GitHub hosts 85M code repositories and has 28M users, which is more than the population of Australia. In this article, we will find out exactly why GitHub is so popular.

GitHub is the world’s largest software development platform. It provides cloud storage for source code, supports all popular programming languages, and streamlines the iteration process.

At its core, the platform uses the Git system which controls revisions and runs in the command line interface.

Last week, GitHub has been acquired by Microsoft for a whopping $7.5B dollars. Let's review the exact reasons why developers love GitHub so much, and market values it so highly.

Reason #1: Immensely Powerful Community

GitHub is an open-source platform, and the community is really what fuels it. There are millions of programmers and hobbyists that download, review, and evaluate each other's work.

Moreover, GitHub is the platform of choice for developers from various large corporations, too. Microsoft is the number one contributor to the system, but there are also Google, SAP, AirBnB, IBM, PayPal, and many others.

Reason #2: The Largest Shared Repository

Unless you develop a very sensitive project, you’d be silly to not post your code on GitHub. Pushing the project to a shared, public repository makes it instantly discoverable for those 28M users.

Exposure and insight that you can get on GitHub are simply unmatched by any other platform. And this goes the other way around — you can discover code written by others, learn from it, and even use it for your own projects.

Reason #3: Easy Version Control

Versions control on GitHub works much like on MS Office or Google Drive — it tracks all the changes made to your code and who makes them. You can always review the detailed changelog that neatly hosts all of the relevant information.

Having such a version history is a must when you collaborate with someone on the same project. Especially when the number of contributors surpasses double digits.

Reason #4: A Myriad Of Integrations

From apps that connect GitHub to your Amazon and Google Cloud accounts, to project management tools, the platform provides a huge choice of integrations for code review automation, continuous integration, code performance and error monitoring, and task management.

The prices vary, although some apps have free trials, and a few even offer limited free plans.

Reason #5: Secure Cloud Storage

Using GitHub eliminates the need for complex corporate security solutions. The platforms protect all your data for you: protects code branches, verifies commit signing, controls access.

In case you don’t trust the cloud, you can always opt in for a GitHub Enterprise package and host all data on your own servers.

What the Future Holds

GitHub is not the only repository, but it’s definitely the trend-setting one. So what’s next?

After GitHub’s acquisition, the future of the platform looks even more promising. As Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella has put it:

“We are committed to being stewards of the GitHub community, which will retain its developer-first ethos, operate independently and remain an open platform.”

To learn more about the world of software development and the latest IT news – subscribe to our blog. Get the most relevant articles right in your inbox.