This version of GitHub Enterprise Server was discontinued on 2024-01-04. No patch releases will be made, even for critical security issues. For better performance, improved security, and new features, upgrade to the latest version of GitHub Enterprise Server. For help with the upgrade, contact GitHub Enterprise support.

Types of GitHub accounts

In this article

Accounts on GitHub Enterprise Server allow you to organize and control access to code.

About accounts on GitHub Enterprise Server

With GitHub Enterprise Server, you can store and collaborate on code. Accounts allow you to organize and control access to that code. There are three types of accounts on GitHub Enterprise Server.

  • Personal accounts
  • Organization accounts
  • Enterprise accounts

Every person who uses GitHub Enterprise Server signs into a personal account. An organization account enhances collaboration between multiple personal accounts, and the enterprise account for your GitHub Enterprise Server instance allows central management of multiple organizations.

Personal accounts

Every person who uses your GitHub Enterprise Server instance signs in to a personal account. Your personal account is your identity on your GitHub Enterprise Server instance and has a username and profile. For example, see @octocat's profile.

Your personal account can own resources such as repositories, packages, and projects. Any time you take any action on your GitHub Enterprise Server instance, such as creating an issue or reviewing a pull request, the action is attributed to your personal account.

You can create an unlimited number of repositories owned by your personal account, with an unlimited number of collaborators on those repositories.

Tip: Personal accounts are intended for humans, but you can create accounts to automate activity on GitHub Enterprise Server. This type of account is called a machine user. For example, you can create a machine user account to automate continuous integration (CI) workflows.

Organization accounts

Organizations are shared accounts where an unlimited number of people can collaborate across many projects at once.

Like personal accounts, organizations can own resources such as repositories, packages, and projects. However, you cannot sign into an organization. Instead, each person signs into their own personal account, and any actions the person takes on organization resources are attributed to their personal account. Each personal account can be a member of multiple organizations.

The personal accounts within an organization can be given different roles in the organization, which grant different levels of access to the organization and its data. All members can collaborate with each other in repositories and projects, but only organization owners and security managers can manage the settings for the organization and control access to the organization's data with sophisticated security and administrative features. For more information, see "Roles in an organization" and "Keeping your organization secure."

You can also create nested sub-groups of organization members called teams, to reflect your group's structure and simplify access management. For more information, see "About teams."

For more information about all the features of organizations, see "About organizations."

Enterprise accounts

Your enterprise account is a collection of all the organizations on your GitHub Enterprise Server instance. You can use your enterprise account to centrally manage policy and billing. Unlike organizations, enterprise accounts cannot directly own resources like repositories, packages, or projects. These resources are owned by organizations within the enterprise account instead. For more information, see "About enterprise accounts."

Further reading