GitHub vs. VSTS Pricing, in more than 140 characters

Published on 20 May 2016 • Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

GitHub has introduced a flat-rate structure for unlimited private repositories, and I wanted to understand how it compares to the Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS – previously Visual Studio Online (VSO)) pricing, where you already get that for free. I drew up a quick comparison and tweeted it:

My understanding of the pricing differences now between @github and @VSTeam. tldr: VSTS is cheaper yet more confusing pic.twitter.com/KFpDUgCqC6 — Robert MacLean (@rmaclean) May 12, 2016

I’ve had mostly positive feedback, but there has been some confusion around it.

Date

Yes, it says 2017. I’m too lazy to change it to 2016—really. If it bugs you, just look away. Or pretend I’m a time traveler.

VSTS is cheaper yet more confusing

The title summarizes the pricing difference, but people have interpreted it in many ways—including that I meant VSTS is a more confusing platform (ignoring the fact that this is about price). I only meant the pricing is confusing. For example, here’s the math for GitHub vs. VSTS at 10 users:

At this point, it seems simple: GitHub charges $25 for the first five users, then subtracts 5 from the total and multiplies the remainder by $9. VSTS is even simpler—your first five users are free, so you subtract them and multiply the rest by $6.

The problem? VSTS is tiered pricing, while GitHub is flat. At 1,500 users, GitHub’s math stays the same, but VSTS becomes far more complex:

Here, the VSTS math changes drastically. First, I skip the free tier entirely (1,495 total users). The first five pay $6/month, the next 90 pay $8, the next 900 pay $4, and the remaining 500 pay $2. Summing these gives the total.

And it gets more complex: if you have an Enterprise Agreement (EA) with Microsoft (a special contract for bulk licensing), none of that applies—it’s a flat $4 per user/month (source).

GitHub is also simpler in user types: one category (paid users). VSTS has three (my informal naming—not official):

• Dev: Paid users (the ones we’ve been discussing).
• MSDN: Paid users, but with a TFS on-prem CAL (local TFS license) or an MSDN subscription that includes VSTS.
• Stakeholder: Free—but limited to work item management (e.g., a client who needs to prioritize backlog but doesn’t need code/build access).

How do these types affect cost? Let’s look at an example.

Example

Pretend we have a dev team of 40 people, split into 5 feature teams (1x PM, 1x tester, 6x devs each). In each team, 2 devs are consultants, and the tester & PM lack MSDN (the company only has it for devs).

Your first guess might be 40 licenses → $270/month (using the calculator). But the reality is:

• 5 PMs use free Stakeholder licenses.
• 5 testers also get free licenses (assigned as Stakeholders).
• 20 devs have MSDN, so they don’t need extra licenses.
• 10 consultants need paid licenses → (5*6) + (5*8) = $70.

For GitHub, it’s $315/month → (40-5)*9.

Platform Confusion

To address the trolls: Is VSTS more confusing than GitHub? If you’re coming from GitHub, yes—VSTS offers more features, so there’s more to learn. But the core Git repo functionality remains the same. If you know Git, you can adapt to VSTS over time. In the long run, it’s not inherently more confusing.