version` must be specified and Forgejo
+  runs from the corresponding container image using docker.
+
   The forgejo-test-helper.sh script is available to help test and debug actions.
 
   `forgejo=http://root:admin1234@${{ steps.forgejo.outputs.host-port }}`
@@ -35,6 +41,8 @@ inputs:
   image-version:
     description: 'Container image version'
     default: '1.20'
+  binary:
+    description: 'URL to a Forgejo binary'
   user:
     description: 'Administrator user name'
     default: 'root'
@@ -88,10 +96,17 @@ runs:
           echo "install-only is true, do not run Forgejo"
           exit 0
         fi
-        export CONTAINER=${{ inputs.container }}
-        forgejo.sh setup ${{ inputs.user }} "${{ inputs.password }}" ${{ inputs.image }} ${{ inputs.image-version }}
-        forgejo-runner.sh setup ${{ inputs.runner }} ${{ inputs.runner-version }} http://$(cat forgejo-ip):3000/
-        echo url="http://$(cat forgejo-ip):3000" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
+        if test "${{ inputs.binary }}"; then
+          forgejo-binary.sh ensure_user forgejo
+          chown forgejo $(pwd) /usr/local/bin
+          su -c "DIR=$(pwd) forgejo-binary.sh setup ${{ inputs.user }} ${{ inputs.password }} ${{ inputs.binary }}" forgejo
+          su -c "DIR=$(pwd) forgejo-runner.sh setup ${{ inputs.runner }} ${{ inputs.runner-version }} $(cat forgejo-url)" forgejo
+        else
+          export CONTAINER=${{ inputs.container }}
+          forgejo.sh setup ${{ inputs.user }} "${{ inputs.password }}" ${{ inputs.image }} ${{ inputs.image-version }}
+          forgejo-runner.sh setup ${{ inputs.runner }} ${{ inputs.runner-version }} $(cat forgejo-url)
+        fi
+        echo url="$(cat forgejo-url)" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
         echo host-port="$(cat forgejo-ip):3000" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
         echo token=$(cat forgejo-token) >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
         echo runner-logs="$(pwd)/forgejo-runner.log" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
diff --git a/forgejo-binary-app.ini b/forgejo-binary-app.ini
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b2a6922
--- /dev/null
+++ b/forgejo-binary-app.ini
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+RUN_MODE = prod
+WORK_PATH = ${WORK_PATH}
+
+[server]
+APP_DATA_PATH = ${WORK_PATH}/data
+HTTP_PORT = 3000
+LFS_START_SERVER = true
+
+[database]
+DB_TYPE = sqlite3
+PATH = ${WORK_PATH}/forgejo.db
+
+[log]
+MODE = file
+LEVEL = trace
+ROUTER = file
+
+[log.file]
+FILE_NAME = forgejo.log
+
+[security]
+INSTALL_LOCK = true
+
+[repository]
+ENABLE_PUSH_CREATE_USER = true
+DEFAULT_PUSH_CREATE_PRIVATE = false
+DEFAULT_REPO_UNITS = repo.code,repo.releases,repo.issues,repo.pulls,repo.wiki,repo.projects,repo.packages,repo.actions
+
+[actions]
+ENABLED = true
+
+[queue]
+TYPE = immediate
+
+[queue.code_indexer]
+TYPE = immediate
+
+[queue.push_update]
+TYPE = immediate
diff --git a/forgejo-binary.sh b/forgejo-binary.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..e667c48
--- /dev/null
+++ b/forgejo-binary.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,121 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
+
+set -e
+
+SELF_DIR="$( cd "$( dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )" && pwd )"
+source $SELF_DIR/forgejo-lib.sh
+
+: ${DIR:=/tmp/forgejo-binary}
+
+if ${VERBOSE:-false}; then set -x; fi
+
+function maybe_sudo() {
+    if test $(id -u) != 0 ; then
+        SUDO=sudo
+    fi
+}
+
+function ensure_user() {
+    local user=$1
+
+    dependencies
+    adduser --quiet --comment $user --disabled-password $user
+    adduser $user sudo
+    adduser $user docker
+    sed -i -e 's/^%sudo.*/%sudo ALL=(ALL:ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL/' /etc/sudoers
+}
+
+function dependencies() {
+    maybe_sudo
+    if ! which sudo curl daemon jq git-lfs ip sqlite3 envsubst unzip  > /dev/null ; then
+        $SUDO apt-get update -qq
+        $SUDO apt-get -q install -y -qq sudo curl daemon jq git-lfs iproute2 sqlite3 gettext-base unzip
+    fi
+}
+
+function cleanup_logs() {
+    local work_path=$DIR/forgejo-work-path
+
+    rm -f $DIR/*.log
+    rm -f $work_path/log/*.log
+}
+
+function download() {
+    local url="$1"
+
+    if ! test -f $DIR/forgejo ; then
+	curl -sS $url > $DIR/forgejo.tmp
+	if file $DIR/forgejo.tmp | grep --quiet 'Zip archive' ; then
+	    unzip $DIR/forgejo.tmp -d $DIR
+	    rm -f $DIR/forgejo.tmp
+	else
+	    mv $DIR/forgejo.tmp $DIR/forgejo
+	fi
+        chmod +x $DIR/forgejo
+    fi
+    echo $DIR/forgejo --version
+    $DIR/forgejo --version
+}
+
+function create_user() {
+    local user="$1"
+    local password="$2"
+    local work_path=$DIR/forgejo-work-path
+
+    if test -f $work_path/forgejo-token; then
+        return
+    fi
+
+    $DIR/forgejocli admin user create --admin --username "$user" --password "$password" --email "$user@example.com"
+    $DIR/forgejocli admin user generate-access-token -u "$user" --raw --scopes all > $DIR/forgejo-token
+    export DOT=$DIR
+    local url="http://$(cat $DIR/forgejo-ip):3000"
+    echo "$url" > $DIR/forgejo-url
+    echo "http://${user}:${password}@$(cat $DIR/forgejo-ip):3000" > $DIR/forgejo-auth-url
+    retry forgejo-curl.sh --user "$user" --password "$password" --token @$DIR/forgejo-token login "$url"
+    echo forgejo-curl.sh api_json $url/api/forgejo/v1/version
+    forgejo-curl.sh api_json $url/api/forgejo/v1/version
+}
+
+function start_forgejo() {
+    local work_path=$DIR/forgejo-work-path
+    daemon --chdir=$DIR --unsafe --env="TERM=$TERM" --env="HOME=$HOME" --env="PATH=$PATH" --pidfile=$DIR/forgejo-pid --errlog=$DIR/forgejo-err.log --output=$DIR/forgejo-out.log -- $DIR/forgejo --config $work_path/app.ini --work-path $work_path
+    if ! retry grep 'Starting server on' $work_path/log/forgejo.log ; then
+        cat $DIR/*.log
+        cat $work_path/log/*.log
+        return 1
+    fi
+    echo "$DIR/forgejo --config $work_path/app.ini --work-path $work_path" '"$@"' > $DIR/forgejocli
+    chmod +x $DIR/forgejocli
+    hostname -I | cut -f1 -d' ' > $DIR/forgejo-ip
+}
+
+function reset_forgejo() {
+    local config=$1
+    local work_path=$DIR/forgejo-work-path
+    rm -fr $work_path
+    mkdir -p $work_path
+    WORK_PATH=$work_path envsubst < $SELF_DIR/$config-app.ini > $work_path/app.ini
+}
+
+function teardown() {
+    stop_daemon forgejo $DIR
+    cleanup_logs
+}
+
+function setup() {
+    local user="${1:-root}"
+    local password="${2:-admin1234}"
+    local url="${3:-https://codeberg.org/forgejo/forgejo/releases/download/v1.21.2-1/forgejo-1.21.2-1-linux-amd64}"
+
+    dependencies
+    download "$url"
+    reset_forgejo forgejo-binary
+    start_forgejo
+    create_user "$user" "$password"
+}
+
+mkdir -p $DIR
+
+"$@"