Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

SourceTree VS Git

Compare SourceTree VS Git and see what are their differences

SourceTree logo SourceTree

Mac and Windows client for Mercurial and Git.

Git logo 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.
  • SourceTree Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-23
  • Git Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-01

SourceTree features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    SourceTree offers an intuitive GUI for Git and Mercurial version control, making it easier for users who may not be comfortable with command-line operations.
  • Rich Feature Set
    Supports various Git functionalities like branching, merging, stash, rebase, and also offers visualizations of repository history and changes.
  • Integration with Bitbucket and GitHub
    Seamlessly integrates with popular repositories like Bitbucket and GitHub, providing enhanced features for working within these platforms.
  • Free to Use
    SourceTree is available for free, making it accessible for individual developers and small teams without any financial investment.
  • Cross-Platform
    Available for both Windows and macOS, providing versatility for users across different operating systems.

Possible disadvantages of SourceTree

  • Performance Issues
    Some users report slow performance, especially with large repositories or when performing complex Git operations.
  • Steep Learning Curve for Advanced Features
    While basic operations are straightforward, mastering the more advanced functionalities can be challenging for new users.
  • Occasional Bugs and Stability Issues
    Users have occasionally encountered bugs or crashes, affecting the stability of the application.
  • Lacks Some Advanced Git Features
    Although it covers a broad range of functionalities, some advanced Git features may still require command-line operations.
  • Limited Support and Documentation
    Compared to some other tools, users might find the support and documentation less comprehensive, potentially making problem-solving harder.

Git features and specs

  • Distributed Version Control
    Git is a distributed version control system, meaning every user has a complete local copy of the repository. This offers better redundancy and allows users to work offline.
  • Branching and Merging
    Git makes branching and merging processes simple and efficient, allowing users to try out new features, fix bugs, or experiment without affecting the main codebase.
  • Speed
    Git operates very quickly because most of its operations are performed locally, making it very swift in comparison to some other version control systems.
  • Flexibility
    It is highly flexible, supporting various workflows including centralized, feature-branch, Gitflow, and forking workflows.
  • Open Source
    Being an open-source tool, it's free to use, and its source code can be reviewed and modified by anyone as needed.
  • Widely Supported
    Git is widely supported by many integrated development environments (IDEs) and collaborative platforms like GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket.
  • Security
    Git uses a mechanism of checksums to ensure data integrity, making it very resilient against changes, corruption, and unauthorized alterations.

Possible disadvantages of Git

  • Complexity for Beginners
    New users may find Git's command-line interface and concepts like branching, merging, and rebasing to be complex and difficult to learn.
  • Overhead of Local Repositories
    Since every user maintains a full copy of the repository, this could lead to higher local storage requirements compared to some other version control systems.
  • Learning Curve
    The initial setup and understanding of Git workflows can be challenging, and it requires users to spend some time learning the tool.
  • Potential for Misuse
    Powerful features like force push and interactive rebase can lead to significant issues if misused, including loss of history and data.
  • Merge Conflicts
    While merging is generally easy, complicated projects with many contributors might experience frequent and difficult-to-resolve merge conflicts.
  • Tool Fragmentation
    There are multiple tools and additional software built around Git (GUI clients, integrations, etc.), which can be overwhelming and fragmented for some users.

SourceTree videos

SourceTree and Mercurial Version Control

More videos:

  • Review - Getting step up with git, GitBucket and SourceTree - Joomla Beat

Git videos

Full Git Tutorial (Part 6) - Pull Requests & Code Reviews

More videos:

  • Review - Learn Git In 15 Minutes
  • Tutorial - How to Review a Pull Request in GitHub the RIGHT Way

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to SourceTree and Git)
Git
35 35%
65% 65
Code Collaboration
39 39%
61% 61
Git Tools
55 55%
45% 45
Software Development
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare SourceTree and Git

SourceTree Reviews

Best Git GUI Clients of 2022: All Platforms Included
Sourcetree is a free Git GUI client and can work on both Windows or Mac. This tool is simple to use yet powerful, making it perfect for both beginners and advanced users. The clean and elegant interface makes it effortless and enjoyable to navigate through.
Boost Development Productivity With These 14 Git Clients for Windows and Mac
Sourcetree is a git GUI tool from the house of Atlassian, the IT tech company that also developed Bitbucket and Jira. Compared to other similar tools, Sourcetree offers a more powerful graphical user interface (GUI.)
Source: geekflare.com
Best Git GUI Clients for Windows
You can easily perform all the necessary Git-related tasks, such as cloning repositories (including the remote ones), pushing, pulling, committing, and merging changes. Both experienced users and beginners can work successfully with Sourcetree, tracking all changes, actions, and actors.
Source: blog.devart.com

Git Reviews

Boost Development Productivity With These 14 Git Clients for Windows and Mac
GitUp is the open-source solution for a git repository and IDE interaction on macOS computers. The tool is based on a generic Git toolkit known as the GitUpKit. This toolkit is reusable, and hence you can build your own Git app based on GitUpKit.
Source: geekflare.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Git seems to be a lot more popular than SourceTree. While we know about 273 links to Git, we've tracked only 2 mentions of SourceTree. 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.

SourceTree mentions (2)

  • Git as a Beginner
    I think a gui will be helpful, eg bitbucket sourcetree https://sourcetreeapp.com/. Source: over 2 years ago
  • WHAT IS SOURCETREE? HOW TO INSTALL IT?
    Now Let's Download Sourcetree: Go to https://sourcetreeapp.com/ then download the installer. - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago

Git mentions (273)

  • Most Effective Approaches for Debugging Applications
    When a bug disrupts a production environment, reverting to a known working state can minimize user impact and provide a stable baseline for investigation. Version control systems like Git or GitHub enable precise rollbacks, preserving the ability to analyze faulty code. A 2022 JetBrains survey found that 92% of developers use Git, with 65% citing rollbacks as a key benefit for debugging. - Source: dev.to / 5 days ago
  • Building multi-agent systems with LangGraph or CrewAI
    Git to clone repositories and manage your project. - Source: dev.to / 23 days ago
  • Git Basics and Version Control
    You can download and install Git from the official website: https://git-scm.com. - Source: dev.to / 24 days ago
  • Automatically generate changelogs with git
    One of the rather tedious tasks of a developer is to generate changelogs. I cannot imagine that anybody enjoys going through the project history and try to reverse engineer what has happened since the last release. But the good news is that with a bit of discipline it is quite straightforward to generate those changelogs from your version control history. The examples in this blog post will use git, but I guess... - Source: dev.to / 29 days ago
  • Set Up An E-Commerce Backend With Medusa In Just A Few Minutes
    Git: Git is required to clone repositories and manage your project versioning. Install Git from git-scm.com. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing SourceTree and Git, you can also consider the following products

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

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.

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

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

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

VS Code - Build and debug modern web and cloud applications, by Microsoft