Git vs GitHub – Difference Between Git and GitHub

The difference between Git and GitHub is one of the most important things to understand when you are looking to get into the world of open-source development. Both of these tools are great for different reasons, and they can both be useful in different situations. However, there are some key differences that you should be aware of when you are looking to choose one over the other.

Git is a version control system that allows you to track changes to your code, and it is a great way to keep track of your work. It is also a great way to share your code with others, and it can be very useful when you are working on a project that involves a lot of collaboration. Git is also very easy to use, and it can be very intuitive when you first start out. It can also be very useful if you want to keep track of your work in a more organised way.

GitHub is a web-based Git repository, that is. Cloud-based storage is offered by this hosting company. Git’s distributed version control and source code management capabilities are all provided by GitHub, along with some additional features. Utilising Git facilitates collaboration. The public can access GitHub repositories as well. GitHub serves as a networking platform for online professionals since developers from all over the world may engage, contribute to one another’s code, and edit or improve it. Social coding is another name for the process of participation and engagement.

What is Git?

GIT is an acronym for Global Information Tracker; An open-source tool created in 2005. It plays a vital role in shaping standard projects. One can install git in the local system that allows tracking and recording of a project at every step. The best part being it runs on the cloud, and the internet does not pose a problem.

GIT is a Version Control System (VCS); A source tool that helps in tracking and managing codes. It was designed to assist programmers working in coordination and tracking changes in any of the files associated with the local directory. Unlike other version control systems, GIT is hassle-free, fast, and absolutely free of cost to use.

Features of Git

• Distribution: One of the fine features of GIT is that it has a distributed system. It allows multiple people to work on a project simultaneously without interfering with each other’s work. Once completed, a user can push or transfer his part of the work to a git repository, and others can pull it locally from the git repository. This feature also helps, if in case the main system goes down. The local system that has pulled the latest part of the work can restore the entire project.
• Branching: GIT allows users to work parallelly on different domains through branching. Through this, multiple users can try the same feature in various ways and then merge the one they feel is the best to the main branch. Branching and merging are simple through a few git commands. Users can create any number of branches for a single project.
• Secure: GIT records all the commits done by the users on their local copy. It uses SHA1, a cryptographic algorithm, to store the developer’s data while also helping to diagnose the issues through the log entries.

Other features of GIT include email notification, issue tracking, code review, graphs related to code frequency and members, etc.

---

What is GitHub?

GITHUB to GIT is the same as a photograph is to a person. It provides a graphical user interface to the command line tool GIT. GitHub is designed as a repository hosting service. It also gives a wide range of features such as collaborating on the project, resolving issues, source code management, and exchanging ideas with people around the world. Along with this, it provides the features of GIT too.

All these look nice, but how they both function is something that is of more importance. A clear picture of functionality helps one in understanding in a much better way.

Features of GitHub

As mentioned before, GitHub has a wide range of features. These features expand the functions of GIT. The user interface of GitHub allows users to do everything that GIT does without having to write the git commands. It makes communicating with collaborators or developers easier. Addressing issues becomes facile, as people can take them up and work remotely. Apart from these, GITHUB gives us some more features as follows. It’s also beneficial with regard to source code management and code reviews.

• GitHub Gist: Sharing code snippets and notes instantly.
• GitHub Flow: A workflow to track all the branch-based activities at regular intervals.
• GitHub Pages: Users can directly deploy their static web pages that pull over the data and changes from the respective repository.
• GitHub Students Developer Pack: A space full of cloud resources, developer tools, and programming tools oriented towards the benefit of students.

The vividity of these two platforms is something that makes them stand out from other competitors.

---

Difference Between Git and GitHub

We now know what Git and GitHub are. We’ve seen how they work in coordination. Let’s see how much they differ from each other.

Basis	Git	GitHub
Production	Git was first introduced in April 2005.	GitHub was first introduced in October 2007. The site was later developed in April 2008.
Owned by	Git is maintained by Linux	Is maintained by Microsoft.
Application	Git is a Command-Line tool.	GitHub is a Graphical User Interface.
Storage	Is installed locally in the system for use and does not require the internet.	Can be accessed on the web. It needs an internet connection.
Function	Majorly focused on version control and code conserving.	Is majorly focused on web hosting and code sharing.
User Preferences	Lacks user management features	GitHub has built-in user management features. It also provides Organisational and Enterprise level accounts with unlimited public repositories and collaborators.
Integrations	Provides no external tool configuration.	GitHub provides multiple external tools including third-party tools.
Availability	Git is an open-source that allows users to modify and share the software.	GitHub is inclusive of free-tier and paid-tier versions. However, it is not open source.
Security	The privacy in Git is too strong	Privacy depends on the settings of the repositories.
Platform	It is compatible with Windows, macOS, Linux, Solarix, AIX	It is compatible with Windows, macOS, Linux, and all other web browsers.
Competitors	Although GIT is one of the best version controllers, it fights with Mercurial, IBM, etc.	Major competitors include GitLab, BITBUCKET, etc.
Communication/Issue Management	There’s no dedicated system to communicate with collaborators.	GitHub provides a specific tab to communicate and resolve issues with collaborators.

---

Which is Better? What to Learn?

Although GIT and GitHub are capable of running independently, they both go hand in hand. Using GitHub looks easy for a non-programmer but as a programmer, learning GIT commands is necessary. If one is working alone on a project, using GIT would come in handy. But for a person who’s working in collaboration with others, GIT and GITHUB are the same. The bitterness comes in with the situation of the usage. Learning both GIT and GITHUB is always encouraged for a developer.

Conclusion

By now, We know how different Git and GitHub are, even though they go hand in hand. In simple terms, Git is like the management staff of a restaurant. It keeps track of everything happening with the project a person is working on, and GitHub is like the interiors of a restaurant that allows one to see the progress of the project. The tech world demands us to know both Git and GitHub to ensure smooth working. These two entities bring courage to developers as there are multiple ways to lose data easily. To sum up, if Git is the root, GitHub is the stem that extends into one beautiful plant.

---

Frequently Asked Questions

Q.1: Do you need Git for GitHub?

Ans: While one can use GITHUB without GIT, not everything can be achieved through GITHUB only. There are features like stashing, pushing code, pulling code locally, etc, that need GIT. Thus one needs GIT for GITHUB, but the other way around is not true.

Q.2: Is GitHub based on Git?

Ans: Yes. GitHub is a web-hosting service that allows one to host Git repositories.

Q.3: What are Git and GitHub used for?

Ans: GIT is a command-line tool and GitHub is a web hosting service. They are used to preserve and collaboratively work on a project.

Q.4: Is GitHub good for Beginners?

Ans: It is good for beginners to use GitHub and understand how coders work. However, GitHub doesn’t teach any programming, and its usage comes when one has a program or code to push and save on a cloud repository.

Q.5: What are a few Git commands?

Ans: Few useful GIT commands are as follows:

• git clone: Used to clone a repository from GitHub.
• git branch: Used to create branches of a project.
• git checkout: Used to switch between branches.
• git status: Used to collect necessary information of a branch.
• git add: Used to add modified files into the staging area.
• git commit: Used to commit all the files that are added to the local repository.
• git push: Used to move all the commits to the local repository.
• git pull: Used to collect the recent changes from the main repository

Q.6: What does GitHub stand for?

Ans: The word GITHUB can come from the words Git and Hub. The word Git stands for Global Information Tracker and the word Hub means the central part of an activity. Thus, GitHub is the central activity zone of all the GIT repositories.

Q.7: Is Git a Programming Language?

Ans: Git is a distributed version control system. In short, it is a command-line tool that appears to be a programming language.

Q.8: Can GitHub host a website?

Ans: Yes. GitHub allows users to host personal websites and websites of specific projects. One can also use GitHub Pages for the same.

Q.9: Can GitHub Run Code?

Ans: Yes. GitHub runs code that has static functions. If the code is dynamic, eg: which collects, stores, and displays the data, it’s not possible to run the code.

Additional Resources

• Git Interview Questions
• GIT Commands
• Bitbucket vs GitHub
• GitLab vs GitHub