GitHub is Microsoft's hosted Git platform: free for unlimited public and private repositories, with Team at $4/user/month and Enterprise from $21/user/month adding governance and higher CI/CD limits. Copilot (AI coding assistance) is priced separately, with a free tier of 2,000 completions/month. Pick it for the largest integration ecosystem and hosted convenience; pick self-hosting when you want your repositories on your own infrastructure.
Other good fits
Anyone who wants free, unlimited public and private repositories with no server to maintain.
+ Pros
Read pros
GitHub is a hosted Git platform: unlimited public and private repositories on the free plan, plus issues, pull requests, Actions (CI/CD), Packages and the largest ecosystem of third-party integrations and bots built around any Git host. Higher tiers add team features (Codespaces, more CI/CD minutes) and enterprise governance (SSO, audit logging, advanced security).
Pick it when…
You want the widest available ecosystem of integrations, CI services and community tooling around your repositories.
You'd rather not run and maintain your own Git server at all.
You want free, unlimited private repositories to start, with a clear upgrade path as a team grows.
− Cons
Read cons
Repositories live on GitHub's infrastructure, not your own; if data residency or full infrastructure control matters, that's a real trade-off against a self-hosted alternative. Per-seat pricing on Team and Enterprise scales with headcount, which can get expensive for a larger team compared to a self-hosted option's flat server cost.
Pick something else when…
You want your repositories on infrastructure you control.Gitea gives you that, self-hosted, with no per-user fee on the free Community edition.
You're managing Docker Compose stacks, not Git repositories.Dockge is a different tool for that specific job.
Your organisation needs a specific data-residency guarantee GitHub's plans don't offer at your budget. A self-hosted Git service resolves that directly.
Avoid if
Per-seat pricing on Team or Enterprise doesn't fit your budget for a larger team; a self-hosted option avoids that scaling cost.
Workflow
Create a free account and a repository → use Actions for CI/CD on pull requests → invite collaborators (free for unlimited repositories, but Team/Enterprise adds per-seat features) → adopt Copilot separately if you want AI coding assistance, since it's billed apart from the core plan → move to Team or Enterprise once you need Codespaces, higher CI/CD minutes, or governance features like SSO.
GitHub Copilot (AI code completion and chat) is priced separately from these plans, with a free tier covering up to 2,000 completions a month; paid Copilot tiers cost more and aren't detailed on the core pricing page, so check Copilot's own pricing before assuming it's bundled in. There's nothing to install for the hosted service itself; the ongoing cost is per-seat pricing as a team grows past the free tier.
Restrictions
CI/CD minutes and package storage are capped per plan; heavy CI usage on the free tier can hit the 2,000-minute monthly limit faster than expected. Copilot pricing and features sit outside the core repository-hosting plans and need separate evaluation.
First project
Documentation-based suggestion — not run here.
Create a free repository for a small, real (or made-up) project, open a pull request against it from a second branch, and set up one simple GitHub Actions workflow that runs a check (like a linter) automatically on that pull request.
Done when the Actions workflow runs automatically on your pull request and you've reviewed and merged the change through GitHub's interface.
Links & evidence
Documentation-based · not hands-on · Sep 23, 2026
Rests on GitHub's pricing page, read on 2026-09-23. No GitHub repository was created for this review; current paid Copilot tier prices were not fully detailed on the pricing page checked and should be confirmed separately.
GitHub pricing · Sep 23, 2026 — Free, Team $4/user/month, Enterprise from $21/user/month; Copilot priced separately with a free 2,000-completion tier.
Host code, reviews, issues, CI workflows, and browser-based development.
Use pull-request automation and integrations for collaborative projects.
Choose it when existing ecosystem connections outweigh self-hosting needs.
GitHub (Microsoft) · free-tier · cloud
code hosting
pull request automation
issue tracking
ci cd pipelines
cloud development environment
repository collaboration
self-hosted enterprise
write-code
automate
build-app
templates
View sourced imagePublic GitHub repository interface using GitHub's own documentation repository.
GitHub official product documentation
Owner-requested editorial use of public official interface screenshots, 15 September 2026. Copyright retained by the original publisher; attribution preserved. No open licence or hands-on course execution is asserted. Source asset: https://github.com/github/docs. PNG conversion preserves the complete frame. Converted on 15 October 2026 to a WebP (quality 80) for faster page loads; the original image remains in the media library.
