Github Announces Pricing Changes

Today Github has announced a brand new and simplified pricing structure.  Basically they have moved to a flat rate per user pricing while removing the limit on the number of private repositories on private accounts.  From the announcement:

We couldn’t be more excited to announce that all of our paid plans on GitHub.com now include unlimited private repositories. GitHub will always be free for public and open source projects, but starting today there are just two ways to pay for GitHub.com:

  • Personal: $7/month
  • Organization: $9/user/month, $25/month for your first five users

One of the very best things about Git and other distributed version control systems is the ability to create a new repository without asking permission or getting approval. While this has always been true for our public plans, it hasn’t been the case for individuals and teams working together in private. All that changes today.

What if you liked your existing plan?  Well, you can stay with it, for now at least:

We want everyone to have a plan with unlimited private repositories, but don’t worry—you are welcome to stay on your current plan while you evaluate the new cost structure and understand how to best manage your organization members and their private repository access. And while we’re currently not enforcing a timeline to move, rest assured that you’ll have at least 12 months notice before any mandated change to your plan.

This change is not going to be great for everyone.  Consider a company like Epic with its Unreal Engine sources, available as a private repository.  They don’t need unlimited private repositories.  They will, however, under the new price structure, have to pay 9$ per licensed user on the private repository!

So for some people, this change is potentially a good one, for others, it’s absolutely terrible.


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