What Is GitHub?
GitHub is a website where people store, share, and collaborate on code. Think of it like Google Docs, but for software. Multiple people can work on the same project without overwriting each other's work.
If someone is building your website or app, there's a good chance the code lives on GitHub.
Here's the simple version: GitHub is a safe place to keep code, track every change that's ever been made, and let multiple people work on the same project without stepping on each other's toes.
Why Should You Care?
Even if you never write a line of code, GitHub matters to your business for a few reasons:
- Your website code lives somewhere — If a developer built your site, the source code should be stored in a repository (a "repo") on GitHub. That means you always have a backup and a complete history of every change.
- You're not locked into one developer — Because the code is on GitHub, any qualified developer can pick up where the last one left off. No one person holds the keys.
- Transparency — You can see when changes were made, what changed, and who did it. Even if you don't read code, the history is there.
- Automatic deployments — Many modern hosting platforms (like Cloudflare Pages) can connect directly to GitHub. When new code is pushed, your site updates automatically. No FTP, no manual uploads.
How Does It Work?
The basic flow looks like this:
- A developer creates a repository (repo) — this is the project folder on GitHub
- They write code on their computer and push it to the repo
- GitHub keeps track of every single change — who made it, when, and what exactly changed
- If multiple people are working, they create branches — separate copies of the code where they can make changes without affecting the main version
- When a change is ready, it gets merged back into the main branch
Think of it like a shared document with track changes turned on permanently. You can always see what the document looked like at any point in time, and you can always undo a change if something goes wrong.
Repositories, Commits, and Branches
A few terms you might hear:
- Repository (repo) — The project. All the code, files, and history for one project live in one repo.
- Commit — A saved change. Every time a developer saves their work to GitHub, that's a commit. Each one has a message describing what changed.
- Branch — A separate copy of the code for working on something new. The main branch is the "live" version. Developers create branches to work on features or fixes without breaking the live code.
- Pull request — A proposal to merge changes from one branch into another. It's a chance to review the code before it goes live.
GitHub and Your Website
If your website is built with modern tools (like we use at Starview), GitHub is part of the workflow:
- Your site's code lives in a GitHub repo
- When we make changes, we push them to GitHub
- Cloudflare Pages detects the change and automatically rebuilds and deploys your site
- Your site is live with the updates — usually in under a minute
This means no manual file uploads, no FTP credentials to manage, and a complete record of every change. If something ever goes wrong, we can roll back to any previous version instantly.
Is GitHub Free?
Yes — for most use cases. GitHub offers free accounts with unlimited public and private repositories. For a small business website, the free plan is more than enough.
Paid plans exist for larger teams that need advanced features like code review tools, security scanning, and enterprise-level access controls. But you probably don't need those.
The Bottom Line
GitHub is where your code lives. It keeps everything organized, backed up, and trackable. Even if you never log into GitHub yourself, knowing your code is there means you always have access to it and you're never dependent on a single person.
Want us to set up a GitHub repository for your project? Get in touch — we'll walk you through it.