Tutorials · Beginner
Git vs GitHub: the difference everyone mixes up (made simple)
Git and GitHub are not the same thing. Understand the difference in 1 minute, with a clear example and a glossary of the words you'll hear all the time.
- Git
- GitHub
It’s the #1 beginner mix-up: Git and GitHub sound alike but do different things. One minute and it’s crystal clear. Tap each block to open it.
What is Git?
Git is a tool that lives on your computer and saves versions of your work. Whenever you finish something you make a “commit” (a snapshot of the project) and you can go back to any earlier version. It works even with no internet.
What is GitHub?
GitHub is a website where you upload those projects to keep them in the cloud, share them, collaborate and publish them (for example, by connecting it to Vercel). It’s like Google Drive, but built for code and with version history.
The difference in one sentence
Git creates the versions on your computer. GitHub stores and shares them in the cloud.
Analogy: Git is the camera 📸 that takes the photos; GitHub is the online album where you upload them. You can use Git without GitHub, but together they’re the hub of everything you build.
Do I need both?
Yes, and they go together: you install Git once on your computer, create a free GitHub account, and that’s it. Your editor (VS Code) and your AI (Claude Code) use Git under the hood to push everything to GitHub.
👉 For the step-by-step, see the GitHub for beginners tutorial.
Glossary: words you'll hear
| Word | What it means |
|---|---|
| Repo (repository) | Your project’s folder in Git/GitHub |
| Commit | Save a version with a message |
| Push | Upload your commits to GitHub |
| Pull | Download GitHub’s changes to your computer |
| Clone | Copy a GitHub repo to your computer |
| Branch | A parallel version to experiment without breaking the main one |