If you’ve ever joined a development team and felt lost when someone said “push to main,” “open a pull request,” or “what branch are you on,” you’re not alone. GitHub is one of those tools that developers take for granted, they assume everyone knows it, but the reality is that most newcomers stumble through it at first.
This guide is for those people: anyone who wants to understand what GitHub actually is, why it matters, and how to put it to work when deploying web applications through a platform like ServerAvatar.
We will cover everything from the raw concept of version control to actually connecting your GitHub account to ServerAvatar and getting your code live on a server without touching a command line. No prior experience needed.
TL;DR
- Git is a distributed version control system that tracks every change made to your project files
- GitHub is a cloud platform that hosts Git repositories and makes collaboration practical
- Branching lets you work on features in isolation; merging combines those changes back in
- Pull requests create a formal review process before code is merged
- ServerAvatar connects directly to GitHub and can clone, deploy, and auto-update your PHP and Node.js applications
- For private repos, you’ll add an SSH key to GitHub; for public repos, a simple HTTPS URL works
- Webhooks let GitHub notify ServerAvatar automatically whenever you push new code
- Deployment scripts let you run framework commands (cache clears, migrations, builds) after every pull
Before understanding GitHub, it helps to understand Git itself.
What Is Git?
Git is a distributed version control platform introduced by Linus Torvalds in 2005 to help developers efficiently manage and track changes in their code. It records changes made to a project’s files, allowing developers to track, compare, restore, and collaborate on different versions of their code.
What Git Does
- Tracks code changes: Records what was added, modified, or removed.
- Maintains project history: Keeps a detailed record of previous versions and commits.
- Creates restore points: Lets you return to an earlier working version when something breaks.
- Supports experimentation: Developers can work on new features without changing the stable version of the project.
- Works offline: Git runs locally, so you can commit and manage changes without an internet connection.
- Supports collaboration: Multiple developers can work on the same codebase and combine their changes.
- Keeps a complete project copy: Every Git clone contains the repository’s files and history, reducing dependency on a single server.
Git Is Distributed
Git is called a distributed version control system because every developer who clones a repository gets a local copy of the project and its history.
This means developers can:
- Create commits without an internet connection.
- Review previous commits locally.
- Create and switch between branches.
- Compare changes.
- Continue working even when a remote Git server is unavailable.
Once an internet connection is available, local changes can be pushed to a remote repository such as GitHub.
Git Is Not GitHub
Git and GitHub are closely related, but they are different:
- Git is the version control software.
- GitHub is an online platform that hosts Git repositories and provides collaboration tools.
You can use Git without GitHub. GitHub simply makes it easier to store Git repositories remotely and work with other developers.
If Git isn’t installed on your Ubuntu system yet, follow our guide on how to install Git on Ubuntu before using Git commands locally.
What Is GitHub?
GitHub is a web-based platform for hosting Git repositories and collaborating on software projects. It combines Git’s version control capabilities with tools for code review, project management, automation, and team collaboration.
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