Git vs. GitHub: What They Do and How They Work Together

Git is version-control software; GitHub is a service that hosts Git repositories and adds collaboration tools. You can use Git without GitHub, and GitHub is not an abbreviation or a longer name for Git.

What Git does

Git records project history as commits. You choose which changes to stage, then create a commit with a message explaining them. Saving a file in your editor does not automatically create a Git commit.

Because Git is distributed, a normal clone includes repository history, allowing many tasks—such as inspecting commits, comparing changes, and making new commits—to work offline. Shallow or partial clones can contain less information.

Branches let you develop changes separately before integrating them. Git supports private and commercial projects as well as open-source code. It is not restricted to a particular hosting company.

What GitHub adds

GitHub stores remote repositories and provides features such as pull requests, review discussions, issue tracking, and project collaboration. Repository permissions control who can access or change hosted content.

A GitHub repository can be public or private. Public visibility does not itself grant permission to reuse the code under any terms you choose; check the project's license. Private visibility also does not make it appropriate to commit passwords, tokens, or other secrets.

GitHub offers free and paid plans with different limits and features. Security scanning and automation depend on the repository, configuration, and plan; hosting code there does not automatically make it secure or deploy it.

Git and GitHub compared

A typical workflow

1. Create or clone a repository to your computer.
2. Make a branch and edit the project.
3. Review the difference and stage only the intended files.
4. Commit the change locally.
5. Push the branch to an authorized remote, such as GitHub.
6. Open a pull request when you want others to review and integrate the change.

A commit records local history. A push sends commits to a remote. A pull request is a hosting-platform review workflow, not a Git command that automatically downloads files.

Which should you learn first?

Start with the basics of Git: repository state, diffs, staging, commits, and branches. Then practice remotes and pull requests in the Git and GitHub course.

Keep backups of important work and avoid treating a remote repository as an automatic backup of every local file. Untracked changes, ignored files, credentials, and external project data may not be included.