Mercurial vs SourceTree

Overview

Mercurial

Stacks229

Followers219

Votes105

SourceTree

Stacks10.6K

Followers8.1K

Votes727

Mercurial vs SourceTree: What are the differences?

Introduction

Mercurial and SourceTree are both version control systems that are widely used in software development projects. While they serve the same purpose of managing and tracking changes to source code, there are key differences between the two.

Integration with other tools: Mercurial provides seamless integration with other tools commonly used in software development, such as bug tracking systems, continuous integration servers, and code review tools. SourceTree, on the other hand, has limited integration options and may require additional manual configuration for some integrations.
User interface: SourceTree offers a more visually appealing and user-friendly interface compared to Mercurial. It provides a graphical representation of branches, commits, and other repository data, making it easier for developers to understand and navigate the revision history. Mercurial, being a command-line based tool, requires users to have a good understanding of command-line commands.
Advanced features and flexibility: Mercurial supports a wide range of advanced features, such as named branches, bookmarks, and phased commits. These features provide more flexibility in managing complex codebases and allow for greater control over the versioning process. SourceTree, although user-friendly, lacks some of these advanced features and may not be suitable for more intricate version control scenarios.
Platform compatibility: Mercurial has excellent cross-platform compatibility, working seamlessly on Windows, Linux, and Mac operating systems. SourceTree, on the other hand, was primarily designed for macOS and Windows, with limited support for Linux.
Repository hosting options: While both Mercurial and SourceTree support hosting repositories on various platforms, Mercurial offers more options, such as self-hosting, as well as hosting on popular platforms like Bitbucket and Kiln. SourceTree, primarily being a client tool, relies on external hosting platforms like GitHub, Bitbucket, or GitLab.
Command-line support: Mercurial is primarily a command-line tool, offering a powerful and extensive set of commands for developers. SourceTree, while providing a graphical interface, also allows users to execute some basic command-line operations. However, it may not offer the same level of functionality and flexibility as using the command-line directly.

In Summary, Mercurial and SourceTree differ in terms of integration options, user interface, advanced features, platform compatibility, repository hosting options, and support for command-line operations.

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Advice on Mercurial, SourceTree

Stefan

Jan 19, 2020

Decided

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.

198k views198k

Comments

Detailed Comparison

Mercurial	SourceTree
Mercurial is dedicated to speed and efficiency with a sane user interface. It is written in Python. Mercurial's implementation and data structures are designed to be fast. You can generate diffs between revisions, or jump back in time within seconds.	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.
-	Full-powered DVCS;Create, clone, commit, push, pull, merge, and more are all just a click away.;Review your outgoing and incoming changesets, cherry-pick between branches, patch handling, rebase, stash, shelve, and much more.;Use Git-flow and Hg-flow with ease. Keep your repositories cleaner and your development more efficient with SourceTree's intuitive interface to Git and Hg's 'branchy' development model.
Statistics
Stacks 229	Stacks 10.6K
Followers 219	Followers 8.1K
Votes 105	Votes 727
Pros & Cons
Pros 18 A lot easier to extend than git 17 Easy-to-grasp system with nice tools 13 Works on windows natively without cygwin nonsense 11 Written in python 9 Free Cons 0 Track single upstream only 0 Does not distinguish between local and remote head	Pros 205 Visual history and branch view 164 Beautiful UI 134 Easy repository browsing 87 Gitflow support 75 Interactive stage or discard by hunks or lines Cons 12 Crashes often 8 So many bugs 7 Fetching is slow sometimes 5 No dark theme (Windows) 5 Extremely slow
Integrations
Windows Fedora FreeBSD Debian Gentoo Linux Mac OS X	GitHub Git Bitbucket Windows macOS

What are some alternatives to Mercurial, SourceTree?

Git

Git is a free and open source distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency.

GitKraken

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

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.

Tower

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

Sublime Merge

A snappy UI, three-way merge tool, side-by-side diffs, syntax highlighting, and more. Evaluate for free – no account, tracking, or time limits.

SVN (Subversion)

Subversion exists to be universally recognized and adopted as an open-source, centralized version control system characterized by its reliability as a safe haven for valuable data; the simplicity of its model and usage; and its ability to support the needs of a wide variety of users and projects, from individuals to large-scale enterprise operations.

GitUp

GitUp lets you see your entire labyrinth of branches and merges with perfect clarity. Any change you make, large or small, even outside GitUp, is immediately reflected in GitUp's graph. No refreshing, no waiting.

Plastic SCM

Plastic SCM is a distributed version control designed for big projects. It excels on branching and merging, graphical user interfaces, and can also deal with large files and even file-locking (great for game devs). It includes "semantic" features like refactor detection to ease diffing complex refactors.

Pijul

Pijul is a free and open source (AGPL 3) distributed version control system. Its distinctive feature is to be based on a sound theory of patches, which makes it easy to learn and use, and really distributed.

DVC

It is an open-source Version Control System for data science and machine learning projects. It is designed to handle large files, data sets, machine learning models, and metrics as well as code.

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Mercurial vs SourceTree

Overview