Want to Save Thousands Every Year? Get the Lowdown on GitHub Pricing Plans

Introduction

Software is eating the world, and if the last two decades are anything to go by, legendary investor Marc Andreesen was correct in his now famous essay. But software development is a complex, cumbersome process, and inevitably tools came up to solve this.

Founded in 2008, GitHub is arguably one of the most famous. GitHub allows code developers to store, track and collaborate on software projects. It allows software developers to work together in real time, it will massively reduce the chances of getting coding errors. It really is no wonder that there are more than 100 million GitHub users in the world.

However, GitHub pricing plans can be somewhat confusing. There are several options available, and it’s not always clear which one you should choose. But don’t worry – we’re here to help. Read on to learn all there is to know about GitHub pricing, and how you can optimise your spend.

Key points

• There are three different GitHub pricing plans – GitHub Free, GitHub Team, and GitHub Enterprise.
• Is GitHub Free perfect? No, but it’s one of the best free SaaS apps out there. Because it allows you to create unlimited workspaces, you can even use this GitHub cost-free plan for business purposes.
• For bigger coding projects, you can choose between GitHub Team and GitHub Enterprise. GitHub Team pricing is very cheap, but it’s effectively an improved version of GitHub Free. On the contrary, GitHub Enterprise pricing is somewhat expensive – but it comes with lots of new features.
• If you opt for GitHub Enterprise, you’ll need to negotiate your contract with GitHub. There’ll be some wiggle room to cut prices during the negotiations, so it’s recommended practice to rely on a SaaS procurement tool to push prices down.

GitHub Pricing Plans – The Basics

If you’re used to SaaS apps, GitHub pricing plans will sound familiar. Like many other SaaS apps, GitHub charges you a fixed amount per user and per month. GitHub price also depends on the kind of billing you choose – monthly or annual.

However, this code development app differs from other SaaS tools in one thing. All GitHub pricing plans, including the free one, are completely suitable for business needs. So, how do you know which one you should go for? 

Your choice will depend on the kind of project you’re working on and the number of people in your team. There are three different GitHub pricing plans – Free, Team, and Enterprise. To help you pick the right plan, let’s delve deeper into each of them.

GitHub Free – what does it include?

The first thing you need to know about GitHub Free is that it’s not a free, limited trial. Unlike other SaaS apps, GitHub allows you to use its free version for as long as you like. If it suits your business needs, then you won’t have to pay a single cent for it. 

And that’s not where GitHub’s generosity ends. Whereas the free version of most SaaS apps is incredibly limited, GitHub Free comes chock-full of amazing features. For instance, it comes with an unlimited number of repositories, which are the cornerstone of GitHub. In a nutshell, repositories are archives of the code project you’re working on. They also include all the documentation and scripts you need to make sense of your code project.

But GitHub is much more than unlimited repositories. Free users can now access GitHub Codespaces – a cloud-hosted development environment that lets you code from any device – for 60 hours a month.

These are some of the features included in GitHub Free:

• Unlimited public and private workspaces – meaning you can manage a large number of coding projects
• Automatic security and version updates to ensure SaaS compliance
• 2,000 Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Deployment (CD) actions per month – these are custom workflows that detect errors sooner and significantly reduce the amount of code to debug when there’s an error
• 500 MB of Packages storage for private and public projects
• Flexible, tailored features
• Access to the GitHub Community Forum 
• Access to GitHub Copilot
• Access to GitHub Codespaces
• Unlimited storage 
• Limit of 10 MB per file
• Assignees and due dates
• Unlimited activity log
• 250 workspace command runs
• Phone apps – including Android and Apple
• 2FA
• Completely free.

There’s no question that this free version can be enough for freelance code devs and small coding teams. But is GitHub Free suitable for bigger projects? Not quite. Because of its small storage capacity, GitHub Free significantly narrows down the scope of the projects that you can work on.

On top of that, GitHub Free only allows you to use a limited number of Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Deployment (CD) actions. Once your actions run out, any coding errors will be ten times more time-consuming, as your devs will have to debug errors manually.

GitHub Team – what does the most popular GitHub pricing plan include?

Looking for an affordable GitHub pricing plan with a bit more oomph than its free version? Enter GitHub Team. Essentially, this pricing tier fixes the flaws of GitHub Free. Its storage capacity is increased by 4x – meaning you can manage more complex projects. And because you also get 1,000 more CI and CD minutes per month, your team will be able to code at the speed of light for longer.

GitHub Team also offers a few exclusive features that aren’t present in the free version. For instance, it allows you to create in-project pages and wikis, so your coding devs can have easy access to the project’s guidelines. Thanks to this handy detail, reviewing, drafting, and correcting mistakes all become a lot easier.

GitHub Team costs $4 per user per month if billed monthly. First-time users can get a reduced rate of $3.67 per user per month for the first 12 months if billed yearly. After that, they’ll have to pay the full rate for this GitHub premium version.

GitHub Team includes all the features in the free version, plus:

• Protected branches – meaning you’ll be able to keep sensitive information away from prying eyes
• Multiple reviewers to streamline the editing process
• Draft pull requests
• Ability to name code owners (administrators for each project)
• Required reviewers to ensure that projects are only green-lit after due review
• Pages and wikis with project guidelines
• 3,000 CI and CD minutes per month – 1,000 more than GitHub Free
• Web-based support to provide a satisfactory customer service experience to all users.

Because of how low GitHub Team pricing is, upgrading from GitHub Free is a no-brainer. After all, you basically get a lot more features for just a bit of cash. As its name suggests, GitHub Team allows you to reflect your company’s team structure with its added permissions and privacy features.

However, we can’t let a couple of cons go unmentioned. The first one is that the storage capacity in this tier is still relatively low, at only 2 GB per file. And the second one is that, with only 3,000 CI and CD minutes, GitHub Team won’t provide you with the firepower you’ll need to tackle a big project.

Luckily, GitHub plans don’t end with Team. 

GitHub Enterprise – what does it include?

Need to bring out the big guns for a make-or-break coding project? In that case, GitHub Enterprise is the one to go for. At 50 GB per file, GitHub’s calling card is its improved storage capacity. No coding project is too big for it. On top of that, the last of GitHub’s plans comes with a whopping 50,000 CI and CD minutes per month. You’ll never run out of automated actions with this GitHub premium feature included in the Enterprise plan.

And it’s not just about the increased capacity and firepower. The GitHub Enterprise pricing tier (also known as GitHub Advanced Security pricing) includes lots of advanced security options that will turn your coding project into an impenetrable fortress. From SCIM provisioning to SOC2 reports, GitHub Enterprise comes armed to the teeth.

GitHub Enterprise includes all the features in GitHub Premium, plus:

• Enterprise-managed users, so you can centrally manage identity and access seamlessly
• SCIM user provisioning to add and remove users hassle-free
• Central management to provide admin users with a bird’s-eye view of the project
• Environment protection rules – meaning you’ll be able to set up specific conditions to pass before the project advances to the next level
• SOC, SOC2, Type 2 reports to enhance security
• SAML single sign-on to save you tons of time
• Access to GitHub Connect – a platform with additional features and workflows to streamline the management of your project
• GitHub Advanced Security to search for potential vulnerabilities in your coding project
• Premium support to ensure a flawless customer service experience.

As you can see, GitHub Advanced Security is far more complete than the previous two tiers. But such a comprehensive scope comes at a price. 

GitHub Enterprise is significantly more expensive than GitHub Team. GitHub Enterprise pricing is $21 per user per month if billed monthly or $19.25 if billed yearly in case you’re a first-time user. You also get a free month, which is a nice extra.

GitHub Pricing Guide Table – Good News and Bad News

At this point, we need to come clean to you. We’ve got good news and bad news. Optimism is a virtue, so we’ll start with the latter so we can turn things around later on.

The bad news is that, as you can see below, GitHub Enterprise can end up being very expensive. Even if you only employ 20 code developers, you’ll pay more than $2,000 a year. Sure, you’ll get lots of great features. But at what cost?

But don’t fret – remember that there’s also good news. Here we go – before you can sign up for the GitHub Enterprise pricing, you need to contact GitHub’s sales team first. But why on earth is that good news?

In a nutshell, it is good news because it opens the door to negotiations. And that’s where Quolum comes in to save the day.

Save on GitHub with Quolum

There’s no question that GitHub Enterprise is an indispensable tool. But that doesn’t mean you’ve got to overpay for it. 

At Quolum, we take over the entire SaaS procurement process on behalf of our clients. We’re SaaS experts with mountains of in-depth data and market insights on hand. And we’re not afraid to use them to drive negotiations and push prices down. 

With GitHub, our custom integrations also allow us to track feature-wise usage across your user base, to ensure that you never pay for unused seats. GitHub shelfware can be immense, and we fix that. 

On average, we’ve saved our clients around 30% just by (a) removing shelfware (b) planned and data driven negotiations and (c) price benchmarks. In case of GitHub, we recently saved a startup that raised over 50 million dollars 15% of their spend as soon as they onboarded, on account of shelfware alone!

And not to toot our own horn, but we don’t stop at savings. Here’s all we can do for your company:

• Provide you with comprehensive SaaS management services
• Streamline your SaaS workflows to boost your efficiency
• Take over contract negotiations, renewals, and cancellations – meaning you won’t need an in-house SaaS expert
• Proactively detect shadow IT to mitigate cybersecurity risks
• Remove your shelfware to avoid any compliance issues
• Provide you with real-time usage data – so you’ll always make smart and accurate decisions
• Recommend the best SaaS apps for your line of business.

Sounds like what your company needs? Then waste no more time and start putting your SaaS portfolio in the hands of the experts today. Contact one of our savings experts now for a free consultation – you won’t regret it.

FAQs

How much does GitHub charge per GB?

GitHub doesn’t really charge per GB. However, it’s true that GitHub pricing plans are closely related to GB capacity. If you want the largest capacity, go for the GitHub Enterprise pricing plan, which costs $19.25 per user per month if billed yearly.

Is GitHub free or paid?

GitHub has one free plan and two paid plans. While GitHub Free is quite generous and can work for small projects, it doesn’t come close to what the paid GitHub plans can offer.

What is Quolum?

Quolum is one of a handful of all-in-one SaaS procurement and management platforms. It can take over contract negotiations to push prices down and claim money back while ensuring that you have access to all the tools you need to succeed.