Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Trac VS Phabricator

Compare Trac VS Phabricator and see what are their differences

Trac logo Trac

Trac is a project management and bug/issue tracking system. Provides an interface to Subversion and an integrated wiki.

Phabricator logo Phabricator

Phacility - Phabricator
  • Trac Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-09
  • Phabricator Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-13

Trac features and specs

  • Integrated Wiki
    Trac includes a built-in wiki which allows for seamless documentation and collaborative editing. This feature helps keep all project-related information in one place, enhancing accessibility and coordination.
  • Issue Tracking
    Trac offers robust issue tracking capabilities. Users can create, update, and manage tickets, providing a streamlined way to manage tasks, bugs, and improvements.
  • Subversion Integration
    Trac has native support for Subversion (SVN), making it easy to integrate version control with project management. This feature simplifies change tracking and ensures that all code modifications are documented.
  • Customizable Reports
    The tool allows for the generation of customizable reports based on ticket data. This enables teams to extract valuable insights and measure project performance effectively.
  • Plugins and Extensions
    Trac is highly extensible, with a range of available plugins to add or enhance functionality. This extensibility makes it adaptable to various project needs and workflows.
  • Open Source
    Being an open-source tool, Trac is free to use and modify. This provides flexibility and cost savings, especially for small to medium-sized teams and organizations.

Possible disadvantages of Trac

  • Outdated User Interface
    Trac's user interface is considered dated by modern standards, which can result in a less appealing and less intuitive user experience. This may discourage new users or make onboarding more challenging.
  • Steep Learning Curve
    New users may find Trac complex to set up and use, particularly if they are not familiar with version control systems like Subversion. This can lead to an initial investment in training and time.
  • Limited Native Integrations
    Trac has limited out-of-the-box integrations with other popular tools and services commonly used in modern development pipelines, such as GitHub, Jenkins, or Slack. This requires additional configuration or plugin installations.
  • Performance Issues
    For larger projects with extensive data and a high number of tickets, Trac can experience performance bottlenecks, leading to slower response times and decreased efficiency.
  • Sparse Documentation
    Although Trac includes a built-in wiki for user documentation, the official documentation is often considered sparse or outdated, making it difficult for users to find solutions or best practices.

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.

Trac videos

2008 Ford Explorer SportTrac Review - Kelley Blue Book

More videos:

  • Review - A Review of the 2005 Ford Explorer Sport Trac, Why I Like It, and Why It Will Be a Collectible
  • Review - FORD SPORT TRAC REVIEW (WELCOME TO THE SPORT TRAC FAMILY) PROS AND CONS, COMMON ISSUES TO LOOK FOR

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

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Trac and Phabricator)
Project Management
75 75%
25% 25
Code Collaboration
0 0%
100% 100
Task Management
100 100%
0% 0
Git
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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

Based on our record, Trac should be more popular than Phabricator. It has been mentiond 16 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.

Trac mentions (16)

  • Right to be Forgotten and Open Source
    So next up is the issue tracker. Previously we were using Edgewall Trac for issues and documentation via it's WIKI functionality. We made this read-only years ago because it is abandon-ware now and wasn't scaling to the needs of the project. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • What is the name of the function? I know it does exist... but do not know where to look for...
    For instance, when I enter Trac-2345, logseq knows that it must be replaced by a link to the ticket number 2345 in my Trac ticket system. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Building GitHub with Ruby and Rails | The GitHub Blog
    Before there was Github, I used this software called Trac since it worked with subversion. It was so cool to be able to view source code and commits on the web. Then around 2007 or so I started using git and then in 2009 I created a Github account...so proud of Github and Rails. Thanks for the writeup! Source: about 2 years ago
  • Good free knowledge base software for internal IT documentation
    If you want more functionality, such as a ticketing system and the ability to manage source code repos, look at Redmine (https://www.redmine.org/) which also has a wiki feature. Trac is older but also has a wiki (https://trac.edgewall.org/). Source: over 2 years ago
  • Selfhosted support ticket system
    Try Trac, I've used it before without issues. Source: over 2 years ago
View more

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

What are some alternatives?

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

Redmine - Flexible project management web application

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

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.

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.

Trello - Infinitely flexible. Incredibly easy to use. Great mobile apps. It's free. Trello keeps track of everything, from the big picture to the minute details.

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