GitHub for Startups opens applications worldwide

GitHub for Startups is now generally available, and startups anywhere in the world can apply directly. The program, piloted earlier this year with hundreds of startups and partners across multiple regions, gives eligible companies up to 20 seats of GitHub Enterprise free for one year. Along with the platform access, accepted startups get an onboarding experience tailored to early-stage teams, regular office hours, and guidance from GitHub technical experts on best practices.

No longer can any organization enter, compete, and grow in the modern, digitized economy without software, the power of developers, and the open source community. As the home for the world’s developers, it is our responsibility to provide entrepreneurs access to our complete developer platform, so anyone can rapidly and securely turn their aspirations into the next great startup of tomorrow.

- Thomas Dohmke, GitHub CEO

What the program includes

The package is aimed at companies that want enterprise-grade tooling from the start, without the enterprise price tag. GitHub positions the offering around four areas:

  • Developer collaboration and productivity: Project boards integrated into the existing workflow support sprint planning, task breakdown, and progress tracking.
  • Security: The platform is the same one trusted by 90% of the Fortune 100, with compliance support and source-code protections.
  • Speed of innovation: Automation and CI/CD tooling live alongside the code, so small engineering teams can ship rather than maintain infrastructure.
  • Community: GitHub has lined up venture capital firms, accelerators, and startup support organizations as partners; startups connected to those partners can also stack additional discounts and benefits.

Founder reaction

GitHub shared feedback from three pilot participants. One founder at Causal (USA) called GitHub’s integrations essential to a productive, secure, quality-focused organization. The engineering lead at Vahan (India) credited the program’s CI/CD features with automating linting, testing, and publishing, which saved substantial engineering time. A Plumerai (UK) founder said the program’s pricing made the switch to GitHub Enterprise feasible at their company’s stage.

Founders, partners, and early employees can all submit an application through the GitHub for Startups site.