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Add to SafariWhen comparing The Command Line vs GitKraken Client, the Slant community recommends The Command Line for most people. In the question“What are the best Git clients for macOS?” The Command Line is ranked 1st while GitKraken Client is ranked 6th. The most important reason people chose The Command Line is:
Using CLI gives access to every single git function available.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro The most powerful way to use git
Using CLI gives access to every single git function available.
Pro Best community support
Since most devs invoke git via CLI there's a higher chance of getting an answer to a CLI based git problem than a GUI-based.
Pro It's the same across all the platforms
Pro Gives a better understanding of how git functions
By using the git from the command line, it's possible to learn how it functions and how to get the desired result.
Pro Available in Homebrew
brew install git
Pro Fast and straightforward
There's no additional layer of abstraction.
Pro Simple
Pro Even a visual representation of various branches and how they're merged is possible
To visualize history:
git log --graph
Pro Customizable
You can customize it and/or integrate it into automated workflows. It has support for plugins, additional subcommands, and event hooks to perform automated tasks such as updating a bug database or kicking off tests.
Additionally, because it is a simple command line program, it is easy to create shell aliases, write scripts that invoke it, or integrate it into a text editor.
Pro Gives you full control over what is happening
Any GUI would just use command-line in the background, so by using command-line you are in control.
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).
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.
Pro Cross-platform
Built on top of Electron, so it runs on Linux, Mac, and Windows.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Pro GitFlow support out of the box
Supports GitFlow out of the box.
Pro Has a FuzzyFinder
GitKraken has a fuzzy finder to switch between repos/files.
Pro Perfect for beginner developers
GitKraken is easy to use and is brilliant for the beginner developers.
Pro Has a dark theme
No more eyestrain staring at white screens - GitKraken has a lovely dark theme.
Pro Good keyboard shortcuts
Cons
Con Steeper barrier to entry as compared to a GUI solution
Since you have to learn all the different commands and you don't have the visual help that a GUI app gives you, it has a rather steep learning curve.
Con Hard to solve complex conflicts
Con Difficult to overview complex project histories
Con Recalling is more difficult than recognizing
Although there's autocompletion for commands, it still requires recalling at least the beginning of a command while all that's required using a GUI is recognizing the desired outcome.
Con Hardest part of the learning curve is the ambiguity of some terms (us/them)
When merging (e.g. git checkout master && git merge my-branch), us refers to master, them is the branch you're merging in. When rebasing (eg git checkout my-branch && git rebase master), us refers to master, them refers to your current working branch. This seems counter-intuitive at first, making it harder to use the CLI to some, but after a while you kind of understand why the terminology is used in this way, and you get used to it.
Con Diffing
GUI diffing is way superior.
Con Is a badly designed API
Git has awesome architecture but a bad CLI. The meanings of many commands overlap and contradict each other depending on the arguments passed. e.g. Just some: When checkout is used with file path arguments it is a mutative action, changing the working tree but without those arguments it is for passive navigation. reset is just like the mutative behaviour of checkout except it does it for all files.branch requires a flag to create a new branch but tag doesn't to do the same with a tag.
https://stevebennett.me/2012/02/24/10-things-i-hate-about-git/
Con Easy to use improperly
Newer users (not necessarily new developers) can make mistakes more easily which can be time-consuming or costly to fix.
Con No longer free for use with private repos
You can use GitKraken for free if you're working on a public hosted repo, but you can no longer work on a private hosted one without paying.
Con Slow
Can take between 2 and 5 seconds to load a repository, if not crashing while loading
Con Must log into GitKraken servers to use the free version
All functionality is disabled unless you register for a free account and remain logged in.
There is the $99/user/yr Enterprise option. It allows you to deploy a Linux License Server in an air-gapped/offline environment.
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.
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.
Con Not free for commercial use
The free version of GitKraken cannot be used in commercial projects.
Con Crashes once in a while
Under specific circumstances, like resetting 5000+ changes, the GUI will crash.
Con Has annoying popup reminders that ask you to upgrade to the Pro version
Understandable, since nobody is entitled to use work done by others for free, but annoying nonetheless.
Con Amending merge output is a pro feature
In most cases of Merge Conflicts, users are stuck with auto-merge or manually resolving it by hand. This is because in the Free Tier, users can only (1) Keep File (ver 1), (2) Keep File (ver 2), (3) Auto-merge, or (4) Use External Merge Tool.
In addition, using External Merge Tools is very limited because GitKraken (all tiers) restricts External Merge Tools to only those it managed to Auto-detect. It also does not support custom arguments for the External Tools.
Modifying the merge output directly, or Selecting lines to keep/discard, is a Paid Feature.
Con Can be confusing
Con No real commitement to Linux support
Infinite loop on Fedora 28, no debug feature or stacktrace available, no clear dependencies listing.... No real support on Linux.
Con Ugly, looks like a web app
