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GitHub

The largest Git host: repositories, pull requests, code review, issues and packages in one web service, owned by Microsoft since 2018 and used by more than 180 million developers.

What it is
Version control
Used for
Issue tracking
Type
Commercial product
Made by
GitHub (Microsoft)
License
Proprietary (the gh CLI is MIT)
Facts checked
20 October 2026
Website

What it is

GitHub stores ordinary Git repositories and adds a web service around them. You push branches over HTTPS or SSH; on GitHub’s side a replication system called Spokes keeps at least three copies of every repository, in different racks, and accepts a write only when a majority of the copies apply it and get the same result. Everything that isn’t Git data (users, issues, pull requests, reviews, permissions) lives in the application, which GitHub describes as a Ruby on Rails monolith of nearly two million lines that more than 1,000 engineers work on.

The center of the workflow is the pull request: a page that proposes merging one branch into another, shows the diff and the commits, and holds the discussion. Open-source projects usually take changes from forks, so anyone can contribute without write access; teams usually branch inside one shared repository. Reviewers comment on lines, approve or request changes, and a CODEOWNERS file requests reviews from the people who own the files touched. Branch protection can require approvals and passing checks before a merge, and a merge queue tests each pull request together with the ones queued ahead of it so the main branch stays green. CI runs in GitHub Actions, which has its own page.

It comes in three forms: github.com, GitHub Enterprise Cloud (with an option to keep data in a chosen region), and GitHub Enterprise Server, a version you run yourself; the latest is 3.22, released September 8, 2026. Its Octoverse 2025 report counted more than 180 million developers, 630 million repositories and 43.2 million pull requests merged a month. GitHub is moving out of its own data centers into Microsoft Azure: by October 7, 2026, 120 of its 160 production services ran in Azure’s Central US region, and 13 of its 51 primary MySQL databases had moved.

Why teams pick it

  • Where the developers already are: more than 180 million accounts, so contributors, integrations and hiring pipelines all assume it
  • Free for core use: unlimited public and private repositories, and 2,000 Actions minutes a month on the Free plan
  • Mature review tools: line comments, required approvals, code owners, protected branches and a merge queue
  • One CLI, gh, scripts the whole workflow, from creating a pull request to reviewing and merging it

Watch out for

  • Rules such as required reviewers, protected branches and code owners on private repositories need a paid plan (Pro, Team or Enterprise)
  • Git isn’t for big binaries: files over 100 MiB are rejected without Git LFS, and repositories should stay under 1 GB, and strongly under 5 GB
  • Closed source and owned by Microsoft, whose CoreAI organization it reports to since 2025; only Enterprise Server runs on your own machines
  • Reliability has suffered during the 2026 Azure migration: GitHub reported nine incidents in May 2026 and missed its September 30 migration target

Alternatives

What all version control have in common →Compare side by side →
GitLabCommercialA Git forge sold as one application for the whole software lifecycle, from issues and merge requests to built-in CI/CD, packages and security scanning, that you can use on GitLab.com or run yourself.BitbucketCommercialAtlassian’s Git host, built to sit next to Jira: pull requests, code review and Bitbucket Pipelines CI, as the Bitbucket Cloud service or the self-managed Bitbucket Data Center.GiteaOpen sourceA lightweight, self-hosted Git forge in one Go program: repositories, pull requests, issues, a package registry and GitHub Actions-style CI, under the MIT license.ForgejoOpen sourceA self-hosted Git forge, like a small GitHub you run yourself: repositories, pull requests, issues, a package registry and built-in CI in one Go program, developed by a community under the non-profit Codeberg e.V. as a hard fork of Gitea.CodebergCommercialA public, non-profit Git forge for free and open-source projects, run on Forgejo by Codeberg e.V., a member-owned association in Berlin: repositories, issues, pull requests, CI, static pages and translations without a company behind them.RadicleOpen sourceA peer-to-peer code forge built on Git: every user runs a node that stores and shares repositories, and issues, patches and reviews travel inside the repository as signed Git objects, with no central server.

How it fits with other technologies

A pull request from the terminal with the GitHub CLI · bash

git switch -c fix-login-timeout
git commit -am "Extend login session timeout to 30 minutes"

gh pr create --fill --reviewer monalisa   # push the branch and open a pull request
gh pr checks                               # status of the required checks

gh pr review 123 --approve                 # a reviewer approves
gh pr merge 123 --auto --squash --delete-branch
# --auto waits for the requirements, or joins the merge queue if the branch has one

See it in a real stack

No architecture uses GitHub yet. Drop it into the playground and wire it up yourself.Open playground →
Where it came from2007–2026

In October 2007 Tom Preston-Werner pitched Chris Wanstrath a hub where programmers could share Git repositories, built on Grit, a Ruby library for reading Git repositories he had just started. The first commit to GitHub was on October 19, 2007; PJ Hyett joined in February 2008, a private beta ran from January, and GitHub opened to the public on April 10, 2008, with no outside investment. Pull requests shipped in February 2008 as little more than a message asking someone to pull from your fork.

In August 2010 “Pull Requests 2.0” turned them into the review tool that defines GitHub: a living discussion with the commits, the diff and the comments on one page, with its own URL. By then users had sent 200,000 pull requests. GitHub became the default home of open-source code, and in June 2018 Microsoft agreed to buy it for $7.5 billion in stock, when it had more than 28 million developers. The deal closed on October 26, 2018, with Nat Friedman as CEO and a promise that GitHub would operate independently.

Under Microsoft, GitHub made private repositories free in January 2019 and all core features free for teams in April 2020. In August 2025 CEO Thomas Dohmke announced he was leaving to become a founder again, and GitHub’s leadership moved into Microsoft’s CoreAI organization. Its biggest engineering project since then is leaving its own data centers for Azure, which GitHub’s monthly availability reports track in public.

Why it’s built this way

Build on Git instead of a new version control system
The founders wanted a place to share Git repositories, and GitHub grew out of Grit, a Ruby library for reading them. Every repository on GitHub is a plain Git repository, so leaving means only a git clone; the lock-in is in issues, reviews and workflows, not the code.
Make the pull request a conversation
Git’s own way to ask for a merge was an email. Pull Requests 2.0 put the commits, the diff and the discussion on one page with a URL, archived and searchable, which is now how most teams review code.
Fork and pull for open source
Anyone can fork a public repository and propose changes from the copy without being granted write access, which lowers the barrier for new contributors. Teams on private code mostly branch in one shared repository instead.
Free public code, then free private code
From launch GitHub was free for public projects and charged for private ones. In 2019 it made private repositories free for individuals, and in 2020 for teams, cutting the Team plan from $9 to $4 per user and charging for advanced features and Enterprise instead.

Timeline

  1. 2007

    First commit on October 19

  2. 2008

    Pull requests in February; public launch on April 10

  3. 2010

    Pull Requests 2.0 turns them into discussions with diffs (August 31)

  4. 2018

    Microsoft agrees to buy GitHub for $7.5 billion (June 4); the deal closes October 26

  5. 2020

    Private repositories with unlimited collaborators free for everyone (April 14)

  6. 2025

    Thomas Dohmke steps down and GitHub joins Microsoft’s CoreAI (August); Octoverse counts 180 million developers (October)

  7. 2026

    120 of 160 production services running in Azure, with the migration behind schedule (October report)

Sources21 · facts checked 20 October 2026

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