diff --git a/pkg/cmd/opts/quickstarts.go b/pkg/cmd/opts/quickstarts.go
index c6d37611be..a1b0e7ae28 100644
--- a/pkg/cmd/opts/quickstarts.go
+++ b/pkg/cmd/opts/quickstarts.go
@@ -64,7 +64,18 @@ func (o *CommonOptions) LoadQuickStartsFromLocations(locations []v1.QuickStartLo
 			if kind == "" {
 				kind = gits.KindGitHub
 			}
-			gitProvider, err := o.GitProviderForGitServerURL(gitURL, kind, "")
+
+			var gitProvider gits.GitProvider
+			var err error
+
+			// If this is a default quickstart location but there's no github.com credentials, fall back to anonymous
+			server := config.GetOrCreateServer(gitURL)
+			userAuth := config.CurrentUser(server, o.InCluster())
+			if kube.IsDefaultQuickstartLocation(location) && (userAuth == nil || userAuth.IsInvalid()) {
+				gitProvider, err = gits.NewAnonymousGitHubProvider(server, nil)
+			} else {
+				gitProvider, err = o.GitProviderForGitServerURL(gitURL, kind, "")
+			}
 			if err != nil {
 				return model, err
 			}
diff --git a/pkg/kube/quickstarts.go b/pkg/kube/quickstarts.go
index 25d4b82bcc..0cb8fe5206 100644
--- a/pkg/kube/quickstarts.go
+++ b/pkg/kube/quickstarts.go
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ package kube
 
 import (
 	"fmt"
+	"reflect"
 
 	v1 "github.com/jenkins-x/jx/pkg/apis/jenkins.io/v1"
 	"github.com/jenkins-x/jx/pkg/client/clientset/versioned"
@@ -34,3 +35,13 @@ func GetQuickstartLocations(jxClient versioned.Interface, ns string) ([]v1.Quick
 	answer = env.Spec.TeamSettings.QuickstartLocations
 	return answer, nil
 }
+
+// IsDefaultQuickstartLocation checks whether the given quickstart location is a default one, and if so returns true
+func IsDefaultQuickstartLocation(location v1.QuickStartLocation) bool {
+	for _, l := range DefaultQuickstartLocations {
+		if reflect.DeepEqual(l, location) {
+			return true
+		}
+	}
+	return false
+}