Atlassian SourceTree vs Bitbucket vs GitHub comparison

Atlassian SourceTree is a graphical user interface (GUI) desktop client that facilitates user interaction with Git repositories. SourceTree provides a visual interface that is easy to use and intuitive. It allows developers to save a lot of command lines when working with Git.

The tool is free and works as a Git client for Windows and Mac OS. You can visualize and manage your repositories via the simple GUI. The client offers an efficient and consistent development process for Git and Mercurial.

Atlassian SourceTree Key Features

• Branch management: Typically, managing branches is a time-consuming and tedious process for project managers and developers. With SourceTree, you can switch working copies with a single click. You can also see where you are compared with the version in the repository, alerting you to push or pull.
  
  
• Working copy: Developers who work using the command line often lack visibility. Access the “working copy” section to see the difference between your local copy and the version in the Git repository. This feature allows you to see exactly what has changed.
  
  
• Branch history: the History section displays the full history of the branch, displaying each commit and file change. This feature enables smooth version control.
  
  
• GitFlow: GitFlow organizes the workflow, streamlining parallel code changes and reducing merge conflicts.

Atlassian SourceTree Benefits

• Any level user can use SourceTree: beginners and experts benefit from the visibility and streamlined workflows of SourceTree. Beginners benefit from the simplified version control. Experts can review changesets and stash and pick between branches. Senior programmers can customize changeset and stashes, apply patches, rebase or shelve changesets. The tool offers detailed tutorials to help beginners and experts start quickly. Other benefits for beginners include easy access to commands with one click and simplified distributed version control.
  
  
• Code visibility: the visualization of the Git process enables users to manage large projects with multiple branches and commits. SourceTree automatically tracks the activity of your code. It also features bookmarks where you can see a summarized view of all projects and repositories. Therefore, you can check a specific branch or commit with a single click. Finally, it features detailed branching diagrams that make it easy to follow the process.
  
  
• Git and Hg support: the fully-featured GUI supports Git and Mercurial, offering a consistent development process from the start. You can also use SourceTree for a project on Github. Start by creating the project on Github, then connect it to the SourceTree software.
  
  
• Free: the SourceTree tool is free to use, even for commercial uses, without buying a license.
  
  
• Supports Git LFS: users can track large assets and submit code from a single dashboard.
  
  
• Subordinated modules: you can use submodules for hand-picked dependencies and manage and group projects.

Atlassian SourceTree Use Cases

• Check-in and check-out code using the client-side application.
• You can also use SourceTree to repair broken Git repositories because you can easily detect mistakes at a glance.
• The simple and intuitive user interface allows users to search for and clone remote repositories.

Reviews from Real Users

A Program Manager/Engineer at a government says, "The most valuable feature is the ability to fix a broken repository merge… This product has helped because we have been able to fix problems when our code repository breaks."

Bitbucket is a team-oriented Git-based code hosting and collaboration solution. The best-in-class Jira and Trello integrations in Bitbucket are meant to bring the entire software team together to complete a project. Bitbucket gives your team a single location to collaborate on code from concept to cloud deployment, to generate quality code through automated testing, and to deploy code with confidence.

There are three deployment options for Bitbucket:

1. Bitbucket Cloud is a web-based version of Bitbucket that is hosted on Atlassian's servers and accessible via a URL. Pipelines, an exclusive built-in CI/CD tool in Bitbucket Cloud, allows you to create, test, and deploy directly from Bitbucket.
   
   
2. Bitbucket Server is installed on your computer and runs in your environment. Bamboo, our robust CI/CD platform, has strong connections with Bitbucket Server, allowing you to totally automate your workflow. The license is unlimited.
   
   
3. Bitbucket Data Center appears to users as a single instance of Bitbucket Server, but it is actually hosted on a cluster of servers in your environment.
   

This has some advantages over Bitbucket Server:

• Availability: If one cluster node fails, the remaining cluster node(s) can continue to service requests, resulting in little or no downtime for customers.
  
• Performance at scale: A cluster of numerous Bitbucket Server-running machines can manage more traffic than a single system.
  
• Mirroring: For distributed teams working with large repositories, smart mirroring can increase Git clone performance.

Bitbucket Features

Bitbucket has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

• Workflow control: This helps you to enforce a project or team workflow.

• Cooperation: Pull requests with inline commentary for code review cooperation.

• Customization: If you don't find what you're looking for in our Marketplace, you can use our full Rest API to create unique features for your workflow.

• Jira and Trello integration: Bring order to the chaos and keep the entire software company informed. Access to Jira issues and Trello cards' branches, build status, commits, and status.

• Code collaboration: From concept to cloud, code collaboration is a must. Create a merging checklist with designated approvers and check for passing builds before transitioning Jira issues based on pull request status.

• Consistent delivery: With built-in continuous delivery, you can build and test automatically. Build, test, and deploy with Bitbucket Pipelines, our integrated CI/CD solution. Benefit from code-based configuration and quick feedback loops.

• Simple deployment: Keep track of your deployments, preview them, and confidently promote them.

• Code security: You can rest easy knowing your code is safe on the cloud, and you can use checks to prevent errors from occurring.

Reviews from Real Users

Bitbucket stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its robust traceability and user-friendly interface. PeerSpot users take note of the advantages of these features in their reviews:

One PeerSpot reviewer, a Developer III at an Information Technology at a energy/utilities company, writes, “Bitbucket has improved our organization because it has simplified and streamlined our developer communication code and review process. It is also much more visual.” He adds, “Bitbucket's traceability is great. Being able to see pool requests is just a great thing for collaboration.”

Kajal P., Quality Assurance Manager at a tech services company, notes, “The solution is easy to use. If I need to check out my latest code or I need to send my local code to the depositories it is simple. Overall it has been a good experience from my side using this solution."

GitHub is a web-based Git repository hosting service. It offers all of the distributed revision control and source code management (SCM) functionality of Git as well as adding its own features. Unlike Git, which is strictly a command-line tool, GitHub provides a Web-based graphical interface and desktop as well as mobile integration. It also provides access control and several collaboration features such as bug tracking, feature requests, task management, and wikis for every project.