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What are the best version control systems?

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The Best 1 of 14 OptionsWhy?

14 Options ConsideredPriceLast Updated
The Best
Git
Apr 16, 2018
Mercurial
Apr 23, 2018
Fossil
Apr 15, 2018
Vault
May 12, 2016
Darcs
Nov 19, 2016
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The Best

Git

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Laura Kyle
Andris Pelcbergs
Top Pro

Free and open source

•••
Git is open source and completely free to use.
Sean Lang
Laura Kyle
Athari
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 repo...
Laura Kyle
Adam
Top Pro

Decentralized

•••
Doesn't require access to a central repository, because each checkout is a full repository by itself.
Sean Lang
Laura Kyle
dbohdan
Top Pro

Many places to host your code

•••
Popular services like GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket support Git.
Andris Pelcbergs
Laura Kyle
dbohdan
Top Pro

Used by many open source programmers

•••
The popularity of Git has changed quite a bit over the past recent years, (leaving aside SubVersion as a competitor within the same type of tool as Git), it has become one of the most commonly known used tool for Distributed Version Control Systems for users of all kinds, including projects of all...
Laura Kyle
joelthelion
Top Pro

Flexible and powerful

•••
Andris Pelcbergs
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.
Laura Kyle
Sean Lang
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.
Laura Kyle
Hector Malpica (Miuler)
Andris Pelcbergs
Top Pro

Good documentation

•••
Git documentation covers everything from revision control system basics to Git specific features in a short and clear way.
Sean Lang
Laura Kyle
Andris Pelcbergs
Top Pro

Data assurance

•••
All git commits are checksummed and retrieved by its checksum, ensuring data integrity.
Endi Sukaj
Laura Kyle
tido
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.
Endi Sukaj
Johan 't Hart
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.
Johan 't Hart
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 b...
Andris Pelcbergs
Top Pro

Great CLI

•••
Maël Valais
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: https://git-man-page-generator.lokaltog.net/#7936172c3a80dc263651aaafebcb13d3 That said, the documentation is getting better...
Endi Sukaj
Laura Kyle
Hector Malpica (Miuler)
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.
Laura Kyle
kaguru
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.
Johan 't Hart
Laura Kyle
tido
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 SCM...
Johan 't Hart
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 13 more Pros & ConsSee 17 more Pros & Cons
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13 Other Options Considered

Mercurial

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Laura Kyle
Andris Pelcbergs
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.
Laura Kyle
Hector Malpica (Miuler)
Top Pro

Good documentation

•••
Mercurial documentation covers everything from revision control system basics to mercurial specific features in a short and clear way.
Laura Kyle
Hector Malpica (Miuler)
Top Pro

Decentralized

•••
Doesn't require access to a central repository, because each checkout is a full repository by itself.
Laura Kyle
Hector Malpica (Miuler)
Top Pro

Free and open source

•••
Mercurial is open source and free to use.
Laura Kyle
Andris Pelcbergs
Top Pro

Extensible

•••
Laura Kyle
Andris Pelcbergs
Top Pro

Fast

•••
Mercurial is designed to make performing operations (such as commits, clones etc.) fast.
Laura Kyle
Jan Willems
Top Pro

Fully python based

•••
Endi Sukaj
Jan Willems
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.
Gili T.
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 ou...
Laura Kyle
Gili T.
Top Pro

Native Windows support

•••
Native Windows support. No trace of cygwin or other dirty hacks typically found in competitors.
Laura Kyle
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.
Endi Sukaj
ExceptionalKyrbas
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.
Ray
FlexibleSatet
Top Con

Setup paths are hardcoded

•••
gilch
Top Con

Can't delete named branches

•••
You pretty much have to use tags instead.
See 12 more Pros & ConsSee 12 more Pros & Cons

Fossil

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dbohdan
Top Pro

Built-in bug tracking, wiki and blog

•••
All version-controlled with the code.
dbohdan
Top Pro

Web UI built in

•••
Convenient for self-hosted projects.
dbohdan
Top Pro

Self-contained

•••
On Windows, Mac, Linux, FreeBSD Fossil is just a single binary,
Belle
ingenue
jebrosen
Top Pro

Compact and efficient storage

•••
An efficient diff and compression algorithm used.
Martijn
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 (m...
dbohdan
Top Pro

Free and open source

•••
thermoplastics
JohnFound
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.
Belle
ingenue
Top Pro

Single file repository

•••
The repository contains a single file. Easy to transfer, easy to backup.
TranquilTlalocayotl
Top Pro

Cross-platform

•••
Fossil can run on Linux, Mac, BSD derivatives and on Windows.
TranquilTlalocayotl
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.
WhiteLilac
TranquilTlalocayotl
Top Pro

Very easy to configure as self-hosted

•••
Single, stand-alone executable, including web server.
TranquilTlalocayotl
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.
Richard Hipp
dbohdan
Top Con

Obscure

•••
Not as well known or widely used as other systems like Git.
See 11 more ProsSee 11 more Pros

Vault

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Andris Pelcbergs
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.
Know any negative aspects of this option?

Darcs

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Jake D'Cruz (Imagine Infinity)
Top Pro

Patches instead of snapshots

•••
FridSun
Top Pro

Automatic dependency management

•••
Know any negative aspects of this option?
See 1 more ProSee 1 more Pro

Perforce

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Mo Hax
Top Pro

Multi platform availability

•••
Mo Hax
Top Pro

GUI and Visual Studio integration available

•••
Mo Hax
Top Pro

Central repository/server

•••
There's a central repository and a clear path/protocol how to reach it.
Sean Lang
Top Con

Closed Source

•••
Sean Lang
Top Con

Centralized

•••
Branching becomes a pain due to its non-distributed model
Ray
ExceptionalKyrbas
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 4 more Pros & ConsSee 4 more Pros & Cons

Team Foundation

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Craig Deubler
Top Pro

Can integrate with Git

•••
Monika
Alejandro Molines
Top Pro

Full integration with Visual Studio

•••
Know any negative aspects of this option?
See 1 more ProSee 1 more Pro

SourceAnywhere

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IntellectualFodbgen
Top Pro

Mature product

•••
Fast, easy, and relatively bug free. Caching add-on ensures rapid check-ins & check-outs anywhere in the world.
IntellectualFodbgen
Top Pro

Great for document version control

•••
Easy tree interface. Can train novices in 5-10 minutes.
Know any negative aspects of this option?
See 1 more ProSee 1 more Pro

Bazaar

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Raicho Nikolov
Top Pro

Tracking empty folders

•••
With Bazaar you can track empty folders without the need to put .keep files in them.
PhiLho
Top Pro

Simplicity

•••
It is quick to learn, you don't need to memorize lot of commands to do your job.
PhiLho
Top Pro

Full support for renaming

•••
Renaming of a file is fully supported, not a hack like removing a file and adding back under another name...
thermoplastics
PhiLho
Top Con

Slow developement

•••
Bazaar tends to have a slow update cycle with Canonical. Version 2.6 was released in August 2013 and branch 2.7 was not finished until Feb. 2016.
Ray
FlexibleSatet
Top Con

Complicated requirements

•••
See 3 more Pros & ConsSee 3 more Pros & Cons

Subversion

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Szabolcs Czinege
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.
Andris Pelcbergs
Top Pro

Binary files handled efficiently

•••
Andris Pelcbergs
Top Pro

File locking

•••
Andris Pelcbergs
Top Pro

Free-form versioned metadata

•••
Andris Pelcbergs
Top Pro

Incremental revision numbers  

•••
Gives you a better indication on how old a specific revision is without needing any more details.
Maël Valais
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.
Travis Rigg
Smelly Sockpuppet
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 5 more Pros & ConsSee 5 more Pros & Cons

Pijul

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PlasticSCM

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ClearCase

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Yves Chevallier
Top Pro

Dynamic views

•••
MVFS filesystem is a good approach for configuring a custom view to your files
Yves Chevallier
Top Con

File-centric

•••
ClearCase is file-centric without UCM module
Yves Chevallier
Top Con

Slow

•••
ClearCase is very slow
See 1 more ConSee 1 more Con

CVS - Concurrent Versions System

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Know any positive aspects of this option?
Tord Jansson
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.
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312 Community Recommendations

Jake D'Cruz (Imagine Infinity)
Michael Howitz
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0xREDev
ideasman42
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+221
Request recommendations from the community
David Brown
David
Contributor for 2 years
8
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Git
Recommended a month ago
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 fantas...
Pro
 Good documentation
Pro
 Free and open source
Pro
 Used by many open source programmers
Pro
 Many places to host your code
Pro
 Great CLI
See full
CuriousPinikir
CuriousPinikir
Contributor for a month
1
Total 
Recs.
50
Total 
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Team Foundation
Recommended a month ago
Great environment with not just source control but complete ecosystem of tools. Now, it uses git as default.
See full
ExcellentBasmu
ExcellentBasmu
Contributor for 2 months
1
Total 
Recs.
0
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Karma
Fossil
Recommended 2 months ago
Tried it on a small test project
Pro
 Compact and efficient storage
Pro
 Built-in bug tracking, wiki and blog
Pro
 Self-contained
Pro
 Web UI built in
Pro
 Free and open source
Pro
 Single file repository
See full
Currently displaying 3 out of 312 total recommendations.
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