There’s no question that GitHub is a powerful, highly rated platform. It’s the industry standard in 2025. But surprisingly – or not – Google searches for “GitHub alternative” have gone up by 150% over the past 4 years. More and more teams are looking for other source code management and collaboration platforms. Why is that?
When teams start looking beyond GitHub, it usually isn’t because GitHub is bad. It’s because their needs have outgrown what GitHub was built for.
At Assembla, we’ve seen this pattern over and over. We’ve been around for 20 years, watching software development and project management shift and evolve. Flashy new platforms come and go. But practical, no-nonsense tools that keep teams productive and support async collaboration? Those don’t go out of style.
We’ve worked with teams of all sizes who wanted to move faster, stay organized, and cut the friction caused by juggling too many disconnected tools. That’s why we built Assembla: a tightly integrated platform that gives teams clarity and control, without unnecessary noise.
In this article, we’ll walk you through common issues developers face with GitHub. These are based on thousands of real user reviews. We’ll also show why Assembla is a strong alternative for teams that need better project management, scalable storage, large file support, and a unified workspace.
Table of Contents
Why look beyond GitHub?
First, contrary to what many people think, Git and GitHub aren’t the same thing. Git is the most popular version control system in the world. GitHub is a source code management and CI/CD platform for Git repositories, owned by Microsoft. Git is an open source version control system.
GitHub gives developers a place to store code, track changes, collaborate and deploy projects. But many developers first learn Git and GitHub at the same time in school or bootcamps. It’s easy to assume they’re inseparable, but they’re not.
Platforms like GitLab, Bitbucket, and Assembla offer other ways to host and manage code. Some teams may find these options suit their workflow better.
Even with GitHub’s solid 4.8 rating on Capterra, it isn’t perfect. We went through thousands of GitHub reviews and found these to be the most common complaints:
Steep learning curve for non-technical users
GitHub’s interface and workflows are primarily designed for developers, which can pose challenges for non-technical users such as designers and artists. The platform’s reliance on Git commands, branching strategies, and pull requests requires a level of technical understanding that may not be intuitive for those without a development background.
Limited built-in project management
GitHub Issues offers basic tracking for bugs and tasks, but it lacks advanced project management features. For instance, it doesn’t natively support complex workflows, detailed reporting, or resource management, which are essential for managing large-scale projects .
Limited CI/CD
GitHub Actions provides integrated CI/CD capabilities, but it may not match the depth and flexibility of established tools like Jenkins or GitLab CI. Features such as advanced deployment strategies (e.g., canary or blue-green deployments) often require additional configuration or are not as straightforward to implement.
Hidden costs
Access to GitHub’s Advanced Security features, including secret scanning and code scanning, is restricted to the Enterprise plan, which is priced at $49 per active committer per month. This pricing model can be a significant investment for organizations, especially smaller teams or startups.
Security concerns
If a repo was ever forked in its lifetime, it’s possible to access data from deleted forks and repos, even on private repositories. This means that sensitive information could potentially be retrieved even after a repository is deleted.
Aggressive storage caps
When a repository nears 1 GB, GitHub starts asking politely to “take corrective action.” 5GB is the more-or-less hard limit on GitHub. Then there’s a separate storage for Git LFS that also varies by plan. These limits and thresholds are nothing but a headache for teams in binary-intensive industries like M&E that just want the freedom to scale without having to read the fine print.
“Pure garbage” pull requests
No review was more scathing than Linus Torvald’s, the creator of Linux and Git, who said, “Git comes with a nice pull-request generation module, but GitHub decided to replace it with their own totally inferior version. As a result, I consider GitHub useless for these kinds of things. It’s fine for hosting, but the pull requests and online commit editing are just pure garbage.”
These are real struggles for teams that need more than just source code management. They’re the kinds of blockers that slow teams down, force them to buy extra tools, or lead to frustrating storage limits that add unexpected costs. That’s why so many teams start searching for better options. And it’s exactly why we built Assembla.
Here’s where Assembla can be a better fit.
Larger codebases and binary files
Many teams work with large assets and binary files that Git struggles to handle, even with Git LFS. GitHub’s storage limits and bandwidth restrictions can become expensive fast.
At Assembla, storage is a non-issue: for every Assembla Cloud plan you get either 50 GB or 250 GB of storage. No extra bandwidth fees, no Git LFS-specific storage, and no fine print apart from the one you’d hardly worry much about: $0,2 for every GB after your plan limit.
For teams in asset-heavy industries, we also support Git alongside Perforce and/or SVN. This makes Assembla a versatile home for teams with a hybrid workflow. Your developers want Git but your artists prefer Perforce? Assembla can make it happen.
Project management and version control in one place
GitHub is great for hosting and deploying. But most teams using it need extra tools like Jira to track work, run sprints, and measure progress. This creates scattered workflows, poor visibility, and time lost switching between tools.
At Assembla, a robust project management tool is built right into your repositories – not just a basic issue tracker. Our platform was designed around the Agile methodology. We offer ticketing, sprint boards, time tracking, velocity charts, cumulative flow diagrams, burndown charts, cycle time tracking, and blocking ticket reports. Tickets are tightly intertwined with pull requests.
You can see what your team is working on and how fast they’re moving, without jumping between apps.
Async collaboration
With more and more teams working across time zones now, nailing async collaboration is key. We built tools like our native standup feature to help teams quickly log what they’re working on, what’s done, and what’s blocking them.
This way, project managers and team leads can check progress at a glance without the need for constant follow-ups.
We also include a built-in wiki for documentation. Your team’s knowledge base stays connected to your tickets and code, making it easier to onboard new team members and keep docs up to date.
Streamlined, no-nonsense productivity
At Assembla, we believe teams work best in focused, distraction-free spaces. Our platform is streamlined. No unnecessary features or flashy UI tricks. Just what you need to get work done. Over the years, we’ve seen trend-driven tools come and go. The teams that stay with us value stability, simplicity, and control.
Bespoke support that feels personal
We’re not a multi-billion dollar conglomerate. When you open a support ticket at Assembla, you’ll probably talk to the same person from start to finish. If you reach out a year later, there’s a good chance you’ll speak to that same support agent again.
Our support is personal, consistent, and truly helpful.
Additionally, for teams that need custom workflows or unique integrations, our single-tenant hosting solution is fully customizable. Whatever you have set up on-premises or in your private cloud, we can replicate it. You offload the management, but keep full control over your workflow.
One platform, more visibility
GitHub has done a great job evolving beyond its early roots as a home for open-source projects, portfolios, and small dev teams. Today, it’s used by some of the world’s largest organizations.
But even as GitHub has scaled, most companies using it still rely on a patchwork of different tools to fill in the gaps. They use separate platforms for project management, sprint planning, time tracking, documentation, and team updates.
At Assembla, we want to offer teams of all sizes a unified solution where everything happens in one place. We believe developers should spend their time building great products, not managing complex toolchains.
We offer an integrated workspace that combines source control, agile project management, time tracking, async collaboration, and built-in documentation. It’s all connected, with no need to constantly jump between disconnected apps.
We offer an integrated workspace that combines source control, agile project management, time tracking, collaboration, and built-in documentation. It’s designed to help productivity-focused teams move faster, collaborate better, and keep everything connected.
