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  1. Stackups
  2. DevOps
  3. Code Collaboration
  4. Code Collaboration Version Control
  5. GitHub vs Tower

GitHub vs Tower

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

GitHub
GitHub
Stacks295.7K
Followers259.0K
Votes10.4K
Tower
Tower
Stacks214
Followers360
Votes80

GitHub vs Tower: What are the differences?

GitHub: Powerful collaboration, review, and code management for open source and private development projects. GitHub is the best place to share code with friends, co-workers, classmates, and complete strangers. Over three million people use GitHub to build amazing things together; Tower: The most powerful Git client for Mac & Windows. Use all of Git's powerful feature set - in a GUI that makes you more productive.

GitHub belongs to "Code Collaboration & Version Control" category of the tech stack, while Tower can be primarily classified under "Source Code Management Desktop Apps".

Some of the features offered by GitHub are:

  • Command Instructions
  • Source Browser
  • Git Powered Wikis

On the other hand, Tower provides the following key features:

  • Clone & create repos with a click - Manage your GitHub, Bitbucket & Beanstalk accounts from within Tower
  • Open repos quickly - Tower's "Quick Open" dialog finds and opens repositories in no time
  • Automate the boring stuff - Fetching and stashing are automatically done for you, if you wish

"Open source friendly" is the primary reason why developers consider GitHub over the competitors, whereas "Git" was stated as the key factor in picking Tower.

Airbnb, Netflix, and Medium are some of the popular companies that use GitHub, whereas Tower is used by Swat.io, Coderus, and Startae. GitHub has a broader approval, being mentioned in 4708 company stacks & 6089 developers stacks; compared to Tower, which is listed in 31 company stacks and 16 developer stacks.

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Advice on GitHub, Tower

Anonymous
Anonymous

May 25, 2020

Decided

Gitlab as A LOT of features that GitHub and Azure DevOps are missing. Even if both GH and Azure are backed by Microsoft, GitLab being open source has a faster upgrade rate and the hosted by gitlab.com solution seems more appealing than anything else! Quick win: the UI is way better and the Pipeline is way easier to setup on GitLab!

624k views624k
Comments
Weverton
Weverton

CTO at SourceLevel

Jul 28, 2020

Review

Using an inclusive language is crucial for fostering a diverse culture. Git has changed the naming conventions to be more language-inclusive, and so you should change. Our development tools, like GitHub and GitLab, already supports the change.

SourceLevel deals very nicely with repositories that changed the master branch to a more appropriate word. Besides, you can use the grep linter the look for exclusive terms contained in the source code.

As the inclusive language gap may happen in other aspects of our lives, have you already thought about them?

944k views944k
Comments
Weverton
Weverton

CTO at SourceLevel

Aug 3, 2020

Review

Do you review your Pull/Merge Request before assigning Reviewers?

If you work in a team opening a Pull Request (or Merge Request) looks appropriate. However, have you ever thought about opening a Pull/Merge Request when working by yourself? Here's a checklist of things you can review in your own:

  • Pick the correct target branch
  • Make Drafts explicit
  • Name things properly
  • Ask help for tools
  • Remove the noise
  • Fetch necessary data
  • Understand Mergeability
  • Pass the message
  • Add screenshots
  • Be found in the future
  • Comment inline in your changes

Read the blog post for more detailed explanation for each item :D

What else do you review before asking for code review?

1.19M views1.19M
Comments

Detailed Comparison

GitHub
GitHub
Tower
Tower

GitHub is the best place to share code with friends, co-workers, classmates, and complete strangers. Over three million people use GitHub to build amazing things together.

Use all of Git's powerful feature set - in a GUI that makes you more productive.

Command instructions; Source browser; Git powered wikis; Integrated issue tracking; Code reviews with inline comments; Compare view; Newsfeed; Followers; Developer profiles; Autocompletion for @username mentions
Clone & create repos with a click - Manage your GitHub, Bitbucket & Beanstalk accounts from within Tower;Open repos quickly - Tower's "Quick Open" dialog finds and opens repositories in no time;Automate the boring stuff - Fetching and stashing are automatically done for you, if you wish;Clone in the background- Downloading large projects happens in the background, while you work;Multiple windows - Have multiple projects open side-by-side
Statistics
Stacks
295.7K
Stacks
214
Followers
259.0K
Followers
360
Votes
10.4K
Votes
80
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 1774
    Open source friendly
  • 1463
    Easy source control
  • 1254
    Nice UI
  • 1137
    Great for team collaboration
  • 868
    Easy setup
Cons
  • 56
    Owned by micrcosoft
  • 38
    Expensive for lone developers that want private repos
  • 15
    Relatively slow product/feature release cadence
  • 10
    API scoping could be better
  • 9
    Only 3 collaborators for private repos
Pros
  • 19
    Git
  • 16
    Just works
  • 10
    Version control
  • 6
    Awesome
  • 6
    Simple layout
Cons
  • 5
    Expensive
  • 4
    Subscription based
  • 1
    No side by side diff
  • 0
    Merge conflict resolution impossible/unclear
Integrations
Grove
Grove
Lighthouse
Lighthouse
Airbrake
Airbrake
Codeship
Codeship
Bugsnag
Bugsnag
BugHerd
BugHerd
Visual Studio Code
Visual Studio Code
HipChat
HipChat
CopperEgg
CopperEgg
Nitrous.IO
Nitrous.IO
Bitbucket
Bitbucket
TextMate
TextMate
Visual Studio
Visual Studio
GitLab
GitLab
Git
Git
Xcode
Xcode
Gerrit Code Review
Gerrit Code Review
Beanstalk
Beanstalk

What are some alternatives to GitHub, Tower?

Bitbucket

Bitbucket

Bitbucket gives teams one place to plan projects, collaborate on code, test and deploy, all with free private Git repositories. Teams choose Bitbucket because it has a superior Jira integration, built-in CI/CD, & is free for up to 5 users.

GitLab

GitLab

GitLab offers git repository management, code reviews, issue tracking, activity feeds and wikis. Enterprises install GitLab on-premise and connect it with LDAP and Active Directory servers for secure authentication and authorization. A single GitLab server can handle more than 25,000 users but it is also possible to create a high availability setup with multiple active servers.

SourceTree

SourceTree

Use the full capability of Git and Mercurial in the SourceTree desktop app. Manage all your repositories, hosted or local, through SourceTree's simple interface.

GitKraken

GitKraken

The downright luxurious Git client for Windows, Mac and Linux. Cross-platform, 100% standalone, and free.

RhodeCode

RhodeCode

RhodeCode provides centralized control over distributed code repositories. Developers get code review tools and custom APIs that work in Mercurial, Git & SVN. Firms get unified security and user control so that their CTOs can sleep at night

AWS CodeCommit

AWS CodeCommit

CodeCommit eliminates the need to operate your own source control system or worry about scaling its infrastructure. You can use CodeCommit to securely store anything from source code to binaries, and it works seamlessly with your existing Git tools.

Gogs

Gogs

The goal of this project is to make the easiest, fastest and most painless way to set up a self-hosted Git service. With Go, this can be done in independent binary distribution across ALL platforms that Go supports, including Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows.

Fork

Fork

Manage your repositories without leaving the application. Organize the repositores into categories. Fork's Diff Viewer provides a clear view to spot the changes in your source code quickly.

Gitea

Gitea

Git with a cup of tea! Painless self-hosted all-in-one software development service, including Git hosting, code review, team collaboration, package registry and CI/CD. It published under the MIT license.

Upsource

Upsource

Upsource summarizes recent changes in your repository, showing commit messages, authors, quick diffs, links to detailed diff views and associated code reviews. A commit graph helps visualize the history of commits, branches and merges in your repository.

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