GitHub announces unlimited free private repos

Starting today, you can store code that needs to remain private on GitHub for free. From their announcement:

GitHub Free now includes unlimited private repositories. For the first time, developers can use GitHub for their private projects with up to three collaborators per repository for free. Many developers want to use private repos to apply for a job, work on a side project, or try something out in private before releasing it publicly. Starting today, those scenarios, and many more, are possible on GitHub at no cost. Public repositories are still free (of course—no changes there) and include unlimited collaborators.

I started moving my private repos from a free plan at BitBucket to GitHub’s $7 per month developer plan last year because I prefer GitHub’s interface and experience — plus the convenience of having my code stored in the same place as the other code I use every day.

I’ve been in consolidation mode at Studiosaurus HQ and just finished moving old sites off a DreamHost account I’ve had open since 2006 and a few client sites that were on Linode managed with Forge. Now all my sites are on Linode managed with ServerPilot.

Between the GitHub pricing announcement and hosting consolidations, I’ll be eliminating almost $40 of recurring monthly costs.