How it works
GitHub stores Git repositories online and wraps them in collaboration tools: pull requests for reviewing changes line by line, issues and project boards for planning, and discussions and wikis for documentation. Most open-source software lives there, which makes it the default place developers look for code, report bugs and contribute fixes.
Around that core sit many services: GitHub Actions for CI/CD, GitHub Pages for static sites, Packages for private package and container registries, Dependabot for dependency updates, Codespaces for cloud development environments and Copilot for AI coding help. Microsoft has owned GitHub since 2018. GitLab and Bitbucket offer similar features, and GitLab can also run on your own servers.
GitHub pros and cons
Pros
- Unlimited free public and private repositories
- Pull requests, reviews, issues and CI in one place
- Home of most open-source projects and developer profiles
- Large marketplace of Actions and integrations
Cons
- Advanced security and compliance features cost extra per user
- An outage stalls reviews and deploys for everyone who depends on it
- Issues, pull requests and workflows do not move easily to another host
When to use GitHub
Pick it when
- Almost any team or solo project that wants hosted Git
- Open-source work, where contributors already have accounts
- You want code, reviews and CI/CD without running servers
Skip it when
- Code must stay on your own servers (GitLab self-managed or GitHub Enterprise Server)
GitHub pricing
Free tier
Free plan with unlimited public and private repositories. Team about $4 and Enterprise from about $21 per user a month (listed as introductory first-year prices).
GitHub pricing page (opens in a new tab)Approximate, checked September 2026.What the other tools cost
GitHub vs the alternatives
Related terms
More in Dev workflow and DevOps
Code and collaboration