Learn · Developer tools
Git is the tool that tracks code changes on your computer. GitHub is an online service that hosts Git projects so teams can store, share, and collaborate on them in the cloud. Git is the technology, GitHub is a popular place to keep and work on Git projects. GitLab and Bitbucket are alternatives.
You can use Git entirely on your own machine, but hosting it on GitHub adds collaboration: shared repositories, code review on pull requests, issue tracking, and automation. It's become the default home for both open-source and private code.
The distinction trips people up because the names sound linked. Remember that Git works without GitHub, but GitHub (and its rivals) exist to make Git-based teamwork easier, with a web interface and extra features layered on top.
Updated July 2026
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Git is the standard tool for tracking changes to code. It records every edit as a snapshot, so a team can work on the same project at once, see who changed what, and roll back to any earlier version. Almost every software project uses it. Working without it is like writing without an undo button.
CI/CD (continuous integration and continuous delivery) is an automated pipeline that checks and ships code. When a developer pushes a change, CI automatically runs tests and checks to catch problems, and CD automatically deploys the change if it passes. It makes releasing software faster, safer, and routine.
Open source means the software's code is public, free to use, and maintained by a community. Most of the web runs on open-source tools (languages, frameworks, databases), which is why so much powerful technology is free. It also means you can inspect it, adapt it, and aren't locked to one vendor.