When comparing gitk vs Sublime Merge, the Slant community recommends Sublime Merge for most people. In the question“What are the best Git clients for Windows?” Sublime Merge is ranked 8th while gitk is ranked 26th. The most important reason people chose Sublime Merge is:
All actions are real Git actions which minimizes confusion and makes it perfect for beginners and professionals alike.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Visibly more compact overview output than many other options
When using gitk to scan a long list of changes, the user is able to see more of the list without pagination, as there is no huge buffer of whitespace between each entry.
Pro Fast
Since it's pretty minimalistic and does not contain a lot of features (for example, it can't commit), it's quite fast.
Pro Free
Gitk is a free and open source tool. It forms part of the official git suite.
Pro Comes with Git
Gitk is a part of the git package, so no additional application is necessary: it is developed right alongside git itself.
Pro Easy to use
Pro Pure Git behind the scenes
All actions are real Git actions which minimizes confusion and makes it perfect for beginners and professionals alike.
Pro Speed
Nothing is faster. I used to use Gitkraken, but on large projects Gitkraken is barely usable.
Pro Very keyboard friendly
All actions have either direct hotkeys or corresponding entries in the palette (same as Sublime Text). This means a very streamlined and fast usage.
Pro No account info needed
No account- or server checkbacks (only for updates). All password handling is pure Git which means much less trouble and confusion.
Pro Portable version
Windows portable version.
Pro "Native" performance (Python based)
Very good performance.
Pro Using the trial version forever without limitations
Sublime Merge may be downloaded and evaluated for free, however, a license must be purchased for continued use. There is no enforced time limit for the evaluation.
Pro Lifetime testing
The product is paid but you can test for your life without paying (similar to sublime text).
Pro Excellent user interface
The user interface is designed excellently, and it's really fast to navigate with mouse or keyboard. It's never obscured which git commands are used, and commands can be modified/extended if desired. The visual appearance of the interface can be changed via themes, new git commands can be added, and even the menus can be extended.
Pro Not subscription based
A license gives you 3 years of updates, and you can use the product after that indefinitely.
Pro Bundled license available with Sublime Text (which is an amazing text editor)
Cons
Con Cannot commit
The user needs to use a different Git client (GUI or otherwise) to commit changes.
Con Does not automatically update
The user must press F5 to refresh the view as there is no automatic update available.
Con Too expensive
And they're continuing to increase the price over the time, from the $60 that was at the start.