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What are the best GUI Git clients for Mac?

16

Options
Considered

363

User
Recs.

Feb 11, 2021

Last
Updated

Here’s the Deal

The Best 1 of 14 OptionsWhy?

Best GUI Git clients for Mac	Price	Platforms	Pro Features
91 SmartGit	Free+	Linux, Mac, Windows	Conflict Solver and Compare (freely editable); Pull Requests, Comments for BitBucket, GitHub and provider independent (Distributed Review add-on); Git-Flow; highly configurable views, external tools
82 GitKraken	-	Windows, macOS, Linux	Email Support / Merge Conflict Editor / GitLab & GitHub Enterprise Integration
80 SourceTree	-	Windows, macOS	-
-- Fork	$49.99	Windows, macOS	-
-- GitX-dev	-	Mac	-

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

Not free/libre

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

EnthusiasticKaskuh's Experience

It works in High Sierra See More

Specs

Platforms:Linux, Mac, Windows

Pro Features:Conflict Solver and Compare (freely editable); Pull Requests, Comments for BitBucket, GitHub and provider independent (Distributed Review add-on); Git-Flow; highly configurable views, external tools

Issue Tracker support:Atlassian JIRA

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

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

Proprietary license

Not an open source license. 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 Con

Unintuitive UI

At first glance, the sub windows are poorly organized. For example, there isn't an easy way to navigate the files in the repository. It's drastically differently designed than other popular source control clients. See More

Top Pro

Free version can be used without registration

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

GitHub integration

Integrates with GitHub out of the box. 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

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

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

Syntax coloring for many languages

The built-in compare and conflict solver has syntax coloring with customizable colors. See More

Top Pro

Auto stash/pop feature

Can do lots of operations while working tree has pending changes, Smartgit will automatically stash them before, and pop them after ! See More

Top Pro

Has the most features and most logical layout

Compared to gitk, git gui, SourceTree, GitKraken. 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

Portable version for Windows is available

SmartGit also has a portable bundle that can be downloaded and can be run from external devices (such as a flash drive for example) or to test-drive without leaving traces on the machine after removing. See More

Top Pro

Allows rearranging views

If screen space is limited, one can stack some views onto another. 2 layouts are available - "Main" and "Review" - with independent view positions. See More

Top Pro

Can edit file in workspace or index directly from the compare view

This is very useful when reviewing files before committing and finding a needed quick tweak. 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

Auto stash

If normal Git commands would abort because of local modifications, SmartGit can stash them and apply later after the command ran successfully, e.g. a rebase. See More

Top Pro

Free for non-commercial use

SmartGit can be used free of charge by Open Source developers, teachers and their students, or for hobby, non-paid usage. 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

Offers life-time updates

One payment, get updates for all future versions. See More

Top Pro

Great overview of the project/repository's log

SmartGit's log viewer displays the full commit history in a clean UI. This can be filtered to only show commits matching a certain criterion (e.g. branch). See More

Top Pro

Supports GitFlow

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

Top Pro

Easy to use

The clean and intuitive UI makes SmartGit very easy even for people with no prior experience with Git, even after reading just a bit on how Git works and what the main commands are. See More

Top Pro

Can detect issue numbers and links to the issue tracker

Support GitBugTraq file : https://github.com/mstrap/bugtraq See More

Top Pro

Evolution submission program

See http://smartgit.userecho.com/ See More

Top Pro

Excellent dark theme

And support for own themes. See More

Top Pro

Log: ability to see dangling commits and stash commits

Rebased, but not yet garbage-collected commits can be easily made accessible again, e.g. after a reset hard. See More

Top Pro

Can rearrange Repository window and Log window views/panels

This allows great layouts as desired. See More

Top Pro

Supports selecting open issues from JIRA

Allows you to select the desired issue, instead of having to do it manually. See More

Top Pro

Great support

Support responds quickly and they genuinely try to help you! If it's a bug, it will often be fixed within days. See More

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13 Other Options Considered

GitKraken

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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

DazzlingAsbolus's Experience

Powerful, flexible, easy to use; pick any four. I've used most Mac Git GUIs over the years, and the Git CLI for a decade (and other SCM CLIs going back to SCCS); this is the second in my career that I've actually forked out money for and the only one I use every day. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, macOS, Linux

Pricing:FREE, $29/year for Individual, $49/user/yr for Pro, $99/user/yr for Stand-Alone or Self-Hosted

Pro Features:Email Support / Merge Conflict Editor / GitLab & GitHub Enterprise Integration

Free Version:Yes

Top Pro

Cross-platform

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

Top Con

Multi byte characters issue

GitKraken can not input multi byte characters correctly. They only care about single byte users. Chinese, Japnese, Korean or other multi byte language users should not use this product. See More

LaterTater's Experience

The user interface looks excellent on my Mac. Besides that, the functionality is just what I need in my daily development workflow. Makes all of my Git operations click-click easy! 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

Not open source

It is gratis (no cost) but is not open source. The community cannot fix problems in it, audit it for security, or trust it in general. See More

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

Requires registration to use the free version

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 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

Has a FuzzyFinder

GitKraken has a fuzzy finder to switch between repos / files 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

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

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

Perfect for beginner developers

GitKraken is easy to use and is brilliant for the beginner developers. See More

Top Pro

Has a dark theme

No more eyestrain staring at white screens - GitKraken has a lovely dark theme. See More

Top Pro

GitFlow support out of the box

Supports GitFlow out of the box. See More

Top Pro

Good keyboard shortcuts

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

Requires an account to install and use

Need an Atlassian account to install. See More

FascinatingAngerona's Experience

always blocking See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, macOS

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

The UI of version 2.0+ is so terrible

Tab looks good if you have no more than five repos. If you have a lot, you will know the pain. The Sourcetree will not remember the order of the tab you drag. Every time you restart the app, it will go back to whatever it likes. See More

Fingermouse's Experience

Not as easy to use as other Git clients; interface similar to others but doesn't provide as much information, whilst visually being occasionally overwhelming. Some nice features but glad it's free — I wouldn't pay for this in preference to others. 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

Does not allow offline installation

Upon installation, the splash screen prompts you to login. There used to be a workaround for you to manually deploy this application in an offline environment, but they've patched it as of 2.0.20.1. It now does a dial-home on each start-up. Since it cannot reach the server, it throws an error to the user, and raises alerts to compliance. Atlassian's final decision was that they are not going to support this feature at all. Quoted from their staff: "We’ve never officially supported any form of pre-installation on device management capabilities. [...] As you know, last year, we removed the notion licensing and asked our developers to register the product by creating an Atlassian account. That said, SourceTree has always been a tool for the individual (emphasis mine) developer." See More

Top Pro

Auto check updates in tree

Can auto check updates in project tree. See More

Top Con

Requires users to be online when starting up

As of 2.3.5, it needs to dial home on every start-up, else it raises alerts to compliance. 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

Terrible for resolving merge conflicts

It's hard to tell when you are in a conflict state, let alone what to do if it happens. 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 Con

No auto stash

Top Pro

Built-in integration with Stash and Bitbucket

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

Top Con

No dark theme

No dark theme for Windows, however MacOS version does have a dark theme. See More

Top Pro

Free

Top Con

Crashes and/or locks up constantly

It might lock up a 100 times during a week, so you won't get anything done. 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 Con

Varied speeds across different versions

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

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

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 Con

Limited repository support

Supports only bitbucket and github repositories. See More

Top Pro

Informative branch visualization

In addition to color-coded branches and icons that tell if a file has been added, removed or modified, SourceTree also displays the number of commits that are ahead and behind the remote branch. 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

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 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

Fork

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Top Pro

Lightweight

Doesn't consume much memory. See More

Top Con

Paid

Used to be free, now it's $49.99. See More

Lorin Rivers's Experience

I’ve found it to be very stable, clean, and it’s now my go to See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, macOS

Top Pro

Clean & easy-to-use interface

Top Con

No Linux version

This git client is not compatible with Linux making the life harder for the developers that work on both, MacOS and some Linux distro. See More

Top Pro

Has tabs

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

Top Pro

Fast and easy to use

Top Pro

Free (Beta)

Top Pro

Image diffs

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

Top Pro

Has a CLI for quickly opening a repo in Fork

Top Pro

Overall aesthetic

The GUI components are flawless on the Mac. It is expected to be a similar experience on Windows. Once you realize that you can filter by branch, your appreciation for the product will go up dramatically. See More

Top Pro

Dark theme support

Top Pro

Tabbed interface

Several repos can be open at once in individual tabs, so it's trivial to switch back and forth between them. See More

Top Pro

Highlights the difference within a line

Top Pro

Merge Conflict Resolution is great

Top Pro

Comfortable when staging line-by-line changes

This feature is superior to the one that is implemented by SourceTree as it does not reset the file scroll view to the top of the file after each stage. If you do feature-specific commits after some time of development - it's very important to be able to easily compose the commit from different line-based changes. See More

Top Pro

Native app

Top Pro

Smart Diff is very handy

Top Pro

Can quickly open a recent repo with CMD+O

Top Pro

Comfortable keyboard shortcuts

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

Specs

Top Pro

Understandable trees (branches etc.)

The visualisation of the development trees makes git a lot more useful. The command line is good for a lot, but trees are for GUI clients like GitX. See More

Top Pro

Visual commit mode

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

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

Sublimerge

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Github Desktop

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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

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

AdventurousCicholGricenchos's Experience

Easy to install. Simple and clean design. See More

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

Does not support multiple Remotes for a repo

Only allowed to assign one URL as remote. To manage/sync/fetch other remotes, use command-line Git instead. See More

Top Pro

Great integration with GitHub services

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

Top Con

Not free/libre

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

Top Con

Buggy

Poster child for authors' programming ideology (FRP), likely the cause for the odd quirks and bugs it has. See More

Top Con

Limited

Can't handle complex tasks. The Help Manual advises to use command-line Git instead. See More

GitFinder

Specs

Platforms:macOS

GitAhead

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Specs

Platforms:Windows, Mac, Linux

Tower 2

Gitfox

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