---
title: Use Bitbucket for private code and GitHub for public code
author: Jeff Kereakoglow
category: Career
excerpt: Did you know that Bitbucket offers an unlimited number of private repositories for free?
layout: post
---
It's senseless to pay GitHub money to host private repositories when you can
host an unlimited number of private repositories on [BitBucket][bb] at no cost.

## What a free account offers
Below is a table which describes what a free account for each service will get
you. "Public" and "private" refer to public and private repositories, and
 "users" means the number of folks with read **or** write access for a single
 repository.

{:.table .table-striped}
|              | Public    | Private   |    Users     |
|:-------------|:----------|:---------:|-------------:|
|**BitBucket** | Unlimited | Unlimited |  5           |
|**GitHub**    | Unlimited | 5         |  Unlimited   |

GitHub charges for private repositories and BitBucket charges for multiple
users.

My guess is BitBucket targets corporations—Atlassian owns BitBucket and
[Atlassian makes software for large organizations][as]—while GitHub targets freelance
developers and start ups. Again, just my guess.

## Bitbucket for private repositories
This is a no-brainer. It's an unlimited number of private repositories for free.

## GitHub for public repositories
Although I knew about BitBucket for as along as I've known about GitHub (circa
2009), I had no idea BitBucket allowed an unlimited number of private
repositories until March, 2015 because I **never go there**. I think I speak for
most folks when I say that when I want to explore code shared among the
developer community, I go to GitHub.

Keep posting your public source to GitHub for maximum exposure.

[as]: https://www.atlassian.com/software
[bb]: http://bitbucket.org

Use BitBucket for private code...
Add: Use BitBucket for private code...
