GitHub is the world's largest code hosting platform, used by over 100 million developers. Built on top of Git, it adds a web interface, collaboration tools, and an expanding set of developer services that have made it the central hub for both open source and private software development.
What started as a place to host Git repositories has grown into a full development platform. GitHub Actions brought CI/CD directly into the repository, eliminating the need for separate build servers for many teams. GitHub Packages handles artifact storage. GitHub Pages provides free static site hosting. And GitHub Copilot has become one of the most widely used AI coding assistants available.
For individual developers, GitHub is where you store your code, build your portfolio, and contribute to open source projects. The free tier is genuinely comprehensive — unlimited public and private repositories, Actions minutes, and access to the full collaboration feature set.
For teams, the pull request workflow is the standard way to review and merge code changes. The combination of branch protection rules, required reviews, and automated status checks from Actions creates a reliable quality gate without requiring separate tooling.
For open source maintainers, GitHub's network effects are hard to ignore. Issues, discussions, and the contributor graph are all built around the assumption that your project lives on GitHub, and the discoverability benefits of being on the platform are real.
Free tier is comprehensive for individuals and small teams. Team plan at $4/user/month adds more Actions minutes and advanced collaboration features. Enterprise plan for larger organizations with SSO and compliance requirements.