Git vs. GitHub

Git or GitHub. Are they the same thing? If not, are they connected in another way? Or, like Java and JavaScript, is the connection only superficial?

These questions are definitely worth asking. After all, Microsoft was willing to shell out 7.5 billion dollars to acquire GitHub back in 2018, so developers of all skill levels should be sitting up and taking notice. But the truth is that Git and GitHub are connected much more closely than Java and JavaScript — but with some key differences setting them apart.

What Is Git?

Git is a command-line tool and a popular version control system that runs locally on your computer. It helps you track different versions of your code and collaborate with other developers.

What Is GitHub?

GitHub is a website and cloud-based service that helps developers store and manage their code, as well as track and control changes to their code. GitHub is not Git, but a hosting service.

Difference between Git and GitHub

• Git is software while GitHub is a service.
• Git is a command-line tool while GitHub is a graphical user interface
• Git is installed locally on the system while GitHub is hosted on the web
• Git is maintained by Linux while GitHub is maintained by Microsoft.
• Git is focused on version control and code sharing while GitHub is focused on centralized source code hosting.
• Git is open-source licensed while GitHub includes a free-tier and pay-for-use tier.
• Git was first released in 2005 while GitHub was launched in 2008.
• Git has minimal external tool configuration while GitHub has an active marketplace for tool integration.
• Git has no user management feature while GitHub has a built-in user management feature.
• Git provides a Desktop interface named Git Gui while GitHub provides a Desktop interface named GitHub Desktop.
• Git competes with CVS, Azure DevOps Server, Subversion, Mercurial while GitHub competes with GitLab, Git Bucket, AWS Code Commit, etc.

Common Git Command

• Git Clone— Git clone is a command for downloading existing source code from a remote repository.
• Git add — Adds a change in the working directory to the staging area. It tells Git that you want to include updates to a particular file in the next commit.
• Git Commit — The “commit” command is used to save your changes to the local repository.

Cont.

• Git push — send your changes to the remote server. Git push uploads your commits to the remote repository.
• Git pull — is used to get updates from the remote repo.
• Git revert — used to undo the changes that were previously made.
• Git merge — Combine/merge two branches together.

Git vs. GitHub in Simple Terms

So, taken all together: Git vs. GitHub… what’s the difference? Simply put, Git is a version control system that lets you manage and keep track of your source code history. GitHub is a cloud-based hosting service that lets you manage Git repositories. If you have open-source projects that use Git, then GitHub is designed to help you better manage them.

After all, in the world of programming, naming conventions aren’t always intuitive. That’s why it’s worth recognizing the connections and the differences in the similarly named Git and GitHub. Both Git and GitHub give programmers valuable version-control functionality so that they can build ongoing coding projects without being afraid of messing everything up. GitHub just takes things a little bit further than Git, offering more functionality and resources, as well as a place online to store and collaborate on projects.

And that’s essentially it. Simple, right!?