Since its inception, the attitude of GitHub toward repositories was to allow unlimited public repositories, while make private ones paying. Whether it’s a consequence of Microsoft’s acquisition or not, this stance changed recently: GitHub announced private repositories were also made free, for up to 3 contributors.
There was a lot of celebration on the Web, but not from my side. This move looks more like a (desperate?) move to keep developers on GitHub. Whether that’s the case or not, I’d like to use the occasion to compare the free-tier offering of the 3 major Git-as-a-Service providers, namely: Microsoft GitHub, Atlassian BitBucket and GitLab.
 |
 |
 |
|
|---|---|---|---|
Unlimited public repositories |
|||
Unlimited private repositories |
|||
Max. users per public repo |
∞ |
5 |
∞ |
Max. users per private repo |
3 |
5 |
∞ |
Open Source |
|||
Bug tracker |
(relies on JIRA) |
||
Project management |
|||
Build pipeline |
(relies on third-party e.g. Travis CI) |
||
Pages website |
(GitHub Pages) |
(GitLab Pages) |
Of course, there are other criteria to consider when choosing your GaaS provider.
Some years ago, I chose GitLab to build and host this very blog based on some of those. Nothing in GitHub’s new offering makes me change my mind.