Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Phabricator VS SourceHut

Compare Phabricator VS SourceHut and see what are their differences

Phabricator logo Phabricator

Phacility - Phabricator

SourceHut logo SourceHut

Git and Mercurial hosting, mailing lists, bug tracking, continuous integration, and more
  • Phabricator Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-13
  • SourceHut Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-17

Phabricator features and specs

  • Comprehensive Toolset
    Phabricator offers a wide range of tools including code review, repository hosting, bug tracking, project management, and more, all integrated into one platform.
  • Customizability
    Users can customize workflows, forms, and other aspects to fit the specific needs of their projects.
  • Powerful Code Review
    Phabricator provides advanced code review features like inline comments, custom fields, and audit trails, making it a robust tool for maintaining code quality.
  • Open Source
    Being open-source, Phabricator allows organizations to host their instance, providing control over data and customizations without licensing fees.
  • Multi-repository Support
    It supports multiple version control systems (Git, Mercurial, and Subversion) and allows managing multiple repositories within the same project.

Possible disadvantages of Phabricator

  • Complex Setup
    Phabricator can be challenging to install and configure, requiring a good level of technical knowledge and infrastructure.
  • Steep Learning Curve
    New users might find it difficult to navigate and use all the features due to its extensive functionalities and less intuitive user interface.
  • Limited Third-Party Integrations
    Compared to other platforms, Phabricator has fewer integrations with third-party tools, which might be a limitation for some teams.
  • Dependency on Phacility's Future
    Phacility announced that they will cease operations, which means the future maintenance and updates of Phabricator could be uncertain.
  • Performance Issues
    For large-scale projects with many users and repositories, Phabricator may experience performance issues and could require significant resources to run smoothly.

SourceHut features and specs

  • Minimalistic Design
    SourceHut prides itself on simplicity and a minimalist interface, which makes it easy to navigate and reduces distractions.
  • Highly Configurable CI
    SourceHut offers a highly configurable continuous integration (CI) system that allows for a great deal of customization in build pipelines.
  • Focus on Free Software
    SourceHut places a strong emphasis on free and open-source software, aligning with the values of many developers in the community.
  • Fast Performance
    The lightweight nature of SourceHut's web interface enhances load times and overall performance.
  • Email-based Workflow
    The platform offers a unique email-based workflow for code review and patches, which can be more efficient for some developers.
  • Privacy-focused
    SourceHut emphasizes user privacy, avoiding tracking and invasive data collection.

Possible disadvantages of SourceHut

  • Learning Curve
    The unique email-based workflow and minimalist design might have a steeper learning curve for new users.
  • Lack of Popular Integrations
    Unlike some other platforms, SourceHut does not support as many third-party integrations out of the box.
  • Paid Service
    SourceHut is primarily a paid service, which might be a barrier for some users, especially those looking for free options.
  • Limited Community Support
    As a relatively new and niche platform, SourceHut has a smaller user community, which can limit the availability of community support and resources.
  • Sparse Documentation
    The documentation available might be considered sparse compared to more established platforms, making it harder for new users to get started.
  • Fewer Built-in Features
    SourceHut has fewer built-in features compared to giants like GitHub or GitLab, which offer extensive integrated tools and services.

Phabricator videos

Phabricator code review session at Wikimedia Hackathon Zurich

More videos:

  • Review - Phabricator and Lando Brownbag July 2 2018
  • Review - Nizameddin Ordulu - Phabricator: An all-in-one tool for code review

SourceHut videos

System Crafters Live! - What is GNU? • Is Sourcehut the future? • Q&A

More videos:

  • Review - Building Natalie on OpenBSD with Sourcehut

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Phabricator and SourceHut)
Code Collaboration
50 50%
50% 50
Git
47 47%
53% 53
Software Development
66 66%
34% 34
Project Management
67 67%
33% 33

User comments

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

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, SourceHut seems to be a lot more popular than Phabricator. While we know about 58 links to SourceHut, we've tracked only 3 mentions of Phabricator. 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.

Phabricator mentions (3)

  • Migrating from Phabricator to Azure Devops. Have some questions.
    My company has used Phabricator, which is an alternative to Azure Devops, for about 5 years. A few days ago they announced that the project won't be maintained anymore, so we are looking into alternatives. We have around 50 devs+product folks that use Phabricator at the moment. Source: almost 4 years ago
  • Is there any "Unified HUB SOlution" in this Microservices era?
    You also mention Gitlab is close to what you would like - maybe Phabricator is even closer: https://phacility.com/phabricator/. Source: about 4 years ago
  • Is there an alternative to open project with the next characteristics ?
    Https://phacility.com/phabricator/ I think checks most of those boxes, maybe all. Source: about 4 years ago

SourceHut mentions (58)

  • Forgejo: A self-hosted lightweight software forge
    b) The barrier to create accounts on yet another platform to contribute. In that regards I find the original way of just using email's to send patches just such a brilliant idea, because at least it eliminates my second point completely. That's why I think sourcehut [0] is such a nice idea at least in theory. Though now you have to teach people not only how to use "git" but also hot to use "git" via email :D... - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • Ask HN: Anyonne tried alternative company models (like a co-op) for SaaS?
    Https://sourcehut.org/ is a sort of coop open source project and a SaaS with an interesting model. There is also https://opencollective.com/ which provides a platform for collective ownership of an online business. - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • Why GitHub Won
    If you just want an online repository, go with Sourcehut (https://sourcehut.org/). - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
  • Ask HN: What's Happenning with SourceHut?
    For anyone coming across this, a new page has been set up at https://sourcehut.org/. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Using Git Offline
    Do you know SourceHut? https://sourcehut.org/ I would be really curious to have your opinion about it as compared to how it was 14 years ago. I feel like SourceHut does a really good job helping on the tooling side (it's super easy to setup a mailing list). Also I find Aerc very cool for that. The author describes it here: https://drewdevault.com/2022/07/25/Code-review-with-aerc.html. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Phabricator and SourceHut, you can also consider the following products

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

GitHub - Originally founded as a project to simplify sharing code, GitHub has grown into an application used by over a million people to store over two million code repositories, making GitHub the largest code host in the world.

Gitea - A painless self-hosted Git service

BitBucket - Bitbucket is a free code hosting site for Mercurial and Git. Manage your development with a hosted wiki, issue tracker and source code.

Redmine - Flexible project management web application

Jira - The #1 software development tool used by agile teams. Jira Software is built for every member of your software team to plan, track, and release great software.