Atlassian vs GitHub: Revenue, Profit and Business Model
Atlassian reported $6.6B of revenue in FY2026 and a net loss of $53.8M. GitHub reported $2B of revenue in FY2024 and — of net income.
Latest financial snapshot
Financial summary
Atlassian
Atlassian's fiscal 2026 revenue was $6.57 billion, up 26%, with Cloud at $4.41 billion (up 28%), Data Center at $1.83 billion (up 25%), and Marketplace and other at $330.7 million. Subscription annual recurring revenue reached $6.6 billion, up 23%. The company is still unprofitable under GAAP, but the gap is narrowing: the net loss fell to $53.8 million from $256.7 million, and GAAP operating income was positive for the first time, at $10.4 million. Stock-based compensation of $1.61 billion, 24% of revenue, is most of what separates that result from $1.32 billion of free cash flow. Research and development absorbed $3.27 billion, half of revenue, against $1.54 billion for marketing and sales. Cash and cash equivalents ended the year at $1.24 billion, after $1.23 billion of cash paid for the Browser Company and DX acquisitions and $1.81 billion of Class A share repurchases, against $989.6 million of long-term debt.
GitHub
Microsoft does not report GitHub as a separate segment, so its financials are known only from occasional disclosures. GitHub's revenue was reported at roughly $200-300 million when Microsoft agreed to buy it in 2018. Microsoft said GitHub passed $1 billion in annual recurring revenue in October 2022 and reached a $2 billion annual revenue run rate by July 2024, with Copilot driving more than 40% of that year's growth. Microsoft has not published a newer GitHub revenue figure; later disclosures have focused on Copilot adoption, including 4.7 million paid Copilot subscribers in January 2026, up 75% year over year.
Revenue and profit by year
Atlassian
| Year | Revenue | Net income | Margin | Growth | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2026 | $6.6B | -$53.8M | -0.8% | +26.0% | Source |
| FY2025 | $5.2B | -$256.7M | -4.9% | +19.7% | Source |
| FY2024 | $4.4B | -$300.5M | -6.9% | +23.3% | Source |
| FY2023 | $3.5B | -$486.8M | -13.8% | +26.1% | Source |
| FY2022 | $2.8B | -$519.5M | -18.5% | +34.2% | Source |
| FY2021 | $2.1B | -$579M | -27.7% | +29.4% | Source |
| FY2020 | $1.6B | -$350.7M | -21.7% | +33.4% | Source |
| FY2019 | $1.2B | -$637.6M | -52.7% | +38.5% | Source |
| FY2018 | $874M | -$113.4M | -13.0% | +41.0% | Source |
| FY2017 | $619.9M | -$37.4M | -6.0% | +35.6% | Source |
| FY2016 | $457.1M | $4.4M | 1.0% | — | Source |
GitHub
| Year | Revenue | Net income | Margin | Growth | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2024 | $2B | — | 0.0% | — | Source |
| FY2022 | $1B | — | 0.0% | — | Source |
| FY2018 | $300M | — | 0.0% | — | Source |
Where the revenue comes from
Atlassian
- Cloud subscriptions~67%
Per-user cloud subscriptions for Jira, Confluence, Jira Service Management, Trello, Bitbucket, Loom, and Rovo across Free, Standard, Premium, and Enterprise editions. Cloud revenue was $4.41 billion in fiscal 2026, up 28%, and reached $1.21 billion in the fourth quarter alone.
- Data Center subscriptions~28%
On-premises term licenses with bundled support for self-managed deployments of Jira, Confluence, and other products. Data Center revenue was $1.83 billion in fiscal 2026, up 25%, but Atlassian announced the end of life of the line in September 2025: no new customers from March 2026, no expansions for existing customers after March 2028, and no maintenance after March 2029.
- Marketplace and other~5%
Fees from third-party app sales through the Atlassian Marketplace, which carries more than 6,000 apps and integrations, plus premier support, advisory, and training services. Marketplace and other revenue was $330.7 million in fiscal 2026, up 10%.
GitHub
- GitHub Enterprise Subscriptions
Not disclosed
Recurring per-seat licensing for GitHub Enterprise Cloud and Server, delivering SAML SSO, advanced governance, custom roles, and 99.99% uptime SLAs.
- GitHub Copilot AI Subscriptions
Not disclosed
Per-seat Copilot subscriptions for individuals and organizations, including Copilot Business ($19 per user per month) and Copilot Enterprise ($39 per user per month).
- GitHub Actions & Cloud Compute Consumption
Not disclosed
Metered billing for automated CI/CD runner build minutes (Linux, Windows, macOS, GPU runners) and GitHub Codespaces cloud dev compute.
- GitHub Advanced Security (GHAS) & npm
Not disclosed
Add-on security seat licensing for CodeQL static code analysis, secret scanning, software supply chain defense, and private npm package hosting.
Business model and strategy
Atlassian
How it makes money
Atlassian runs a land-and-expand B2B SaaS model. A small team, usually in engineering, adopts Jira, Confluence, Bitbucket, or Trello through a free edition or a self-service purchase. Because the tools connect to each other and to outside systems, use spreads to other departments such as IT, marketing, and HR.
Growth strategy
Atlassian's growth strategy has three parts. It pushes beyond engineering with Jira Service Management, aimed at the IT, HR, and customer-service desks that ServiceNow and Freshworks serve. It packages products into Collections, bundles sold around an outcome rather than per app, covering teamwork, software, service, and strategy.
Competitive advantage
Atlassian's moat is switching cost. Jira is often criticized for complexity, but it holds years of issue history, workflow configuration, and integrations with code repositories and CI systems, so replacing it means rebuilding how an engineering organization records its work.
GitHub
How it makes money
GitHub runs a freemium subscription model. Public and private repositories are free for individuals, which keeps developers and open-source projects on the platform. Revenue comes from paid seats: GitHub Team and GitHub Enterprise (cloud or self-hosted Server) for companies that need SSO, audit logs and compliance controls;
Growth strategy
GitHub's growth plan centers on Copilot. It has expanded Copilot from code completion into chat, code review and a coding agent that can take a GitHub issue and return a pull request, and it lets users choose models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and others. Alongside AI, GitHub keeps selling Enterprise seats and Advanced Security into large companies, often bundled through Microsoft's enterprise sales channel.
Competitive advantage
GitHub's main advantage is network effects. Most major open-source projects, from Linux mirrors to React and Kubernetes, are hosted there, so new developers sign up by default and their commit history becomes a public portfolio. Companies then buy GitHub Enterprise because their engineers already know it.
Questions about Atlassian vs GitHub
Which company has higher revenue — Atlassian Corporation or GitHub, Inc.?
Atlassian Corporation reported $6.6B (FY2026), while GitHub, Inc. reported $2.0B (FY2024). By last reported revenue, Atlassian Corporation is the larger business, with GitHub, Inc. reporting a smaller revenue base. Note: these are from different fiscal years and are not a direct like-for-like comparison.
What is the market cap of Atlassian Corporation vs GitHub, Inc.?
Atlassian Corporation has a market capitalisation of $45.4B. A public market cap figure for GitHub, Inc. was not available (it may be privately held).
Which is more financially efficient — Atlassian Corporation or GitHub, Inc.?
Atlassian Corporation generates $494k / employee in revenue per employee, while GitHub, Inc. generates $667k / employee. GitHub, Inc. shows higher revenue efficiency per headcount, though this reflects business model differences — capital-light software companies routinely outperform labour-intensive manufacturers on this metric.
How do Atlassian Corporation and GitHub, Inc. make money?
Atlassian Corporation and GitHub, Inc. generate revenue in fundamentally different ways. Atlassian Corporation: Atlassian runs a land-and-expand B2B SaaS model. GitHub, Inc.: GitHub runs a freemium subscription model.
Is Atlassian Corporation bigger than GitHub, Inc.?
By last reported revenue, Atlassian Corporation ($6.6B (FY2026)) is the larger company compared to GitHub, Inc. ($2.0B (FY2024)). Revenue scale is one dimension of size — market capitalisation, employee count, and geographic reach are also relevant depending on the context.
Figures come from each company's filings and the sources linked beside them. Amounts reported in another currency are shown in US dollars at an approximate rate and marked with ~. Back to the Atlassian vs GitHub overview