Professional developer tools are expensive. Licenses for IDEs, cloud compute credits, monitoring platforms, and domain registrars can collectively cost hundreds or thousands of dollars per year — a barrier that puts real-world experience out of reach for many students. GitHub’s Student Developer Pack was created specifically to close that gap.
What Is the GitHub Student Developer Pack?
The GitHub Student Developer Pack is a program run by GitHub Education that gives verified students free access to a curated set of professional tools and services. It includes GitHub Pro (normally a paid tier) plus free or heavily discounted access to tools from GitHub’s partner ecosystem, covering everything from cloud hosting and CI/CD pipelines to domain names, IDEs, and design assets.
The program launched several years ago and has grown steadily. As of the August 2019 announcement that prompted this article, 21 new partners had joined the pack, bringing the total partner count to over 35 and raising GitHub’s stated savings figure to approximately $45,000 USD in combined tool value over the course of a student’s enrollment.
Who Is Eligible?
Any student aged 13 or older who is currently enrolled at an accredited educational institution can apply. GitHub accepts the following as proof of enrollment:
- A school-issued email address (e.g., a
.edudomain) - A valid student ID
- Other official documentation of current academic enrollment
Applications are reviewed by GitHub. Once approved, access is typically granted for the duration of your studies and must be renewed periodically.
What Tools Are Included?
The partner list spans a wide range of categories useful to developers, DevOps practitioners, and designers. The following tools were listed as part of the pack at the time of the August 2019 update. Note that partner availability changes over time — always check the official GitHub Student Developer Pack page for the current list.
Cloud Platforms & Hosting
- Microsoft Azure — Cloud services for building, managing, and deploying applications
- AWS Educate — Cloud compute, free training, and collaboration resources from Amazon Web Services
- DigitalOcean — Simple cloud hosting built for developers
- Heroku — Flexible platform-as-a-service for deploying and managing apps
- Netwise — Turnkey data centre services for hosting critical IT infrastructure
IDEs & Development Environments
- JetBrains — Professional desktop IDEs including IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, WebStorm, and more
- Gitpod — Online IDE integrated with GitHub for instant, browser-based workspaces
- Next.tech — Browser-based computing environments for hands-on learning
DevOps, Monitoring & CI/CD
- Travis CI — Continuous integration platform for open-source and private projects
- Datadog — Cloud-based infrastructure monitoring and observability
- Sentry — Real-time error reporting and crash monitoring for applications
- LogDNA — Log management and aggregation platform
- Better Code Hub — Online source code analysis and quality assessment service
Domain Names & Web Infrastructure
- Namecheap — Affordable domain registration, hosting, and management
- Name.com — Domain name registrar and web host
- .TECH Domains — Domain registration for tech startups, businesses, events, and communities
APIs & Developer Services
- Stripe — Web and mobile payment APIs built for developers
- Algolia — Hosted search API with support for frontend and backend frameworks
- Sendgrid — Cloud-based email delivery platform
- TransloadIt — File uploading and media processing service
- PushBots — Scalable push notification system for mobile applications
- ConfigCat — Feature flag and configuration management service
- Cryptolens — Cloud-based software licensing platform
Git Clients & Project Management
- Axosoft (GitKraken) — Cross-platform Git GUI client and GitKraken Glo task boards with GitHub Issues sync
- Working Copy — Git client for iOS supporting cloning, editing, committing, and pushing
- Termius — SSH client for desktop and mobile devices
Learning & Courses
- Frontend Masters — In-depth JavaScript, Node.js, and front-end engineering courses
- Thinkful — Project-based courseware and mentoring to launch a developer career
- Flatiron School — Coding bootcamp focused on launching developers into the industry
- SymfonyCasts — Symfony and PHP video tutorials with code challenges
Localization & Data
- Transifex — Localization platform with codebase integration
- Phrase — Cloud-based localization and translation management
- Carto — Spatial data analysis, visualization, and mapping application platform
Design & Productivity
- Icons8 — Design resources including icons, UI illustrations, and photos
- Bootstrap Studio — Desktop application for building responsive websites using the Bootstrap framework
- PomoDone — Pomodoro-based time-tracking app to improve focus and reduce burnout
- SQL Smash — Productivity plugin for SQL Server Management Studio
Why This Matters for Student Developers
The practical value of the pack extends beyond cost savings. Having access to production-grade tools — real CI/CD pipelines, cloud infrastructure, professional IDEs, and monitoring systems — lets students build and deploy projects that reflect actual industry workflows. This hands-on experience is significantly more valuable on a résumé or portfolio than toy projects built in isolated learning environments.
For DevOps and platform engineering students in particular, free access to tools like Travis CI, Datadog, Sentry, AWS Educate, Azure, DigitalOcean, and Heroku means you can practice the full software delivery lifecycle — build, test, deploy, monitor, and iterate — without spending a cent.
How to Apply
To apply for the GitHub Student Developer Pack:
- Sign in to your GitHub account (or create one if you don’t have one).
- Visit education.github.com/pack.
- Click Get your pack and follow the verification steps.
- Submit proof of enrollment — school email, student ID, or equivalent documentation.
- Wait for GitHub’s review, which typically takes a short time but may vary.
Once approved, you can access each partner offer directly from the pack dashboard. Individual partner offers have their own redemption steps, but most are straightforward — often a promo code or an OAuth connection to your GitHub account.
Keep an Eye on the Current Partner List
The partner list in this article reflects the state of the pack as of August 2019. GitHub regularly adds and removes partners, updates offer terms, and adjusts credit amounts. Before applying for any specific tool, verify current availability and offer details on the official GitHub Student Developer Pack page. The $45,000 savings figure cited by GitHub is also a combined, theoretical maximum across all offers — actual value depends on which tools you use and for how long.