DevelopmentProject ManagementVersion control

What are the best version control systems?

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Considered

421

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Recs.

Jan 16, 2024

Last
Updated

16 Options Considered

Best version control systems	Price	Platforms	Technology
81 Git	Free	-	-
62 Mercurial	Free	-	-
50 Fossil	-	Windows, Linux, Mac, BSD	C++
-- Darcs	-	-	-
-- Vault	-	-	-

See Full List

Git

Top Pro

Free and open source

Git is open source and completely free to use. See More

Top Con

Commands too close to implementation details and strange documentation

Git really suffers from the lack of abstraction made during its conception. Just as a proof, a generator of git-like man pages has been created to celebrate that weirdness. That said, the documentation is getting better and better; even so, you must grasp the internals (=implementation details) to really make full use of git. See More

Capuccino 's Experience

Based out of the need of Linus Torvalds himself for Linux, Git has proven to be instrumental for the Open Source movement. Undoubtedly fast, decentralized, and small, it's advantages made it the most used VCS in the industry, thanks to GitHub and a couple of providers. See More

Top Pro

Fast

With Git, nearly all operations are performed locally, giving it a huge speed advantage over centralized systems that constantly have to communicate with a remote server. In addition, Git uses delta encoding to only transmit the changed pieces of files across the network, saving time in large repos. See More

Top Con

Steep learning curve

The large number of commands and functions that Git provides can be discouraging for beginners. Learning how Git works can be a difficult concept to grasp at first. See More

Elias Van Ootegem's Experience

Let's be honest: Git has quickly become the industry standard when it comes to VCS's. Though not perfect (nothing is), git is the best for well over 90% of people. As long as you're not tracking too many non-text files, git is blazingly fast, reliable, and easy to use for collaborative projects. See More

Top Pro

Flexible and powerful

Git is easy for the beginner and powerful for the professional who wants nothing more with less. it's a VCS that adapts with its user. See More

Top Con

Submodules (linking repositories to one another) are a mess

Submodules are very difficult to work with effectively, and are limited to including an entire repository. See More

David Brown's Experience

I've used Git for everything since 2013. The biggest driving force is the market dominance in that GitHub is where the majority of open source happens. The largest platforms besides GitHub like Git lab and BitBucket either exclusively or primarily use Git. This dominance brings with it a wealth of fantastic documentation. See More

Top Pro

Many places to host your code

Top Con

Poor handling of binary data

Binary files (images, music... etc) are not handled so efficiently when there are many versions, since each version must be stored locally (which is unavoidable with distributed version management). nevertheless it is an issue. However, there is a git extension available (git LFS) that addresses this issue. See More

davidak's Experience

The standard now. See More

Top Pro

Used by many open source programmers

Top Con

Windows users are somehow treated as 2nd class citizens

The core developers seem not to take care much about the Windows platform, maybe because of religious reasons? See More

VivaciousDespoina's Experience

I use git because that's what most everybody I collaborate with uses, and that's what most of the open source world is using. I dont actually like it though. Consulting the documentation and searching Stack Overflow etc. is an integral part of weekly experience, "how do I do X in git?". In the course of time I'll probably know how to use git and not much of anything else, I dont think of that as a win though. Git won the open source developer mindshare because of GitHub, not because of git. See More

Top Pro

Offline commits

Can commit changes offline and push changes to repository when you get back online. Great for working on the move and keeping a history available. See More

Top Con

File locking issues on Windows

Due to the Windows file system, e.g. a git gc (garbage collect) process sometimes cannot complete because Windows is locking files that are in use so that they cannot be deleted. This often occurs when an IDE is monitoring a repository during such a process. See More

hari prasad's Experience

I have been working with git for more than 5+ years. It is a very great tool for versioning. See More

Top Pro

History rewrite

Git allows you the ability to edit your commit history. For example: if you're making a PR and you have a bunch of poorly organized commits, or lazy commit messages, or commits that aren't broken up properly then it's very useful. See More

Top Con

Slow on Windows

Though it definitely has improved in recent versions, Git on Windows is still slower than on Unix-based operating systems. That said, almost everything is slower on Windows than the equivalent on a Unix based os. And also, it is still quick enough and (with most operations) quicker than other SCMs. See More

Top Pro

Decentralized

Doesn't require access to a central repository, because each checkout is a full repository by itself. See More

Top Con

Binaries often are not offered at the same time a source release is published

For example, the latest macOS binary bundle was released weeks after the Windows bundle. See More

Top Pro

Good documentation

Git documentation covers everything from revision control system basics to Git specific features in a short and clear way. See More

Top Con

It's unclear whether tags are pushed or point to a different commit

In contrast to branches, tags don't track remote tags, so it is not possible to judge from the locally available data whether a tag exists in a remote repository or points to the same commit as a tag in the remote repository. See More

Top Pro

Has a sane & manageable model for branching/merging

Unlike SVN, git branches are lightweight, local by default, and intended to be used frequently. See More

Top Pro

Data assurance

All git commits are checksummed and retrieved by its checksum, ensuring data integrity. See More

Top Pro

Ref log

The ref log is one of the greatest (not commonly known) features of git. With it you can: Undo almost every history changing operation (including git reset or git rebase or even undo an undo) Compare results of an operation with the state before that operation Revive accidentally lost branches See per branch/ref what operations are executed upon them Because of this you never have to worry whether a command destroys your (committed) data or history. You can always try freely and go back if it's not to your likings. See More

Top Pro

Simple storage model

Gits storage model is quite simple. Once you understand it, git's sometimes hard to grasp CLI methods become clearer. Once you know the power of the CLI, you can do anything with it. This is also one of the reasons why data corruption is rare, easy to check and usually easy to fix. See More

Top Pro

Handles larger files

Git can handle very larger files which are more than 1 GB. See More

Top Pro

Ability to commit just parts of the local files using the Index

And thus allows to create clean commits even if the local files contain different modifications. See More

Top Pro

Great CLI

The CLI is the most powerful frontend of Git, due to it's subcommand-oriented design, it's reliable and gets you to know more about what's the purpose of each command. See More

See All

Mercurial

Top Pro

Easy to use

Mercurial is a more intuitive option than many of its competitors. The documentation is well organized and easy for beginners to read & understand. See More

Top Con

Lost the widely adopted race to git

Sharing code and projects in an open source world is a must and trying to working with multiple Source Code Control systems does not help the ecosystem. See More

ConvivialGeshtuE's Experience

I have had experience with both git and mercurial. I find Mercurial much cleaner and easier to use. It doesn't get in the way of my development. See More

Top Pro

Decentralized

Doesn't require access to a central repository, because each checkout is a full repository by itself. See More

Top Con

Setup paths are hardcoded

ExpertDadhikra's Experience

Mercurial makes it easy to do simple version control while offering features if you want to do advanced version control. Had a bitbucket repository and so now I'm forced to use git, which occasionally eats up my time as I try to figure things out. It's not a constant fight, but I had very little friction with Mercurial See More

Top Pro

Free and open source

Mercurial is open source and free to use. See More

Top Con

Can't delete named branches

You pretty much have to use tags instead. See More

Peter J. Mello's Experience

I wish Mercurial were more widely-adopted because I do genuinely enjoy using it. See More

Top Pro

Fast

Mercurial is designed to make performing operations (such as commits, clones etc.) fast. See More

Top Con

Feels limited from a Git user's perspective

E.g. it does not offer the ability to rebase/force-push your own feature branch. See More

meikl's Experience

Mercurial seems like a decentralized Subversion, but lacks Git's flexibility. See More

Top Pro

Good documentation

Mercurial documentation covers everything from revision control system basics to mercurial specific features in a short and clear way. See More

Top Pro

Extensible

Users can activate plugins to provide additional features. See More

Top Pro

Same features Git provides, but much easier to use and to understand

The command-line interface is more intuitive, requiring much less memorization and exotic options/piping to achieve the same thing you would in git. See More

Top Pro

Native Windows support

Native Windows support. No trace of cygwin or other dirty hacks typically found in competitors. See More

Top Pro

Fully python based

Top Pro

Doesn't delete history

Mercurial makes it pretty darn hard to delete history by mistake. In Git, if you mistakenly commit to HEAD and switch to a different branch, your commit is toast. Yes, you can dig through the reflog but most users don't even know of its existence and will wish they didn't once they find out. See More

Top Pro

Actively contributed to by Facebook

Mercurial is actively contributed to by the developers at Facebook as they use it for their massive source repository. See More

See All

Fossil

Top Pro

Built-in bug tracking, wiki and blog

All version-controlled with the code. See More

Top Con

Only a web interface or CLI

Fossil's bug tracker only works with the web interface or the command-line interface. There's no native GUI client supporting it. There are some independent GUI clients out there, but none of them support Fossil's full range of abilities. See More

HumbleSarpanit's Experience

Very simple, easy to access and nice UI See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Linux, Mac, BSD

Technology:C++

Top Pro

Single file repository

The repository contains a single file. Easy to transfer, easy to backup. See More

Top Con

Obscure

Not as well known or widely used as other systems like Git. See More

ExcellentBasmu's Experience

Tried it on a small test project See More

Top Pro

Free and open source

ResourcefulEuthenia's Experience

super small, fast enough, all-in-one, perfect for hobby projects, easy to serve in the Web See More

Top Pro

Web UI built in

Convenient for self-hosted projects. See More

MightyPapNiginGara's Experience

I use it for 5 years with all my projects (different languages end environments). See More

Top Pro

Compact and efficient storage

An efficient diff and compression algorithm used. See More

SophisticatedKarpos's Experience

Since 2010 I use Fossil for all my personal project, spanning some 6 bigger and smaller computers. See More

Top Pro

Self-contained

On Windows, Mac, Linux, FreeBSD Fossil is just a single binary, See More

Top Pro

Cross-platform

Fossil can run on Linux, Mac, BSD derivatives and on Windows. See More

Top Pro

Simple to use command line interface

It has very simple command line interface that somehow circumvent the million-switches-problem of the other command line tools. See More

Top Pro

Made by developers of SQLite

SQLite might be the most widely deployed software/library on the planet, with more testing code than feature code. Consequently, you can trust Fossil to be developed with similar vigor and attention to detail. See More

Top Pro

Very complete

Fossil includes source code management, bug tracking, a wiki, and technotes. It even includes its own web server, though it can fairly easily be incorporated into other webservers. See More

Top Pro

Very easy to configure as self-hosted

Single, stand-alone executable, including web server. See More

Top Pro

Needs very few server resources

Since Fossil is a distributed VCS on top of being a bug tracker, it needs very few server resources. See More

Top Pro

Can run as a stand-alone service and as CGI

Fossil can be run as a CGI application behind apache, nginx, lighttpd or althttpd, in fact any httpd that supports CGI. But it does not require a webserver, it can run as one itself, serving just one, or multiple repositories. See More

Top Pro

Secure yet forgiving

Fossil is secure: by design, it never forgets anything. This pilosophy makes it very difficult to mess up a repository, or lose data, by making a false maneuver. At the same time, Fossil does recognize that people do sometimes make mistakes. For example, it is possible to amend a commit message (much) later on. It is also possible to change a revision’s branch after the fact. See More

Top Pro

Multiple checkouts from one repo

One fossil repository can have multiple checkout trees on the same machine, each for a different version. This can be used to support staging, and for quick fixes on older versions without disrupting the current development process. No need to duplicate the repo for that. See More

See All

Darcs

All

Pros

Top Pro

Patches instead of snapshots

Top Pro

Automatic dependency management

Vault

All

Pros

Top Pro

Fully integrated work item tracking

For users needing more than source control, Vault Professional offers fully integrated work item tracking in a powerful, yet easy to use interface. See More

Subversion

All

Pros

Cons

Top Con

Branches are hell. Conflicts are hell

Svn is hard to use on multi-topics workflows. Branches exist but are often not used because of the fear of the merge hell. Also, conflicts are a big deal and happen on the server; it feels like you only have one try and no way to abort/retry your conflict. See More

Top Pro

Clear and simple operation

It has linear history, central repository and management. Lacks too complex features, almost every developer is familiar with it, so everyone knows what to expect and how to work with it. See More

Top Con

Underlying model is totally flawed

Need to code in a rural area? Away on a retreat away from a good network connection? On a plane? Tough luck. See More

Top Pro

Binary files handled efficiently

Top Con

Does not forgive errors

Forgot to commit a file, you need to add a new commit. See More

Top Pro

File locking

Top Con

Flawed roll-back

It is nearly impossible to revert a big repository to an older version. In GIT, on the other hand, this works very well. See More

Top Pro

Incremental revision numbers

Gives you a better indication on how old a specific revision is without needing any more details. See More

Top Pro

Easy to understand externals

E.g. more easy to understand than Git's submodules. See More

Top Pro

Free-form versioned metadata

See All

Perforce

Top Pro

Multi platform availability

Top Con

Closed Source

DecisiveUrania's Experience

Straight forward and easy to use. See More

Top Pro

Central repository/server

There's a central repository and a clear path/protocol how to reach it. See More

Top Con

Does not work offline

You must be connected to the internet to do anything useful. Although, there is a Git <-> Perforce bridge that sorta solves the problem. See More

Top Pro

HelixCore

Helix Core for GIT large files is free for up to 5 users. See More

Top Con

Centralized

Branching becomes a pain due to its non-distributed model. See More

Top Pro

Solid workflow for binary files

Perforce has shown itself as very capable when it comes to managing binary files. That's why it's still the go to version control system in game development. See More

Top Pro

GUI and Visual Studio integration available

See All

PlasticSCM

svc

gut

All

Cons

Top Con

No recent development

Seems unfinished, and there's no recent development on GitHub. See More

CVS - Concurrent Versions System

All

Cons

Top Con

Ancient and outdated

CVS is an ancient version control system that was a very useful tool back in the days, but a lot of progress has been made since then. Recommending CVS today would be like recommending typewriters instead of computers for writing. See More

Fossil SCM

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16 Options Considered

My Recommendation for Git

My Recommendation for Git

Free and open source

Commands too close to implementation details and strange documentation

Fast

Steep learning curve

Flexible and powerful

Submodules (linking repositories to one another) are a mess

Many places to host your code

Poor handling of binary data

Used by many open source programmers

Windows users are somehow treated as 2nd class citizens

Offline commits

File locking issues on Windows

History rewrite

Slow on Windows

Decentralized

Binaries often are not offered at the same time a source release is published

Good documentation

It's unclear whether tags are pushed or point to a different commit

Has a sane & manageable model for branching/merging

Data assurance

Ref log

Simple storage model

Handles larger files

Ability to commit just parts of the local files using the Index

Great CLI

My Recommendation for Mercurial

My Recommendation for Mercurial

Easy to use

Lost the widely adopted race to git

Decentralized

Setup paths are hardcoded

Free and open source

Can't delete named branches

Fast

Feels limited from a Git user's perspective

Good documentation

Extensible

Same features Git provides, but much easier to use and to understand

Native Windows support

Fully python based

Doesn't delete history

Actively contributed to by Facebook

My Recommendation for Fossil

My Recommendation for Fossil

Built-in bug tracking, wiki and blog

Only a web interface or CLI

Single file repository

Obscure

Free and open source

Web UI built in

Compact and efficient storage

Self-contained

Cross-platform

Simple to use command line interface

Made by developers of SQLite

Very complete

Very easy to configure as self-hosted

Needs very few server resources

Can run as a stand-alone service and as CGI

Secure yet forgiving

Multiple checkouts from one repo

My Recommendation for Darcs

My Recommendation for Darcs

Patches instead of snapshots

Automatic dependency management

My Recommendation for Vault

My Recommendation for Vault

Fully integrated work item tracking

My Recommendation for Pijul

My Recommendation for Pijul

Free and open source

Sound theory of patches

Fast

Simple

Truly distributed

My Recommendation for Bazaar

My Recommendation for Bazaar