Changes to the GitKraken Student Plan

[adawright]

We are excited to announce changes to our offer from our friends at GitKraken!

These changes will help students improve productivity and streamline workflows while working with Git 👾

About the new offer:

Make Git simpler and safer with the new GitKraken Student plan! Now free for 6 months and then up to 80% off the Pro price as long as you’re a student. Unlock access to professional Git tools with AI assistance and GitHub integration wherever you do your best work: GitKraken desktop for Windows/Mac/Linux, GitLens for IDEs like VS Code, GitKraken CLI, and browser extension — all included in your subscription

Check it out here!

Share how you've used GitKraken as part of your SDP Benefits below! 👇

[gabriel-vanca]

So they've taken something free and made it paid. How is that an "offer"? In this cost of living crisis, how many students can realistically afford a monthly subscription for what is basically a git GUI? No one needs more AI bloatware, yet it seems students will be made to pay for it.

[gabriel-vanca]

Hi @gabriel-vanca,

Thank you for writing in your concern! With the SDP, our aim is always to provide as much free use of products and tools as we can to as many students as possible. As the number of students using the SDP increases, sometimes our partners need to make changes that fit the current student landscape (this is detailed in our terms and conditions here). I completely understand this change is frustrating, but by making this adjustment we are able to continue offering GitKraken completely free to students for 6 months. You are also always able to submit concerns directly to GitKraken here.

Thanks for understanding!

Thank you, @adawright . I have written to them but no answer. I have also seen their communication. They say now over 40,000 students are using the offer so that makes it unfeasible for them. How can a purely local software be unfeasible? It's zero cost to them. The only thing that costs them anything is running the AI. Which students don't want anyway because of plagiarism concerns. Plus, students don't want to be paying for Gitkraken's AI R&D.

Downgrading to the free basic plan isn't an option either as that doesn't include private repositories. Students aren't allowed to work on public repos for their assignments due to plagiarism concerns. So while GitHub makes their private repos free for everyone (as opposed to free only to students, as it used to be years ago), Gitkraken takes the private repos that used to be free and makes them paid even for students. How does that make any sense?

Also, the suggestion that it is feasible to them to support public repos in their free basic plan, but not private repos in the free students plan is just weird. Why would dealing with private repos be an extra cost to them? Again, the only answer I can find is that they're making students pay for their AI (which is the only other difference between the free basic plan and the free students plan).

[adawright]

Hi @gabriel-vanca,

Thank you for sharing your concerns about the transition in the GitKraken offer. We understand that changes like this can be frustrating, and I want to assure you that our colleagues at GitKraken are aware of the feedback from the student community. At GitHub Education, our goal is to provide as much access as possible to students worldwide. Adjusting the offer helps us continue to include GitKraken as a benefit for students, even as circumstances change.

We value your input and will continue to monitor feedback to make improvements wherever possible.

Best,
Ada

[adawright]

Will the education.github.com page be updated to reflect this? It currently still has the old offer.

Hi @Deveroonie,

We are working on making the backend changes to reflect the updated offer. Thank you for your patience and we should have it updated asap! If any other concerns arise, you can submit a support ticket here.

Best,
Ada

[adawright]

For me it says it has expired?

Hi @resslr,

Please submit a support ticket here and one of our support analyst will be able to assist you.

Best,
Ada

[gabriel-vanca]

Hi @adawright ,

Do you know if there is any response to our concerns about this? I have heard nothing from them; I'm hoping you have.

[ramzialhaddad]

I'd prefer if they removed the AI stuff (expensive) and focused on core features for the student plan.

[andrebuilds]

I get that AI features are trendy right now and companies want to show they're "innovative", but honestly? Most students just need the bread and butter features to work really well. The AI stuff is cool when it works, but it's expensive to run and often feels half-baked because they're spreading resources thin. I'd much rather have solid, reliable core functionality than some AI assistant that gives me mediocre suggestions.

[Antoni-Czaplicki]

Hi @adawright - just a quick idea: wouldn’t it be feasible to allow students access to just a desktop client for free? Afaik it shouldn’t put too much pressure on your services as it runs locally. The rest of the useful features like launchpad or ai suggestions could be still behind the paid plan.

For me it would be helpful as the main feature that is missing from the free plan is private repo management and during uni projects it’s often required not to disclose the source code until its handed out.

[gabriel-vanca]

Same here. Disclosing the source code in advance would tipically be deemed (aiding) plagiarism.

[adawright]

Hi @Antoni-Czaplicki,

Thank you for sharing your suggestion and for participating in this community discussion. I’ve shared your feedback with our partners at GitKraken and want to emphasize that student voices play a key role in shaping the offers we provide. If you’d like, you can also share feedback directly with the GitKraken team here.

As mentioned elsewhere on this forum, our goal at GitHub Education is to provide as much access to as many students as possible, and adjusting the offer helps us continue our partnership with GitKraken.

Best,
Ada

[SirzBenjie]

It's disheartening to me that you consider the folks at GitKraken to be your "friends". You should view them as business partners and that's about it. Git Kraken's entire business model is just about as antithetical to Git's whole philosophy as you can get.

As much as I dislike Git Kraken, however, it is wild to me that you can do such crazy distortions to spin this as

We are excited to announce changes to our offer from our friends at GitKraken!

These changes will help students improve productivity and streamline workflows while working with Git 👾

These changes don't do anything of the sort. Git Kraken used to be free for students. Now it isn't. While I think this is a good thing, personally, can you stop with the marketing flair? Just tell it like it is, don't be embarrassed or anything.

[Adrou]

Where's the excitement? $35USD monthly for students... sorry but many of us can't afford it.

[arndkoeppe]

I have been using GitKraken for almost a decade now, from student work to teaching, and I have recommended it to several students during that time. On top of making GitKraken worse with every release by introducing arbitrary restrictions to the free license (private repositories, no self-hosted repositories, and license enforcement), all of which are basic git functionality, they have now also removed teachers from the educational packs. If they want to charge for expensive computational resources like AI, they can charge for them directly, not remove essential, basic features from the core product to force them down users' throats. I will look for another piece of software and also recommend others do the same.

[Defiect]

"We are excited to announce changes to our offer from our friends at GitKraken!", do you realize how cold and tone-deaf this sounds?

It actually doesn't even make logical sense - why would Github Education be excited to tell us that one of their partners is backing out of the Student Developer Pack?

[Yastruhank]

Since GitKraken clearly doesn't want student users, we're happy to oblige and stop using it. Good luck keeping any users at all with this attitude.

[griffi-gh]

Oh i just switched away from vscode/gitlens for my workflow towards Zed and more open tools and im so glad i did it now, I was only tolerating GitLens licensing due to having that student plan tbh