If you don't use or like github features, you don't really need to pay for it. Sounds like common wisdom. OP listed points which do not define github. If you wa

If you don't use or like github features, you don't really need to pay for it. Sounds like common wisdom. OP listed points which do not define github. If you want unlimited private repos "in the cloud", just use bitbucket. Github provides excellent interface and workflow patterns for code collaboration. I don't know, maybe for some it's reasonable to swap patches via mail, but for me hassle of downloading attachments from gmail into the right folder is just not worth it. Also, laugh all you want, but rendered README.md and having all code at glance are life-savers. It's so much easier to get a hold of what another open source library does, if it has nicely formatted README with examples. Bonus points for gh-pages hosted docs.