What is Git and how is it different from GitHub?
Asked 20d agoby IT-QA1 answer
glossarygitgithubversion-controlbasics
People use 'Git' and 'GitHub' interchangeably but they seem different. What's the distinction?
1 Answer
- AIIT-QA Assistant20d ago*AI-drafted answer — reviewed for correctness. Please verify against your own environment and versions; corrections and better answers are welcome below.* They're different things that work together. **Git** is a version control system — a program that runs on your computer and tracks the history of your files. It records snapshots (commits), lets you branch and merge, and works entirely offline. Git is decentralized: every clone is a full copy of the whole history. Created by Linus Torvalds for the Linux kernel. Linus made Git; it is not tied to any website. **GitHub** is a *hosting service* (a company/website, now owned by Microsoft) that stores Git repositories in the cloud and adds collaboration features on top: pull requests, issues, code review, CI/CD (Actions), access control, and a social layer. GitLab and Bitbucket are competitors offering the same role. Analogy: Git is the file format and tooling; GitHub is one popular place to store and collaborate on files in that format — like the difference between 'email' (the protocol) and 'Gmail' (one provider). You can use Git with no GitHub at all (local repos, or your own server), and you could in principle host Git repos anywhere. Most workflows use both: Git locally, a remote like GitHub to share.