Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

GitHub Codespaces VS GitHub Desktop

Compare GitHub Codespaces VS GitHub Desktop and see what are their differences

GitHub Codespaces logo GitHub Codespaces

GItHub Codespaces is a hosted remote coding environment by GitHub based on Visual Studio Codespaces integrated directly for GitHub.

GitHub Desktop logo GitHub Desktop

GitHub Desktop is a seamless way to contribute to projects on GitHub and GitHub Enterprise.
  • GitHub Codespaces Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-01
  • GitHub Desktop Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-02

GitHub Codespaces videos

Brief introduction of GitHub Codespaces

More videos:

  • Review - GitHub Codespaces First Look - 5 things to look for

GitHub Desktop videos

GitHub Desktop 2.0 -- Easy Mode Version Control

More videos:

  • Review - GitHub Desktop Quick Intro For Windows
  • Tutorial - Git and GitHub for Beginners: GitHub basics, and how to use GitHub Desktop

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to GitHub Codespaces and GitHub Desktop)
Text Editors
100 100%
0% 0
Git
0 0%
100% 100
IDE
100 100%
0% 0
Code Collaboration
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using GitHub Codespaces and GitHub Desktop. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare GitHub Codespaces and GitHub Desktop

GitHub Codespaces Reviews

12 Best Online IDE and Code Editors to Develop Web Applications
Beginners who want to try their luck can use GitHub Codespaces for free with limited benefits, but you will have enough features to carry on. If you are a team or an enterprise, you can start using GitHub Codespaces at $40/user/year.
Source: geekflare.com

GitHub Desktop Reviews

Best Git GUI Clients of 2022: All Platforms Included
Creating branches and switching to existing ones isn’t a hassle, so is merging code with the master branch. Furthermore, you can track your changes with GitHub Desktop. Check out our detailed guide on how to use GitHub for more detailed information.
Boost Development Productivity With These 14 Git Clients for Windows and Mac
GitHub Desktop is the global standard for working with Git-related tasks in a graphical user interface (GUI). It is an open-source tool and hence completely free to use for all sorts of projects. It is available for both Windows and macOS desktops and laptops.
Source: geekflare.com
Best Git GUI Clients for Windows
GitHub Desktop is, perhaps, the most famous solution for working with Git in a visual interface. It is familiar to all developers keeping their repositories on GitHub (Git repository hosting service used for version-controlling IT projects). This free Git GUI is open-source, transparent, and functional. When you consider the Git graphical interface for Windows, GitHub...
Source: blog.devart.com

Social recommendations and mentions

GitHub Codespaces might be a bit more popular than GitHub Desktop. We know about 142 links to it since March 2021 and only 130 links to GitHub Desktop. 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.

GitHub Codespaces mentions (142)

  • Mastering Code Quality: Setting Up ESLint with Standard JS in TypeScript Projects
    If your team is using a Cloud Development Environment such as GitHub Codespaces, or Dev Containers such as Docker, you can even share the installation of dbaeumer.vscode-eslint with your teammates, via devcontainer.json. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Coding on tab s9 ultra
    Https://github.com/features/codespaces Currently, it is probably the most convenient for coding on mobile devices. Source: 6 months ago
  • Learning Angular
    I am currently right now viewing Angular Essential Training (paid by my company but I have a personal Pluralsight) and using GitHub Codespaces for $4 a month to host the virtuals created for such coding/learning. Source: 6 months ago
  • Amazon CodeCatalyst - Is it ready for the enterprise?
    I’m very interested in recent advancements in cloud-hosted development environments. GitHub Codespaces is the option I have the most experience with and the one I use more generally. With cloud-hosted development environments, your local machine becomes more of a thin client that facilitates access to the internet and the development environment. That is a considerable step toward enabling better education in... - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • Dev Containers: Open, Develop, Repeat...
    Dev Containers also power GitHub Codespaces, which allows you to have the same Dev Container experience in the Browser running in the Cloud! - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
View more

GitHub Desktop mentions (130)

  • HOW TO USE GIT AND GIT GUIs.
    This is a simple yet powerful GUI for Git that integrate well with GitHub. It’s available for Windows and macOS. You can download it from the GitHub Desktop website: https://desktop.github.com/. - Source: dev.to / 12 days ago
  • Launch HN: Diversion (YC S22) – Cloud-Native Git Alternative
    Congrats on the launch! It's always exciting to see more competition in the version control space. One question I have is whether you guys are better than: https://desktop.github.com/ This seems to do the exact same thing, be free forever, and have a more mature GUI that is also easier to use than regular terminal git. In my firm, even with people who don't know how to code, they can use github desktop (since it... - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
  • Ask HN: Can we do better than Git for version control?
    - Product designers for open-source hardware. Various design files, SVG etc. I’ve experimented with a “GUI only” git flow - just to see what is possible, so I could introduce the concept to others. I found GitHub desktop app (https://desktop.github.com/)did a great job of visually showing git flows and functions, but for a non-tech/programmming person, the tool would be daunting. Curiosity what your suggested tech... - Source: Hacker News / 6 months ago
  • The Scariest Thing Happened to Me Today--Now I'm Scared to Use Git Again
    Just use github desktop its an open source tool https://desktop.github.com/. Source: 6 months ago
  • How to Deploy React App on gh-pages: Beginner's Guide
    Download and install GitHub Desktop if you haven't already. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing GitHub Codespaces and GitHub Desktop, you can also consider the following products

replit - Code, create, andlearn together. Use our free, collaborative, in-browser IDE to code in 50+ languages — without spending a second on setup.

GitKraken - The intuitive, fast, and beautiful cross-platform Git client.

CloudShell - Cloud Shell is a free admin machine with browser-based command-line access for managing your infrastructure and applications on Google Cloud Platform.

SourceTree - Mac and Windows client for Mercurial and Git.

StackBlitz - Online VS Code Editor for Angular and React

SmartGit - SmartGit is a front-end for the distributed version control system Git and runs on Windows, Mac OS...