DevelopmentProject ManagementProductivity

What are the best GUI Git clients for Mac?

11

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Here’s the Deal

The Best 1 of 11 OptionsWhy?

11 Options Considered	Price	Platforms	Price
91 SmartGit	Free+	Linux, Mac, Windows	$209-$84/user (lifetime) or $79-$47.40/user (annual) or $5.99-$3.59/user (monthly subscription)
88 SourceTree	-	Windows, macOS	Free
86 GitKraken	-	Windows, macOS, Linux	–
-- Tower 2	-	Windows; OSX	–
-- GitUp	-	–	–

SmartGit

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Top Pro

Git-flow support

Git-flow provides a consistent development process by defining a strict branching model that is great for managing large projects. SmartGit allows setting up and integrating into repos that follow this model. See More

Top Con

Hg not as perfect supported as Git

The Git support is superior, the Hg support is lacking. See More

Top Pro

Shows HEAD vs. Index vs. Working Tree

When trying to understand what the index is for, SmartGit gives you what really is behind the curtains. When staging a hunk, you can visualize what it actually means. The HEAD vs Index vs Working Tree is the killer feature of SmartGit because it doesn't obfuscate what are the internals (git has such a leaky abstraction...). See More

Top Con

Not free/libre

This application is proprietary, and thus cannot be modified, freely distributed, or trusted to be secure. See More

Top Pro

Free version can be used without registration

The "non-commercial" option is handled very liberally. ;) See More

Top Con

Some hg functionality has been renamed

In order to preserve the same interface across Git and Mercurial, some naming compromises have been made. See More

Top Pro

Smart embedded difference viewer

When the changes affect only a few characters in a line of code, the embedded difference viewers in the majority of competitors (such as SourceTree) show the whole line as removed and re-added. SmartGit highlights the characters that have been removed / added, so they are easier to read. See More

Top Pro

Same features on all platforms

The Windows, Linux and Mac variants are the same version and have the same feature set. See More

Top Pro

Can be integrated with Github, Bitbucket, and Atlassian Stash

Using OAuth, you can connect SmartGit with your accounts in Github, Bitbucket, or Stash and access the remote repositories there. You can then clone, fork, commit or push to your remote repositories from inside SmartGit. You can also view and manage pull requests for your open source projects from SmartGit. See More

Top Pro

Built-in SSH support

Which asks for private key and passphrase instead of using command line to set it up. See More

Top Pro

Support Git, Mercurial and SVN

SmartGit supports Git and Mercurial as well as SVN via git bridge. See More

Top Pro

Uncluttered UI

SmartGit has a rather clean and uncluttered user interface. All the most useful tools and information are displayed at all times or are otherwise just a couple of clicks away. All repositories are displayed in the sidebar and through a tabbed interface you can view various info about a specific repository (files, branches, branch graph, etc). The most used git commands like pull, push, sync, commit and merge are always available on top. See More

Top Pro

GitHub integration

Integrates with GitHub out of the box. See More

Specs

Platforms:Linux, Mac, Windows

Price:$209-$84/user (lifetime) or $79-$47.40/user (annual) or $5.99-$3.59/user (monthly subscription)

Pull Request/Comments support:Atlassian Stash, BitBucket, GitHub, own Git server (Distributed Review add-on)

Free for:hobby usage, open source developers, public education institutions (teachers, students) and public charity institutions

See All Specs >

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10 Other Options Considered

SourceTree

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Top Pro

Built-in Git-flow and Hg-flow support

Git-flow and Hg-flow provide a consistent development process by defining a strict branching model that is great for managing large projects. Sourcetree allows setting up and integrating into repos that follow this model. Clicking the Git-flow / Hg-flow toolbar button will give you access to actions for starting or finishing features, releases or hotfixes depending on current state of repository. See More

Top Con

Varied speeds across different versions

For example, the Windows version is quite slow is comparison to the Mac version. See More

Top Pro

Quick setup

Once installed, Sourcetree will automatically try to look for and set up repos that are worked on. Sourcetree will also detect if git-flow is used and what is the current development state as long as default git-flow branch names are used. The software tracks all relevant repositories in the bookmark's window. Repositories can be added to the list by creating new ones, adding a local folder, supplying a clone URL or integrating with remote services such as Bitbucket or GitHub. Additionally, it can be set up via Homebrew Cask. Homebrew Cask extends the functionality of Homebrew package manager and allows installing SourceTree with a single line. brew cask install sourcetree See More

Top Con

Requires an account to install and use

Need an Atlassian account to install. See More

Top Pro

Comprehensive layout

SourceTree has 3 main repository views: file status, history and search. File status view shows status of currently selected repo. It's split in 2 areas - file list and diff-view. History view tracks changes made to the currently selected repository. It's divided in 3 sections. The top section has a graph with progression of commits, branches and merges. The bottom section shows commit details, files changed and differences committed. Search view allows looking up commit messages, users, files changes, branches and commit SHA. There's also a toolbar at the top that allows switching between the three views as well as gives access to git commands such as commit, checkout, reset, stash, add, remove, fetch, pull, push, branch, merge and tag. See More

Top Con

Can sometimes be slow

Some operations can be slow. If you know what you want (e.g you want to touch a file, add it, commit it, and push it) you can do it much faster on the command line. However you're often not going to know what you want, so the visual diffs (for example) help massively. See More

Top Pro

Built-in integration with Stash and Bitbucket

Sourcetree integrates with repositories hosted on Bitbucket, Stash, GitHub and Kiln. See More

Top Con

Limited repository support

Supports only bitbucket and github repositories. See More

Top Pro

Consistent UI cross platform

SourceTree has a consistent user interface on all platforms it supports. Making the transition between platforms very easy. See More

Top Con

Information density can be a bit much

It's possible to be overwhelmed with the information density presented in Sourcetree. Especially in history view since it includes a lot of data presented in various ways. It's great for getting a comprehensive overview of everything that's happening in one place, but it can take some getting used. See More

Top Pro

Can display the actual git command line used

This feature is great for newbies to start to learn about all the commands for using git on the command line. See More

Top Con

Use native ssh

A lot of us set up git (commandline tool/the real git) separately and then adds a GUI client you want to work on to of this. This is where Sourcetree fails. It just won't work with ssh keys that works when you use git command line. Which means something going on and you have no control what's happening. See More

Top Pro

Git terminal

Comes with a built-in terminal for Git independent from other git installations and updated regularly. It's especially good for git beginners who would like to use advanced git functions, but are not ready yet. See More

Top Pro

Supports Git, Mercurial and Subversion

Allows managing Git & Mercurial repos side by side. It even allows Subversion interoperability via either git-svn or hgsubversion plugins that set up a bridge between either Git and SVN or Mercurial and SVN respectively. See More

Top Pro

Auto check updates in tree

Can auto check updates in project tree. See More

Top Pro

Simple yet powerful

SourceTree allows you to do advanced Git operations while making them straight-forward for those who are still adjusting to Git. See More

Top Pro

Allows chunks and lines selection during commit

SourceTree automatically splits the changes to be committed into chunks allowing committing (or discarding) each chunk separately. Furthermore, the user can even select specific lines. This greatly increases the flexibility of the user in that matter. See More

Top Pro

Account registration needed

You have to register a full Atlassian account to use SourceTree. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, macOS

GitKraken

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Top Pro

Beautiful user interface

It's modern and beautiful, it looks clean and refined. It's simple: the most used features (pull, push, branch, stash, commit) are accessible in one click, and are the only buttons. The other features aren't in complicated menus nor in hundreds of buttons, but rather displayed when you right-click on something. It gives more space to the commits, i.e. the most important things. In fact, you can collapse or reduce the other menus/windows. It displays the current path (project, branch) on an horizontal (clickable) bar at the top. It's just a matter of taste but I prefer this to the traditional "tree" view. It has undo and redo buttons on the main window. It supports some drag-and-drop gestures (for example: drag-and-droping the local branch to the remote one pushes it). See More

Top Con

UI uses up a lot of space

The part of the UI element that lists tags takes up 10% to 25%. On larger screens this is not an issue but on larger screen or super high res screen set to 2x, this can become a clunky usability issue. See More

Top Pro

Offers a simple way of undoing mistakes

GitKraken has simple undo/redo buttons that work the same way you'd expect in any other software. See More

Top Con

Not free/libre

This application is proprietary, and thus cannot be modified, freely distributed, or trusted to be secure. See More

Top Pro

Free version available

There are both pro and free versions available. The free version is pretty complete feature-wise for day-to-day operations. See More

Top Con

Has memory-related issues

Like most Electron apps, GitKraken has some memory-related issues. For starter, it requires more memory for an action than an equivalent non-Electron application. Although this should not be a problem most of the time for people who use machines with lots of RAM (after all, RAM is pretty cheap nowadays), it can have some issues when opening large repositories and there have been cases where GitKraken failed to open very large repositories or started lagging once they were opened. See More

Top Pro

Cross-platform

Built on top of Electron, so it runs on Linux, Mac, and Windows. See More

Top Con

Requires registration to use the free version

Top Pro

Has a FuzzyFinder

GitKraken has a fuzzy finder to switch between repos / files See More

Top Con

Graph (log) hard to read for larger repositories

E.g. the Git repository. See More

Top Pro

Under constant improvement

A quick glance at GitKraken's release notes shows how frequently it's updated. Updates are released on a 2-4 week cycle and each one brings new features and bug fixes. See More

Top Con

No githooks log or error dialog

Top Pro

Some of the best integration with hosted version control services

GitKraken can be connected to Github, Gitlab, or Bitbucket accounts through OAuth. From that point onward most if not all actions that are related to these services can be done inside GitKraken. Things like: cloning or forking a repository, adding a remote, pushing to a remote repository hosted on these services can be done inside the app. You can even manage pull requests inside GitKraken for example. All pull requests for a certain branch for example are shown on that branch's graph. See More

Top Pro

Extremely easy to use

A lot of care has gone into trying to make GitKraken as easy and intuitive as possible and it show. Every action is quick and painless with no more user interaction than necessary. For example, switching to another branch is as easy as a double-click on the sidebar. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, macOS, Linux

Pricing:~$49/user/yr for Pro, ~$99/user/yr for Enterprise

Integrations:GitHub, Bitbucket, GitLab

Free Version:Yes (for open source, educational, non‑profit, startups or personal use)

See All Specs >

Tower 2

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Top Pro

Pretty, modern-looking user interface

Tower 2 has a good-looking interface which consists of 3 main views - services, repositories and repository. Services view for managing integrations with hosting services like GitHub, Bitbucket and Beanstalk. Repositories view for organizing local and remote repositories into folders and getting general overview about them. Repo view that consists of two main subviews: Working copy view shows modified files and their diff and allows wrapping up changes in a commit. History shows commits alongside metadata and projects file structure. Additionally, it allows performing various tasks such as merging branches via drag & drop, search allows searching by message, commit hash, author, committer and file and there's a quick open that allows fuzzy-searching for folder names. See More

Top Con

Inefficient UI

In order to not overwhelm the users with information, much of the information is either hidden by default or requires navigating to a different section to access. See More

Top Pro

Offers a visual way to solve conflicts

Tower 2 shows conflicting files, their authors and the commit that made changes. It then allows selecting which files should be used in the final result. See More

Top Con

Not free/libre

This application is proprietary, and thus cannot be modified, freely distributed, or trusted to be secure. See More

Top Pro

Git-flow integration

Git-flow provide a consistent development process by defining a strict branching model that is great for managing large projects. Tower 2 allows setting up and integrating into repositories that follow this model. See More

Top Con

Lacks options like 'blame file', 'open selected version' when browsing file history

This is a super handy feature in sourcetree: when browsing the file history (called log selected in sourcetree), there are a range of options available which pertain to the selected file. Especially useful is being able to open the selected file as it existed at that point in time. See More

Top Con

Lack of transparency regarding development

It does not have an open issue tracker. See More

Top Con

Very slow at delivering new features

Specs

Platforms:Windows; OSX

GitUp

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Top Pro

Allows doing complex things without memorizing git

Git usage beyond basic checkout/commit is arcane; GitUp lets you do things in git in seconds that would take you a half hour of research with the command line. See More

Top Con

OS X Only

Only available for OSX, so if you are used to working with different OSes and you want the same tools in each of them, it's impossible to have that with GitUp. See More

Top Pro

Full undo

You can backup, or edit commits, if you make a mistake. See More

GitX-dev

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Top Pro

Fast GUI

Responsive even with thousands of files or large binary like files See More

Top Con

Clumsy staging workflow

The staging workflow in GitX-dev is kind of clumsy and unintuitive. See More

Top Pro

A lot of operations can be done visually

Allows for interactive staging of files or hunks and deleting of unstaged or non-git tracked files. Hunk size slider allows staging/unstaging individual lines, letting you stage pieces of a file easily. See More

Fork

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Top Pro

Lightweight

Doesn't consume much memory See More

Top Pro

Free (Beta)

Top Pro

Image diffs

You can view image diffs for common image formats with Fork. See More

Top Pro

Can quickly open a recent repo with CMD+O

Top Pro

Has a CLI for quickly opening a repo in Fork

Top Pro

Has tabs

You can open multiple repositories at the same time in different tabs. See More

Top Pro

Clean & easy-to-use interface

Specs

Platforms:macOS

git-cola

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Top Pro

Highly customisable GUI

Top Pro

Free and Open source

Specs

Platforms:Windows, macOS, Linux

Github Desktop

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Top Pro

Supports pull requests

In addition to being able to seamlessly and easily integrate with all of GitHub's features, it also supports forking and submitting pull requests on any open source project hosted on GitHub. See More

Top Con

Non-GitHub repositories are not fully supported

Since this is mainly a GitHub client, other repositories are not fully supported and with as many features and setting up a repo hosted anywhere else but GitHub is troublesome. See More

Top Pro

Great integration with GitHub services

This is the official GitHub desktop client built by the GitHub team. See More

Top Pro

Simple, streamlined GUI

GitHub Desktop uses an extremely simplistic two-panel view. It's not capable of complex historical visualisations like other GUIs, but it is very easy to use (especially for git novices). See More

GitAhead

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Specs

Platforms:Windows, Mac, Linux

Price:$49/user/year

GitFinder

Specs

Platforms:macOS

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Git-flow support

Shows HEAD vs. Index vs. Working Tree

Smart embedded difference viewer

Can be integrated with Github, Bitbucket, and Atlassian Stash

Free version can be used without registration

Same features on all platforms

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