What Is github.com, and Is It Safe?

Last Updated on September 8, 2025 by Mathew Diekhake

Description

GitHub (github.com) is an open-source community for developers and sharers of software. GitHub was founded by Tom Preston-Werner, Chris Wanstrath, P. J. Hyett, and Scott Chacon. GitHub was acquired by Microsoft on October 26, 2018.

Alternatives

Similar sites to github.com include stackoverflow.com, geeksforgeeks.org, bitbucket.org, w3schools.com, reddit.com, sourceforge.net, pypi.org, git-scm.com, cnblogs.com, and freecodecamp.org.

Site Navigation/Overview

The homepage showed a box to sign up to GitHub. Above it was the slogan in large text that read, “Let’s build from here.” The homepage was considerably different from the GitHub pages related to development that I had visited before. The background was dark whereas most pages I had visited before were light. As I scrolled down, it showed brands that use GitHub. It then had examples of lines of code that are related to development on GitHub, as well as code related to Microsoft Copilot. There were numerous examples of coding as I continued to scroll. It then said over 100 million developers call GitHub home. 6/15/2024

Site Popularity/Traffic Data

As of November 2023, github.com has 425.6 million monthly views, according to Similar Web. The Wayback Machine estimates github.com was founded on May 14, 2008. The Internet Archive has saved github.com 253,099 times between May 14, 2008 and December 15, 2023.

Safety, Security, and Trust Report

GitHub is a very safe website. Our scans came back pristine. Full results:

Sucuri says github.com is a low security risk.

Unmask Parasites says github.com is clean.

VirusTotal says github.com is flagged as suspicious by ArcSight Threat Intelligence. It also has a Crowdsourced context rating of LOW 1.

URLVoid says github.com passed all blocklist engines.

In conclusion, all scans returned as pristine. OVERALL GRADE: Very Safe.

Links and Profiles

Website: github.com