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Source-backed analysis12

Review basis

The AppDuo team prepared this review by analysing product features, official documentation and user feedback to help you understand its strengths, limitations and suitability for your needs.

12 reference sources

Information updated Nov 10, 2026

How we review
GitHub logo

GitHub Review

Code hosting, code review, CI/CD and Copilot on one platform

7.9/10

By · Updated

  • Web
  • iOS
  • Android
Freemium · $4.00/mo
Visit GitHub
Compare side by side
On this page

Decide at a glance

Our verdict

GitHub suits most individuals and teams that need code hosting, review and Actions automation: a generous Free plan, a Team plan at $4 per user per month and the largest ecosystem, used by 81.1% of respondents in the 2025 Stack Overflow survey. The trade-offs: those who want data independence or to stay outside Microsoft's ecosystem should think twice (GitHub is a Microsoft company and data may feed AI development), and Copilot plans are billed separately by usage.

Best for: Open-source projects and small teams wanting Git hosting, pull requests, issues and CI/CD in one place

Skip it if: Organisations wanting an entire self-hosted DevSecOps chain from one open-core product, where GitLab is worth a look

Pros

  • The Free plan includes unlimited public and private repositories and 2,000 Actions minutes a month
  • Huge scale: the about page cites 225M+ developers, 4M+ organizations and 800M+ repositories
  • Low-priced Team plan at $4 per user per month, with Codespaces, repository rules and code owners

Cons

  • Copilot is not part of Free or Team per the pricing page; Pro, Pro+ and Max use AI credits, which makes costs harder to predict
  • The privacy statement permits using data for product development including AI, shares it with Microsoft, and gives no concrete retention periods
All pros and cons · Who is it for?

Pros

  • Enterprise Cloud (with regional data residency) and self-hosted Enterprise Server are both available
  • The mobile app holds 4.8/5 from about 39.6K ratings on the US App Store

Cons

  • Trustpilot shows just 1.8/5 from 284 reviews (unclaimed profile, possibly unrepresentative)

Best for

  • Companies needing SSO, audit logs and a choice between Cloud and self-hosted (Enterprise Server)
  • People who want close integration with VS Code and Copilot

Skip it if

  • Users highly sensitive to Microsoft ownership or to data being used for AI development

Experience & key features

What is GitHub?

GitHub is a Git code-hosting and collaboration platform that launched publicly on 10 April 2008. Microsoft announced it would acquire it for $7.5 billion on 4 June 2018, and the deal closed on 26 October 2018. Its about page now cites 225M+ developers, 4M+ organizations and 800M+ repositories, while Wikipedia says repositories passed one billion in June 2025. On 11 August 2025 CEO Thomas Dohmke announced he would step down at the end of 2025, and GitHub became part of Microsoft's CoreAI organization.

Key features

The core is Git repositories, pull requests, issues and Projects. GitHub Actions provides CI/CD and automation (officially launched 13 November 2019), Codespaces offers cloud development environments, Dependabot updates dependencies, and Code Security and Secret Protection scan for vulnerabilities and leaked secrets. Copilot is the AI assistant and coding agent, and GitHub Marketplace lists third-party integrations. The mobile app lets you read notifications, reply to issues, and review and merge pull requests.

Pricing and value

According to the pricing page, Free is $0 with 2,000 Actions minutes and 500 MB of Packages a month; Team is $4 per user per month with 3,000 minutes and 2 GB; Enterprise is $21 per user per month with 50,000 minutes, 50 GB and Copilot included. No yearly price is shown. Per the Copilot plans page, Copilot has a Free tier (2,000 completions a month), Pro at $10, Pro+ at $39 and Max at $100 a month, with chat and agent use drawn from AI credits (1 credit = $0.01). Codespaces starts at $0.18 per compute hour.

More analysis

Who it's for and how it compares

GitHub suits most people who need code hosting, collaboration and automation, especially open-source projects. GitLab is stronger as an all-in-one, self-hostable DevSecOps platform, and Bitbucket ties closely to Atlassian's Jira. GitHub Copilot is reviewed separately on AppDuo. The points to weigh are privacy (GitHub is owned by Microsoft and data may be used for AI development) and credit-based Copilot costs.

Screenshots

Home screen of the GitHub iPhone app
Home screen of the GitHub iPhone app
Notifications inbox for issues, pull requests and discussions
Notifications inbox for issues, pull requests and discussions
Viewing and handling a pull request on the phone
Viewing and handling a pull request on the phone
Files changed tab for reviewing code changes in a pull request
Files changed tab for reviewing code changes in a pull request

Plans & pricing

Prices last verified Nov 10, 2026

Free

Free

Per the pricing page: unlimited public and private repositories, 2,000 Actions minutes a month, 500 MB of Packages storage, Dependabot, Issues and Projects, community support. Copilot is sold separately.

Team

$4/mo/user

$4 per user per month. 3,000 Actions minutes, 2 GB of Packages storage, plus Codespaces access, repository rules, draft pull requests and code owners. The pricing page shows no separate yearly price.

Enterprise

$21/mo/user

$21 per user per month. 50,000 Actions minutes, 50 GB of Packages storage, Copilot included per the pricing page; Cloud and self-hosted (Server) options, SAML SSO and a 99.9% uptime SLA for Cloud (per GitHub docs).

Free plan limits
Free includes unlimited private repositories with a limited feature set, 2,000 Actions minutes a month and 500 MB of Packages. GitHub docs also list 120 Codespaces core hours and 15 GB of storage per month for personal accounts.
Free trial
30-day free trial · no credit card
Cancellation & refunds

The pages opened do not state a refund policy. The pricing page offers a 30-day trial of Enterprise bundled with Copilot and Advanced Security.

Privacy

GitHub's General Privacy Statement (effective 27 April 2026) lists the data collected: account details, code and content you submit, device and usage data and cookies. Data may be used for product development, including AI and machine learning, and shared with affiliates such as Microsoft, service providers and authorities on lawful request. GitHub says it does not sell personal data and honours Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control signals, but its California disclosures say some categories were "shared" with advertising networks, analytics providers and social networks. On the plus side it names a DPO, a request address for access, correction, erasure and portability, and EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework certification. On the minus side, retention periods are not given as concrete figures.

Official pricing page

GitHub alternatives

GitHub logoVSGitLab logoGitHub vs GitLab
GitHub Copilot logo7.5/10

GitHub Copilot

An AI coding assistant that runs in most major IDEs and ties into GitHub

Freemium
GitLab logo7.4/10

GitLab

DevSecOps platform for source control, CI/CD and security, cloud or self-hosted

Freemium
All alternatives

Frequently asked questions

Is GitHub free?

Yes. Free includes unlimited public and private repositories, 2,000 Actions minutes and 500 MB of Packages a month. Copilot is sold separately, though a Copilot Free tier offers 2,000 completions a month.

How much does GitHub Team cost?

$4 per user per month per the pricing page, with 3,000 Actions minutes, 2 GB of Packages and Codespaces. No yearly price is shown.

Who owns GitHub?

Microsoft, after a $7.5 billion deal that closed on 26 October 2018. Per the August 2025 announcement, GitHub moved into Microsoft's CoreAI organization.

Does GitHub sell personal data?

The privacy statement says GitHub does not sell personal data, but its California disclosures say some categories were "shared" with advertising networks, analytics providers and social networks for marketing and measurement.

Can GitHub be self-hosted?

Yes, on the Enterprise plan: GitHub docs say Enterprise Server is self-hosted, while Enterprise Cloud is hosted by GitHub and supports regional data residency.

Review evidence & sources12

Scores

Ease of use
8.0
Why this score

A web UI most developers already know, a 4.8/5 mobile app on the App Store and thorough docs. Marked down because the sheer number of features (Actions, Projects, Copilot, security) can overwhelm newcomers.

Features
9.2
Why this score

Git hosting, pull requests, issues, Projects, Actions CI/CD, Codespaces, Dependabot, code security and Copilot on one platform; 81.1% of respondents in the 2025 Stack Overflow survey use GitHub, the highest among the tools compared here.

Value for money
8.6
Why this score

A generous Free plan, Team at $4 and Enterprise at $21 per user per month, with Copilot paid separately. Low against many peers, though AI and over-quota Actions costs can add up.

Performance
7.8
Why this score

Docs cite a 99.9% uptime SLA for Enterprise Cloud. Wikipedia records past incidents such as a roughly 1.35 Tbps DDoS in 2018; the status page history could not be read, so there is no recent independent incident data.

Support
7.4
Why this score

Free gets community support, Team gets email support and Enterprise gets GitHub Enterprise Support (Premium is an add-on), plus docs and training. Free accounts get little direct help.

Privacy & security
6.4
Why this score

A DPO, access, erasure and portability rights, Data Privacy Framework certification and a no-sale pledge. Marked down because data may serve AI product development, is shared with Microsoft, some categories are "shared" with ad networks per the California notice, and no concrete retention periods are given.

What users say

Sources

Specs & compatibility
Developer
GitHub, Inc. (Microsoft)
Headquarters
United States
Launched
2008
Category
Development

Capabilities

  • AI features
  • Real-time collaboration
  • Integrations
  • Mobile app
  • Self-hostable

Platforms

  • Web
  • iOS
  • Android

Interface languages

  • English
  • German
  • Japanese
  • Korean
  • Portuguese
  • Chinese
  • Spanish

Integrations

  • GitHub Actions
  • GitHub Copilot
  • Codespaces
  • Dependabot
  • GitHub Marketplace
  • Visual Studio Code

Support

  • Help center
  • Community forum
  • Email

Change history

  1. Company.CEO Thomas Dohmke announces he will step down at the end of 2025; GitHub becomes part of Microsoft's CoreAI organization. The post cites 20M+ Copilot users and 150M+ developers.
  2. Company.Thomas Dohmke is named to succeed Nat Friedman as CEO.
  3. Company.GitHub completes its acquisition of npm, the JavaScript package vendor.
Full change history (7)
  1. Feature.GitHub Actions officially launches (first announced at GitHub Universe in October 2018).
  2. Company.Microsoft's acquisition of GitHub closes.
  3. Company.Microsoft announces it will acquire GitHub for $7.5 billion.
  4. Launch.GitHub launches publicly (the company was founded as Logical Awesome LLC on 8 Feb 2008).
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