Ask HN: GUI Git client for macOS recommendations

#1

Post by petecooper » Tue, Oct 18, 2016, 7:51 PM UTC

I've flattened and rebuilt a macOS environment for web development work. I'm looking for a GUI git client, and I'd be most grateful for your input -- good or bad.

I'm a front-end person and I'm dabbling with other parts of the stack, though my new project is purely HTML/CSS/PHP.

I'm running SourceTree right now, which connects to a networked GitLab CE server. It works, but it feels overkill for what I need, and I haven't yet tuned it to work with my incremental & frequent commit style...which makes for about 6 mouse clicks for each commit. Maybe I'm using it incorrectly.

My personal preference is for open source, but I'm not averse to proprietary/commercial (e.g. Tower [2]) if the feedback is positive.

The medium-term goal is to master the terminal commands, but for the short term I'm really interested in what you use for macOS git in the GUI style so I can improve my confidence.

Thanks very much in advance.

[1] https://www.sourcetreeapp.com

[2] https://www.git-tower.com/mac/

Edit: formatting.

Re: Ask HN: GUI Git client for macOS recommendations

#2

Post by bitshiffed » Tue, Oct 18, 2016, 7:57 PM UTC

GitKraken (gitkraken.com) is very nice, though not open source.

Re: Ask HN: GUI Git client for macOS recommendations

#3

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Oct 18, 2016, 7:58 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: GUI Git client for macOS recommendations

#4

Post by brianjking » Tue, Oct 18, 2016, 8:01 PM UTC

If I use a GUI tool on my Mac I use Git Tower, while it's definitely not open source and has a reasonably high price tag it's definitely a superb Git GUI application. Github Desktop and SourceTree are both quite nice as well, however, it's generally Git Tower (on Mac or Windows) but more often than not I stick to the terminal.

Re: Ask HN: GUI Git client for macOS recommendations

#5

Post by chris_7 » Tue, Oct 18, 2016, 8:46 PM UTC

GitX is buggy and terrible and yet it still has the best staging interface I've used. I don't use any other features though, and just do those on the command line, because they're easier, but a GUI is much better than "add -p".

Re: Ask HN: GUI Git client for macOS recommendations

#6

Post by mostlystatic » Tue, Oct 18, 2016, 8:48 PM UTC

I use GitHub Desktop and am really happy with it. It works for non-GitHub repos too

Re: Ask HN: GUI Git client for macOS recommendations

#7

Post by sandis » Tue, Oct 18, 2016, 9:13 PM UTC

I recently switched to Fork [1] after seeing it on HN and so far am liking it. It's currently in beta and is actively being developed.

[1] https://git-fork.com

Re: Ask HN: GUI Git client for macOS recommendations

#8

Post by ThomPete » Tue, Oct 18, 2016, 11:28 PM UTC

I used to use Git Tower

Re: Ask HN: GUI Git client for macOS recommendations

#9

Post by alexeldeib » Wed, Oct 19, 2016, 12:12 AM UTC

sandis wrote: post #7

I recently switched to Fork [1] after seeing it on HN and so far am liking it. It's currently in beta and is actively being developed. [1] https://git-fork.com

To me, Fork has the cleanest UI, although sometimes I prefer GitKraken. Things seem a little closer to the surface sometime with GitKraken. Ultimately, though, nothing has really beaten the command line, and that's where I still do most of my git work.

Re: Ask HN: GUI Git client for macOS recommendations

#10

Post by adambrenecki » Wed, Oct 19, 2016, 1:56 AM UTC

Cannot reccomend GitUp (http://gitup.co/) enough. It's open source too.

That said, I use it differently to you; I use a graphical Git client mostly to view and browse around the commit graph, and I generally make commits and stuff like that from the CLI. I think it's pretty simple to do commits through GitUp as well.