GitHub

GitHub is an online software development assistance and version control service.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} This platform uses Git.^[7] It is operated by GitHub, Inc. based in the United States.

GitHub, Inc.

Type of business	Subsidiary
Type of site	Collaborative version control
Available in	English
Founded	February 8, 2008; 17 years ago (2008-02-08) (as Logical Awesome LLC)
Headquarters	San Francisco, California, United States
Area served	Worldwide
Founder(s)	Tom Preston-Werner Chris Wanstrath P. J. Hyett Scott Chacon
CEO	Nat Friedman
Key people	Erica Brescia (COO) Carrie Olesen (CHRO) Mike Taylor (CFO)
Industry	Software
Parent	Microsoft
Registration	Optional (required for creating and joining projects)
Users	100 million (Jan 2023)[1]
Launched	April 10, 2008; 17 years ago (2008-04-10)
Current status	Active
Written in	Ruby

In January 2020, GitHub reported that they have more than 40 million users^[8] and more than 100 million repositories^[9] (including at least 28 million public repositories).^[10] Therefore, it is recognized as the largest host of source code in the world.^[11]

Organizational users

Currently, there are many individual GitHub users. On the other hand, there are also organizational users such as educational institutions^[12][13][14] and companies. The following companies are using GitHub to distribute open source projects:

• Facebook^[15]
• Google Research (research facility of Google)^[16]
• IBM^[17]
• Microsoft^[18][19][20]
• TeX Users Group (A community for LaTeX users)^[21]
• Wolfram Research (developer of Wolfram Mathematica)^[22]

Desktop version

GitHub was made for users who want to save their programs on their web browsers. But there is also a desktop version known as GitHub Desktop.^[23]

GitHub Pages

All GitHub users can create websites with the github.io domain. This service is known as GitHub Pages.^[24] The development history of the HTML code will be recorded with Git.

Similar services

Today, there are several GitHub like services for developers. Some of them use Git but have different interface with unique web-design. One of the most famous GitHub rival is GitLab.^[25][26] This is also based on Git. Users can export their programs on GitHub to GitLab.