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Gitea vs SourceTree: What are the differences?
Gitea and SourceTree are two popular tools used by developers for managing and version controlling their code repositories. Gitea is a self-hosted Git service written in Go, while SourceTree is a graphical user interface (GUI) client for managing Git and Mercurial repositories. Let's explore the key differences between Gitea and SourceTree:
Hosting and Deployment: Gitea is a self-hosted solution, meaning developers need to set up and maintain their own Gitea server, providing them with complete control over their repositories and data. On the other hand, SourceTree is a client-side application that connects to remote Git and Mercurial repositories hosted on platforms like GitHub, Bitbucket, or GitLab. This allows developers to leverage existing hosted solutions and access their repositories from different services seamlessly.
User Interface and Workflow: Gitea primarily operates as a web-based application, providing a user-friendly interface for managing repositories, issues, pull requests, and more. It offers an intuitive workflow for repository management, making it suitable for individual developers and small teams. SourceTree, as a desktop application, presents a visual and interactive interface that simplifies version control tasks and facilitates branching, merging, and code reviews. Its graphical approach is well-suited for developers who prefer a GUI-based workflow for their version control operations.
Collaboration and Code Review: Gitea offers collaboration features like issue tracking and pull requests. However, since it is self-hosted, collaboration functionalities might depend on the configuration and plugins installed. In contrast, SourceTree focuses on integrating with popular code hosting services like GitHub and Bitbucket, which offer robust collaboration and code review features natively. This allows developers using SourceTree to benefit from the collaboration tools provided by these hosting platforms.
Platform Compatibility: Gitea supports a wide range of platforms, including Windows, macOS, and Linux, making it accessible to developers across different operating systems. Additionally, its self-hosted nature allows for deployment on various cloud or on-premises infrastructures. On the other hand, SourceTree is compatible with Windows and macOS, providing a unified experience across these platforms. However, it doesn't have native support for Linux, which may limit its usability for developers using Linux-based systems.
Advanced Features and Customization: Gitea offers a variety of advanced features and customization options. As a self-hosted solution, developers have the freedom to customize Gitea's behavior and appearance, add plugins, and fine-tune the system to meet their requirements. SourceTree, being a client-side application, doesn't offer the same level of customization but focuses on providing a user-friendly, out-of-the-box experience for managing Git and Mercurial repositories with a visually appealing interface.
In summary, Gitea is a self-hosted Git service that provides full control and customization options, while SourceTree is a GUI client that excels in integrating with popular code hosting services and offering a straightforward, visual approach to version control for developers using Windows and macOS.
Out of most of the VCS solutions out there, we found Gitlab was the most feature complete with a free community edition. Their DevSecops offering is also a very robust solution. Gitlab CI/CD was quite easy to setup and the direct integration with your VCS + CI/CD is also a bonus. Out of the box integration with major cloud providers, alerting through instant messages etc. are all extremely convenient. We push our CI/CD updates to MS Teams.
I explored many Git Desktop tools for the Mac and my final decision was to use Fork. What I love about for that it contains three features, I like about a Git Client tool.
It allows * to handle day to day git operations (least important for me as I am cli junkie) * it helps to investigate the history * most important of all, it has a repo manager which many other tools are missing.
Pros of Gitea
- Self-hosted24
- Lightweight16
- Free15
- Simple12
- Easy Setup9
- Multiple code maintainers9
- Pull requests and code reviews6
- Squash and Merge is supported5
- Written in Go5
- Import existing git repositories5
- Nice gui4
- Run in Raspberry Pi3
- Community-fork of Gogs2
- LDAP Support2
- 𖣠⚪𔗢⚪🞋⚪𔗢⚪𖣠1
- Gitea Actions(Github compatible)1
- 𖣠⚪𔗢⚪🞋⚪𔗢⚪𖣠1
- Richable Packages1
- 𖣠⚪𔗢⚪🞋⚪𔗢⚪𖣠1
- 𖣠⚪𔗢⚪🞋⚪𔗢⚪𖣠1
- 𖣠⚪𔗢⚪🞋⚪𔗢⚪𖣠0
Pros of SourceTree
- Visual history and branch view205
- Beautiful UI164
- Easy repository browsing134
- Gitflow support87
- Interactive stage or discard by hunks or lines75
- Great branch visualization22
- Ui/ux and user-friendliness18
- Best Git Client UI/Features8
- Search commit messages7
- Available for Windows and macOS5
- Log only one file1
- Search file content1
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Cons of Gitea
- Community-fork of Gogs3
- Easy Windows authentication is not supported0
Cons of SourceTree
- Crashes often12
- So many bugs8
- Fetching is slow sometimes7
- No dark theme (Windows)5
- Extremely slow5
- Very unstable5
- Can't select text in diff (windows)4
- Freezes quite frequently3
- Can't scale window from top corners3
- UI blinking2
- Windows version worse than mac version2
- Installs to AppData folder (windows)2
- Diff makes tab indentation look like spaces2
- Windows and Mac versions are very different2
- Diff appears as if space indented even if its tabs2
- Doesn't have an option for git init2
- Useless for merge conflict resolution2
- Doesn't differentiate submodules from parent repos2
- Requires bitbucket account2
- Generally hard to like1
- No reflog support1
- Bases binary check on filesize1
- Can't add remotes by right clicking remotes (windows)1