Bitbucket vs GitHub

2020. GitHub is now free for all teams



GitHub has recently announced that all of its core features are now available for free to all users. This includes unlimited private repositories with unlimited collaborators, catering to both individual users and teams engaged in commercial projects. Additionally, users can enjoy up to 2,000 minutes per month of free access to GitHub Actions, the platform's automation and CI/CD solution. While advanced features such as code owners and enterprise functionalities like SAML support still require a paid plan, the pricing structure has been revised. Teams can now upgrade to the Teams plan starting at $4 per month and user, compared to the previous cost of $9, while the Enterprise plan starts at $21 per month and user.


2018. GitHub business users now get access to public repos



GitHub, the code hosting service recently acquired by Microsoft, is introducing several new features for its business users, enhancing their ability to access public repositories on the platform. Previously, users on the hosted Business Cloud and self-hosted Enterprise environments lacked direct access to the vast array of public open-source repositories available on GitHub. However, with the latest update, this limitation is being addressed, enabling business users to extend their reach beyond their firewalls and actively engage and collaborate with the wider GitHub community. Additionally, GitHub now provides its business and enterprise users with a new unified search functionality, allowing them to explore both their internal repositories and open-source ones.


2018. Microsoft acquired GitHub



Microsoft has recently completed the acquisition of the widely used code sharing and collaboration platform, GitHub, for a whopping $7.5 billion. This cloud-based service enables companies of all sizes, including Microsoft, to collaboratively work on code. With 27 million software developers actively engaged in 80 million code repositories, GitHub has become an essential platform for various software development projects. Considering Microsoft's strategic focus on catering to software developers through cloud services, this acquisition aligns naturally with their vision, as spearheaded by CEO Satya Nadella. GitHub serves as a versatile tool utilized not only for coding Microsoft Windows applications but also for a wide range of projects, spanning from websites to iPhone apps. As a result of Microsoft's acquisition of GitHub, users can expect even deeper integration between Microsoft's developer tools and this platform, enabling a more seamless and enhanced experience.


2016. GitHub gets project management tool



GitHub has introduced its "most significant update" to its Git-based code hosting service. This update expands GitHub's offerings beyond code hosting and includes basic project management features reminiscent of a Kanban board. While GitHub has always supported integrations with various project management tools, this update introduces a built-in tool that allows users to organize cards, such as pull requests, issues, and notes, into customizable columns like "in-progress," "done," or any other preferred labels. Similar to platforms like Trello, users can easily drag and drop cards between columns to reflect changes in project status. This enhancement enables GitHub to provide a more comprehensive solution for project management in addition to its existing code hosting capabilities.


2016. Atlassian launches Bitbucket Pipelines



Atlassian has introduced Bitbucket Pipelines, a groundbreaking continuous delivery service seamlessly integrated into the Atlassian-hosted Bitbucket Cloud platform. This powerful feature enables developers to automate their code building and deployment process whenever they make updates to their Bitbucket repositories. As part of the beta phase, Bitbucket Pipelines is available at no cost for developers interested in exploring its capabilities. Additionally, Atlassian has made other notable updates, including the launch of Connect for JIRA Service Desk, which empowers third-party developers to create embeddable add-ons for this service. Moreover, Atlassian has made RADAR, its internal tool for generating API documentation, open source, aligning it with the specifications of the Open API Initiative.


2015. Atlassian merges Bitbucket and Stash developer services



Atlassian has been providing a range of developer services based on Git through its brands Bitbucket and Stash. These services cater to developers who require either cloud-based or on-premises code management solutions. However, the company is now consolidating these brands into a unified Bitbucket platform and introducing several new features for its Git-based services. Additionally, Atlassian is unveiling three significant enhancements for Bitbucket. The first feature is Git Mirroring, designed to simplify and accelerate the usage of Git for distributed teams. The second feature addresses a long-standing challenge of Git—support for large files. Lastly, Bitbucket introduces support for projects, enabling more streamlined organization of complex Git repositories. Notably, Bitbucket now competes with other enterprise Git services, including GitHub Enterprise. Even Microsoft has embraced Git support in its Team Foundation Server products.


2015. Version control service GitHub raises $250M



GitHub, the widely-used software development collaboration and version control service built upon the popular open-source Git tool, has successfully raised an impressive $250 million in funding. The company intends to utilize this new capital infusion to accelerate its growth trajectory and expand its sales and engineering teams, a common strategy for companies following fundraising initiatives. Git has undoubtedly emerged as a de facto version control system for numerous startups, with GitHub leading the pack among companies that essentially provide Git as a service. While Atlassian, Microsoft, GitLab, and others offer similar services, both cloud-hosted and on-premises, GitHub has unquestionably garnered the lion's share of attention in recent years. GitHub reports a current user base of approximately 10 million individuals actively collaborating on over 25 million projects (a significant increase from 10 million users in January 2014). However, considering GitHub offers free accounts, it remains unclear how many of these users are paying subscribers (with pricing starting at $5/month).


2015. Code management service Bitbucket opens to third-party extensions



Bitbucket, Atlassian's code management service similar to GitHub, is receiving a significant update this week. The new feature, called Connect for Bitbucket, allows third-party tools to seamlessly integrate their applications directly into the Bitbucket service. Atlassian emphasizes that this integration empowers developers to access all the necessary information for code deployment in a single location, eliminating the need for constant switching between disjointed tools. According to the company, no other product on the market offers this level of integration within the product's user interface. The launch partners for this feature encompass a range of services, including code analytics platforms such as StiltSoft and bitHound, cloud IDEs like Codeanywhere and Codio, and Sourcegraph's code search tool. Currently, there are approximately a dozen available plug-ins, providing users with expanded capabilities and a more streamlined workflow within Bitbucket.


2014. GitHub Enterprise now works on Amazon Web Services



The latest release of code repository software, GitHub Enterprise 2.0, introduces the capability to leverage the service's virtual machines to establish a highly scalable version of GitHub's services on Amazon Web Services, the cloud computing platform provided by Amazon. This update encompasses various features, regardless of whether it is hosted on AWS or any other platform. One significant enhancement is the ability for companies to utilize their existing single sign-on solution with GitHub. They can now employ LDAP or SAML compatible solutions to achieve this integration. Furthermore, the update introduces security audit logs, enabling administrators to closely monitor user activities and facilitate auditing of account, team, and repository access over time.


2014. ZenHub helps engineering teams manage projects inside GitHub



Other companies are now capitalizing on the popularity of GitHub by developing services designed to enhance the platform. One such project is ZenHub, which aims to streamline and expedite workflows on GitHub. ZenHub offers teams a project management service that seamlessly integrates with GitHub, offering features such as Trello-like drag-and-drop task boards, convenient file uploads for any file type (as opposed to GitHub's default limitation to image files), and +1 buttons for quick feedback on commits, pull requests, suggestions, and comments. While primarily targeted at developers, the user-friendly interface of ZenHub also enables business users to efficiently manage their workflows within GitHub, potentially eliminating the need for additional third-party management tools.