4 ms·

It gives you a credit of $1,000 monthly for 2 years, but there's no real indication anywhere on Github of exactly what that pays for? So it's not really free.

by Alupis 7y ago

It gives you a credit of $1,000 monthly for 2 years, but there's no real indication anywhere on Github of exactly what that pays for? So it's not really free. How does this compare with Gitlab and Bitbucket offerings for small teams? I know Bitbucket has a one-time payment option for their self-hosted version of $10 for 10 users. Pretty hard to beat that, unless you're adamant you need it hosted for you.

j4yav 7y ago
GitLab's similar program can be found at https://about.gitlab.com/solutions/startups/ https://about.gitlab.com/solutions/startups/
- dtrailin 7y ago
  > Members of the current or two most recent YCombinator batches (currently s2019, w2018, and s2018) That requirement is a pretty substantial difference. (disclosure: I work for MS)
  - detaro 7y ago
    (and GP for Gitlab)
gruez 7y ago
>It gives you a credit of $1,000 monthly for 2 years, but there's no real indication anywhere on Github of exactly what that pays for? Random screenshot I was able to find on their help page. Seems to be that the pricing for github enterprise is around $21/month/user. https://help.github.com/assets/images/help/organizations/start-trial-button.png https://help.github.com/assets/images/help/organizations/sta...
- thefreeman 7y ago
  So basically up 47 free users for 2 years. Not bad.
  - Alupis 7y ago
    Is 47 users really a "startup"? If you have anywhere near 47 actual users, affording $1k a month is going to be trivial. Would be nice if you could have, say, 5 users and extend the 2 years by not using all $1k monthly credits, adding users as you grow.
    - aroch 7y ago
      You might also pay for stuff like LFS and packages. But if I had to guess, $1000 is probably in the 95th+ percentile of spending for teams <20 (or any sufficiently small group) -> thus this is letting startups spend on Github resources without worrying about running out of credits for two years
    - toomuchtodo 7y ago
      If you can't afford to start paying after 2 years, it's time to give up or pivot. This is very generous of MS/GH to offer until you've got traction.
      - Alupis 7y ago
        > If you can't afford to start paying after 2 years, it's time to give up or pivot That's kind of extremist, isn't it? Plenty of startups are bootstrapped, one or two people, and can survive just fine using basic tooling. The free offerings from Gitlab and Bitbucket (which include private repos) are just fine for a lot of startups. Not all startups are your VC backed unicorns. > This is very generous of MS/GH to offer Is it? It's really just an attempt to lock you into a proprietary system that you cannot export your data out of nor easily move off of down the road.
        toomuchtodo 7y ago
        No, I don’t believe it’s extremist to start paying for a commercial offering after a 2 year trial period. If you can make due with a free competing product, go for it. If you’re not making enough in 2 years to pay for basic biz expenses, you’re a hobby and you shouldn’t expect enterprise features (SSO for example) for free in perpetuity.
- sascha_sl 7y ago
  i wouldn't be able to tell you, github enterprise invoices are really weird and hard to read, we had to ask for a correction once too because it would've never gotten past bookkeeping the entire enterprise feature set seems uncharacteristically less polished in some places, the UX is confusing throughout and things you'd think you could do in the enterprise dashboard being elsewhere in the organization settings
eberkund 7y ago
I assume it can also be used towards their hosted CI (GitHub actions)
nimbius 7y ago
why not a gitea or gitlab instance running on a few pi's or something? Why pay anything at all?
- FactolSarin 7y ago
  Because if you're a startup, you probably don't want to deal with something like that. You want something that "just works."
  - Alupis 7y ago
    Depends how "real" of a startup you are. VC backed? Ya, you'd probably just pay someone else to handle it - it's not your money after all... Bootstrapping with a friend as a side gig until you have something viable... you're probably going to go with the free/cheapest option possible - scaling up as necessary and not a second before.
    - gtirloni 7y ago
      If you're bootstrapping, you use the online hosted solution.
- alkonaut 7y ago
  The program offers github enterprise for free. The credits are in addition to that and can be used to e.g buy cloud CI/CD time. Running your own infrastructure doesn’t cost nothing.
  - Alupis 7y ago
    > The program offers github enterprise for free. The credits are in addition to that and can be used to e.g buy cloud CI/CD time. That's not what the Github page says.
    - alkonaut 7y ago
      What does it say? The article itself seems pretty clear that it’s included in the free program > [..] we’re announcing that GitHub Enterprise is now included in Microsoft for Startups, a free program [..] Am I reading in the wrong place? Or just reading it wrong?
caseyf7 7y ago
Has anyone had success with Microsoft for Startups? Do they actually bring deals or just pressure to run azure?

by Alupis 7y ago

j4yav 7y ago

GitLab's similar program can be found at https://about.gitlab.com/solutions/startups/ https://about.gitlab.com/solutions/startups/

dtrailin 7y ago
> Members of the current or two most recent YCombinator batches (currently s2019, w2018, and s2018) That requirement is a pretty substantial difference. (disclosure: I work for MS)
- detaro 7y ago
  (and GP for Gitlab)

gruez 7y ago

>It gives you a credit of $1,000 monthly for 2 years, but there's no real indication anywhere on Github of exactly what that pays for? Random screenshot I was able to find on their help page. Seems to be that the pricing for github enterprise is around $21/month/user. https://help.github.com/assets/images/help/organizations/start-trial-button.png https://help.github.com/assets/images/help/organizations/sta...

thefreeman 7y ago
So basically up 47 free users for 2 years. Not bad.
- Alupis 7y ago
  Is 47 users really a "startup"? If you have anywhere near 47 actual users, affording $1k a month is going to be trivial. Would be nice if you could have, say, 5 users and extend the 2 years by not using all $1k monthly credits, adding users as you grow.
  - aroch 7y ago
    You might also pay for stuff like LFS and packages. But if I had to guess, $1000 is probably in the 95th+ percentile of spending for teams <20 (or any sufficiently small group) -> thus this is letting startups spend on Github resources without worrying about running out of credits for two years
  - toomuchtodo 7y ago
    If you can't afford to start paying after 2 years, it's time to give up or pivot. This is very generous of MS/GH to offer until you've got traction.
    - Alupis 7y ago
      > If you can't afford to start paying after 2 years, it's time to give up or pivot That's kind of extremist, isn't it? Plenty of startups are bootstrapped, one or two people, and can survive just fine using basic tooling. The free offerings from Gitlab and Bitbucket (which include private repos) are just fine for a lot of startups. Not all startups are your VC backed unicorns. > This is very generous of MS/GH to offer Is it? It's really just an attempt to lock you into a proprietary system that you cannot export your data out of nor easily move off of down the road.
      - toomuchtodo 7y ago
        No, I don’t believe it’s extremist to start paying for a commercial offering after a 2 year trial period. If you can make due with a free competing product, go for it. If you’re not making enough in 2 years to pay for basic biz expenses, you’re a hobby and you shouldn’t expect enterprise features (SSO for example) for free in perpetuity.
sascha_sl 7y ago
i wouldn't be able to tell you, github enterprise invoices are really weird and hard to read, we had to ask for a correction once too because it would've never gotten past bookkeeping the entire enterprise feature set seems uncharacteristically less polished in some places, the UX is confusing throughout and things you'd think you could do in the enterprise dashboard being elsewhere in the organization settings

eberkund 7y ago

I assume it can also be used towards their hosted CI (GitHub actions)

nimbius 7y ago

why not a gitea or gitlab instance running on a few pi's or something? Why pay anything at all?

FactolSarin 7y ago
Because if you're a startup, you probably don't want to deal with something like that. You want something that "just works."
- Alupis 7y ago
  Depends how "real" of a startup you are. VC backed? Ya, you'd probably just pay someone else to handle it - it's not your money after all... Bootstrapping with a friend as a side gig until you have something viable... you're probably going to go with the free/cheapest option possible - scaling up as necessary and not a second before.
  - gtirloni 7y ago
    If you're bootstrapping, you use the online hosted solution.
alkonaut 7y ago
The program offers github enterprise for free. The credits are in addition to that and can be used to e.g buy cloud CI/CD time. Running your own infrastructure doesn’t cost nothing.
- Alupis 7y ago
  > The program offers github enterprise for free. The credits are in addition to that and can be used to e.g buy cloud CI/CD time. That's not what the Github page says.
  - alkonaut 7y ago
    What does it say? The article itself seems pretty clear that it’s included in the free program > [..] we’re announcing that GitHub Enterprise is now included in Microsoft for Startups, a free program [..] Am I reading in the wrong place? Or just reading it wrong?

caseyf7 7y ago

Has anyone had success with Microsoft for Startups? Do they actually bring deals or just pressure to run azure?