shouldiuse.io

VERDICT

Should I use GitHub Docs?

Get started, troubleshoot, and make the most of GitHub. Documentation for new users, developers, administrators, and all of GitHub's products. - docs.github.com

Depends. Nothing to buy here — this is GitHub's free, open-source documentation for GitHub's own products. Use it if your team uses GitHub; if you're shopping for a platform to publish your own docs, look at dedicated tools instead.

Confidence

Medium. Based on 30+ public sources. Free docs get no G2 ratings; sentiment drawn from Reddit threads and developer blogs.

Ratings

  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Feature depth
  • Support quality
  • Security postureStatic documentation site; nothing to assess

Pricing

$0

GitHub Docs

ModelNot disclosed
Monthly feesNot disclosed
HardwareNot disclosed
Free tierYes

Best for

  • Anyone who uses GitHub
  • New GitHub users and admins
  • Copilot and Actions setup questions
  • Quick troubleshooting lookups

Not for

  • Teams shopping for their own docs platform
  • Non-technical teams wanting an internal wiki
  • Anyone expecting support, not reference docs
  • Buyers wanting a product to purchase — nothing here is for sale

Gotchas - check before you buy

medium

Docs can't fix account issues; expect redirects to GitHub Support instead of answers

medium

Billing docs confuse users — community thread titled 'GitHub Billing Explained (Most People Get This Wrong)'

medium

Copilot billing is now usage-based with AI credits; flat-rate assumptions are outdated

Pros and cons

Pros

  • Completely free; content is open source in a public repo
  • Covers all GitHub products: Actions, Copilot, security, billing, organizations
  • Developers' default first stop for GitHub how-to questions
  • Community can contribute fixes — every page accepts edits

Cons

  • Documents GitHub only; you cannot publish your own content here
  • Account-specific problems dead-end into GitHub Support
  • Copilot pricing sprawls across plan, model, and credit pages

Sources & method

Analyzed 9/20/2026 - 8 sources - No known vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.

official x3review x2security x1news x2

Key stats

  • Value for money: 5/5

    Rating

  • $0

    Starting price

  • 8

    Sources

  • Analyzed

  • Value for money: 5/5. Free forever, no seats, no gates
  • Ease of use: 4/5. Well-organized, searchable, versioned per plan
  • Feature depth: 4/5. Covers every GitHub product, Actions to Copilot
  • Support quality: 2/5. Docs route unresolved issues to GitHub Support
  • Security posture. Static documentation site; nothing to assess
  • $0 Price All public documentation is free
  • 3,366 Companies detected Web-telemetry count via Bloomberry
  • Yes Open source Content lives in the public github/docs repo
  • 2020 Site launched docs.github.com relaunch, per GitHub blog

Pricing

GitHub Docs

$0

  • All public documentation
  • Open-source, community-editable content

Security

No known vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.

What users say

Users treat GitHub Docs as the default reference for a platform many find complicated, but account-specific issues still bounce to Support.

“GitHub Docs directed me to GitHub Support.. which”
Reddit, r/github
“Github is way overcomplicated”
Reddit, r/unpopularopinion

Companies that use it

  • University of Minnesota
Full analysis

Based on 30+ public sources. Free docs get no G2 ratings; sentiment drawn from Reddit threads and developer blogs.

Free official docs for GitHub itself — not a purchasable product. Use it if you use GitHub; host your own docs elsewhere.

Methodology

Based on 30+ public sources. Free docs get no G2 ratings; sentiment drawn from Reddit threads and developer blogs.

Sources

  1. GitHub Docsdocs.github.com
    official
  2. The open-source repo for docs.github.comgithub.com
    official
  3. GitHub's plansdocs.github.com
    official
  4. How we launched docs.github.comgithub.blog
    news
  5. GitHub Docs directed me to GitHub Supportreddit.com
    review
  6. Github is way overcomplicatedreddit.com
    review
  7. Companies using Github Docs (customer list)bloomberry.com
    news
  8. Security and code quality documentationdocs.github.com
    security

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