Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Fossil VS Apache Subversion

Compare Fossil VS Apache Subversion and see what are their differences

Fossil logo Fossil

Simple, high-reliability, distributed software configuration management

Apache Subversion logo Apache Subversion

Mirror of Apache Subversion. Contribute to apache/subversion development by creating an account on GitHub.
  • Fossil Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-23
  • Apache Subversion Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-27

Fossil features and specs

  • Version Control Integration
    Fossil is a distributed version control system that integrates bug tracking, a wiki, and a blog, providing a comprehensive development environment in one tool.
  • Self-Contained
    Fossil is a single executable that contains everything needed, making it easy to install and manage with low dependency overhead.
  • Simple UI
    Fossil includes a built-in, easy-to-use web interface that allows users to browse repositories, manage tickets, and handle wiki content without needing separate tools.
  • SQLite Backend
    Fossil uses an SQLite database to store all its data, making it reliable, efficient, and easy to backup and transfer.
  • Integrated Bug Tracking
    The integrated bug tracking system allows developers to manage issues and bugs directly within the same environment, streamlining the workflow.
  • Cross-Platform
    Fossil is designed to work on multiple operating systems, including Linux, macOS, and Windows, ensuring a consistent experience across different environments.
  • Strong Documentation
    Fossil comes with extensive documentation and a supportive community, which helps users quickly get up to speed and solve issues.

Possible disadvantages of Fossil

  • Niche User Base
    Fossil has a relatively small user base compared to more popular version control systems like Git, which may result in fewer resources and community support.
  • Limited Third-Party Integration
    Due to its smaller market share, Fossil has fewer integrations and third-party tools available compared to its competitors, limiting extensibility.
  • Learning Curve
    Users new to Fossil might find its all-in-one approach with integrated tools to be complex initially, especially if they are accustomed to using separate systems for version control, bug tracking, and wikis.
  • Performance
    While suitable for many projects, Fossil might not perform as well as other VCS systems when handling very large repositories or extremely high volumes of transactions.
  • UI Customization
    The built-in web interface, while simple and functional, may lack the level of customization and modern design aesthetics that some users expect.

Apache Subversion features and specs

  • Centralized Version Control
    Apache Subversion (SVN) uses a centralized repository model, which makes it easy to manage and control all project files in one place. All history and versions are stored on the server, making backup and repository management straightforward.
  • Atomic Commits
    Subversion ensures that commits are atomic operations. This means that either all changes in a commit are applied, or none are, helping to maintain the integrity of the repository.
  • Comprehensive Authorization
    SVN offers fine-grained authentication and authorization models. It can integrate with various authentication systems and allows granular access control on a per-directory and per-user basis.
  • Binary File Handling
    SVN handles binary files more efficiently compared to some other version control systems, reducing the size of repositories and improving performance when large files are committed.
  • Mature and Stable
    SVN has been around since 2000 and is widely used in enterprise settings. It is stable, well-documented, and has a vast community for support.

Possible disadvantages of Apache Subversion

  • Limited Branching and Merging
    SVN’s branching and merging capabilities are more cumbersome compared to distributed version control systems (DVCS) like Git. Merging in SVN can be complex and time-consuming.
  • Single Point of Failure
    As a centralized version control system, the SVN repository server becomes a single point of failure. If the server goes down, no commits can be made until it is back up.
  • Performance Overhead
    Working with a remote central repository can introduce latency and performance overhead, especially with large projects and many users.
  • Less support for Offline Work
    SVN generally requires network access to the central repository for most operations. This makes it less flexible for developers needing to work offline, compared to DVCS where local copies are complete repositories.
  • Complex Repository Management
    Managing SVN repositories, particularly for large projects, can become complex and may require significant administrative effort to handle repositories, backups, and access controls.

Fossil videos

Why Is EVERYONE Giving This Watch 5 Stars?! - A Brutally Honest Fossil Watch Review

More videos:

  • Review - What Happened To Fossil Watches?
  • Tutorial - Fossil watch real vs. fake review. How to tell counterfeit Fossil wrist watch

Apache Subversion videos

Setting Up Apache Subversion on Windows

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Fossil and Apache Subversion)
Code Collaboration
45 45%
55% 55
Git
43 43%
57% 57
Project Management
100 100%
0% 0
Version Control
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using Fossil and Apache Subversion. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Fossil seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 25 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Fossil mentions (25)

  • I struggled with Git, so I'm making a game to spare others the pain
    Sort of repeating a nested comment, but - I've been using fossil ( https://fossil-scm.org/home/doc/trunk/www/index.wiki ) for years and absolutely love it. Single executable you just download and put in your path. Sane, well-documented interface (CLI, API and web). Full repo in a single SQLite file. Highly intelligent and efficient diff-based storage and compression (including network transfers). Rock-solid code.... - Source: Hacker News / 2 months ago
  • jj: A Git-compatible VCS that is both simple and powerful
    Neither do I. This discussion isn't about what someone else runs or doesn't run on their computers. By all means, run `jj`. Or use `fossil`[1], which I maintain is technically superior to both `git` and `jj` (if you disagree, show me another VCS that also gives me a ticketing system, wiki, documentation system, forum and webui, all from a single executeable that allows me to set everything up with a few command... - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • Htmx Is Composable?
    Feedback to author: The diagram and explanation took a beat longer than normal to scan, since this buries a bit that it's not about the beautiful source control system called fossil shipped as a composition of modules: https://fossil-scm.org/home/doc/trunk/www/index.wiki Great diagrams, so of course that's the first thing a reader will skim. People biuld things based on git all the time, the diagram looks like... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Cloudflare API Down
    There are (all too rare) tools that back those objects with git as well. And there's always fossil ... https://fossil-scm.org/home/doc/trunk/www/index.wiki But it's not git. :-(. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Git Based SDLC
    I don't think git should be the infrastructure of collaboration. It's good for long-lived artifacts, but isn't good for discussion, for rights management, ... Fossil (https://fossil-scm.org/home/doc/trunk/www/index.wiki) is of course better, but if git must remain, I believe the base infrastructure should be the mailing list. Patches, branches and releases can live inside a mailing list, it is naturally built for... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
View more

Apache Subversion mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Apache Subversion yet. Tracking of Apache Subversion recommendations started around May 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Fossil and Apache Subversion, you can also consider the following products

Mercurial SCM - Mercurial is a free, distributed source control management tool.

Git - Git is a free and open source version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency. It is easy to learn and lightweight with lighting fast performance that outclasses competitors.

GitLab - Create, review and deploy code together with GitLab open source git repo management software | GitLab

Atlassian Bitbucket Server - Atlassian Bitbucket Server is a scalable collaborative Git solution.

Redmine - Flexible project management web application

GitHub Desktop - GitHub Desktop is a seamless way to contribute to projects on GitHub and GitHub Enterprise.