Software hosting and version-control platform GitHub has made some sweeping changes to its plans and offerings, extending free service to far more teams and users than before while slashing prices for access to some key features by half.

Arguably the most important change is that unlimited repositories and collaborators are now offered as part of the free tier, even if the project is private. Previously, GitHub offered unlimited repositories for free only to public projects or with a small number of users, which precluded use of the free tier by several different types of teams, organizations, and companies. Now the key differences between the free tier and the lowest-cost paid tier are the latter's addition of code owners and required reviewers—admittedly still critical for many organizations. (It also expands the available storage and number of actions per month.)

Further, that entry-level paid tier now costs just $4 per user per month instead of $9 previously. GitHub still offers a more expensive tier ($21) with SAML sign-on and greatly expanded storage and actions, as well as the specialized GitHub One service with prices privately and individually negotiated by account managers with high-value customers.

Speaking to TechCrunch, GitHub CEO Nat Friedman said this heralds a shift from a "pay-for-privacy" model to a "pay-for-features" one—a process that has been in the works for some time, seemingly triggered after Microsoft acquired the company for $7.5 billion in 2018. He also told TechCrunch that GitHub seeks to expand from 40 million developers to 100 million by 2025—an ambitious goal, given that GitHub has stronger competition than ever lately.

And while it might be reasonable guess that this change was in some way triggered by workers' increased needs at a time when many teams that normally collaborate locally in an office are working remotely, Friedman said that's not the case:

This is something we planned to do and have wanted to do for a long time—since essentially we did the acquisition—and getting to this point to do it took until now, when it became a high priority... But it’s definitely something that we wanted to do and, I mean, this is a big flippin' deal.

This makes sense, anyway; the features offered by GitHub are often needed by development teams that are working in person just as much as by those that are working remotely. While there is a communications aspect to GitHub and its like, it's much more about version control and repositories than it is about keeping teams talking to each other directly.

GitHub says that the pricing changes have gone into effect for all paying users effective today.