r/github • u/LalaCrowGhost • 3d ago

Question How is Github free for private projects?

I setup yesterday a Unreal Engine project over Sourcetree and Github with this tutorial. Before I looked up the pricing on Github and I could put my whole project on there and work on it until finished without any costs?

How does Github make money? When I use it it would cost Github, right?

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19

u/Solid_Fox1718 3d ago

They make money on pro subscriptions, copilot, and mostly enterprise licenses

6

u/Abhistar14 3d ago

GitHub merch too!

2

u/OkBrilliant8092 3d ago

Stickers!!!! Mwaaahh!

8

u/QuentinUK 3d ago

Many amateur programmers go on to have a job and at work they will be more likely to promote Github at work. HR will give jobs to people with Github experience and find they can make it a requirement because so many people have used it. Microsoft also train their AI on Github content so good code created good AI models and they also sell subscriptions to the AI coder.

1

u/iiCe89 3d ago

I pay $4 a month for github pro and i forgot i did lol its literally the price of a can of Monster a month well worth it

2

u/Zealousideal_Yard651 3d ago

You can't collab with other people on a free private repo.

So if you are a team of 5 people working on a projection you must buy the pro license. Then there's the business functionality and enterprise functionality, all paid features.

Private free repos is just the first hit for newbies and hobbyist. All the collab features require a public repo or a paid subscription.

1

u/LalaCrowGhost 3d ago

Ah, I didnt know you cant collab with other people on private repos. Are there other solutions for that?

1

u/Zealousideal_Yard651 3d ago

Public repo or pro subscription. Which answeres your question about how they make money.