7 Best GitHub Alternatives You Should Use
Microsoft’s acquisition of GitHub for a whopping 7.5 billion USD is not going well with many of GitHub’s users. While Microsoft is not that bad of a company and certainly not as big a disaster as Facebook, having your data owned by yet another tech giant is not something that every GitHub user was looking forward to. So, if you are one of those GitHub users or just someone who is shopping around to see what the market has to offer, here are the 7 best GitHub alternatives that you should check out in 2019.
Best GitHub Alternatives
GitHub is the world’s largest, and most popular code hosting site. Its users have a choice of using either Git or Subversion as their VCS (Version Control System), to manage, maintain and deploy software projects. It allows for free unlimited public code repositories to all users. To maintain private repos, a monthly subscription is required. GitHub lets you create ‘organizations’ which basically function as regular accounts except that they always have at least one user account listed as their owner.
All users and organizations get to host one free website on a GitHub pages subdomainusername.github.ioas well as unlimited project pages atusername.github.io/project-pageand you can switch to your own custom domain (if you have one) anytime for free. You should know all these things as they will help you find worthy GitHub alternatives. Once you have a basic idea of the service and what you are looking for you can choose a service which is not only similar to GitHub but can also replace it without causing any problems.
List of Best GitHub Alternatives
1. Bitbucket
Bitbucket is second only to GitHub in terms of popularity and usage. The service is free for individuals and organizations with 5 users or lesser, and it lets you have unlimited public and private repositories. Bitbucket allows you to push files using any Git client, or the Git command line. Made by Atlassian, Bitbucket also has its own Git and Mercurial client Source Tree which is available for free on Windows and Mac. It can also be controlled through its web interface.
Bitbucket, like GitHub, lets you host a website for free ataccountname.bitbucket.organd project pages ataccountname.bitbucket.org/project. You can also use your own domain name for your Bitbucket website. It lets you make teams atbitbucket.org/team-name. As mentioned before, Bitbucket lets you have unlimited public and private repos for teams with up to 5 users for free.
Bitbucket is more than just Git code management. It gives teams one place to plan projects, collaborate on code, test, and deploy. I love that you can connect Bitbucket with project management software such as JIRA or Trello. This allows you to easily manage big projects and make sure that the work is done on time. It also connects with all your favorite tools like AWS, Microsoft Azure, Script Runner, and more. If you are looking for a great altenrative to GitHub which also happens to be free, you should definitely check out Bitbucket.
Visit:Website(Free, $2/month/user for Standard and $5/month/user for Premium)
2. GitLab
GitLab is one of the best GitHub alternatives on the market right now. The software is designed to support the entire DevOps cycle. That meansfrom software development to deployment to monitoring and updates, everything can be handled with GitLab. One if its unique features is that you can install GitLab onto your own server. This gives you the option of using GitLab on a custom domain as well as with a custom host. GitLab also claims to handle large files and repositories better than GitHub. It also lets users have unlimited public AND private repos for free.
GitLab sacrifices the ease of use of GitHub for more privacy, security and serving speed.Getting started with GitLab is much harder than getting started with GitHub. As of now, GitLab does not have any feature like GitHub pages for creating web pages for your repos in a few clicks. You need to manually create those pages. On the other hand GitLab brings tools like powerful planning and project management, powerful branching tools, automatic testing and reporting features, tools to automatically monitor metrics, and more.
Visit:Website(Free, starts at $4/month/user)
3. Beanstalk
Binstalk is apowerful and robust Git and SVN hosting platformthat is one of the best GitHub alternatives that you can choose right now. One of the best features of Beanstalk is that you don’t require a client to edit your code as the service allows you to do it in the browser itself. When it comes to features Beanstalk is second to none. You get all the features that you expect from a powerful Git hosting platform. The features list include support for repository and branch level permissions, detailed history of commits and files, a fluid code review system, instant code deployment, and more.
Beanstalk is again a paid alternative to GitHub. It lets you try it out for 2 weeks free of cost, after which you need to pay. Its cheapest package “Bronze” costs $15 and allows up to 5 users, 3 GB storage and a maximum of 10 repositories. Subversion and Git Version Control Systems are supported by Beanstalk.
Visit:Website(Free trial, starts at $15/month)
4. SourceForge
Sourceforge has been around longer than most, and it has the projects to prove it. Lots of open source Linux, Windows and Mac projects are hosted on SF.It has a totally different project structure when compared with GitHub.You can only create projects with a unique name. SF unlike others, also lets you host both static and dynamic pages, with the option of integrating a CMS too. Sourceforge lets you create a website for each of your projects, atproj.sourceforge.net.
Sourceforge servers support for PHP, Perl, Python, Tcl, Ruby, and shell scripts. You can upload to SF through a SFTP client. You also get the option of using Git, Subversion (SVN) and Mercurial (Hg) as your project’s VCS on Sourceforge.
Visit:Website(Free)
5. GitKraken
GitKraken is not necessarily a GitHub alternative as it doesn’t offer its own Git and SVN hosting platform. That being said, it is much more than just your average GitHub client as not only it supports GitHub but it also supports other services such as GitLab, Microsoft Azure, BitBucket, and more. It even allows you to create and open your own local repo if that’s what you are looking for. What makes GitKraken to stand out from the rest of GitHub clients is itsfast and reliable performance and exceptional appearance.
It’s an electron app which can run natively on Windows, Mac, and Linux environment. GitKraken brings an intuitive UI/UX design with support forfeatures like visual commit history, 1-click undo and redo, drag and drop support, merge conflict editor,built-in task tracking, Gitflow support, Git Hooks Support, and more. Recently, GitKraken also launched a new Glo Boards feature which adds a Kanban style project managment dashboard. This allows teams to directly manage projects and teams, assign tasks, keep track of bugs, and more. If you are looking for a fast and beautiful alternative to GitHub, you should check out GitKraken.
Visit:Website(Free, $29/year for individual user, $49/year/user for teams)
6. AWS CodeCommit
The AWS CodeCommit is a great service to host your Git-based repositories. It brings a secure control service makes it easy for teams to collaborate on code in a secure and highly scalable ecosystem. The biggest feature of AWS CodeCommit is its scalibility as iteliminates the need to operate your own source control systemor worry about scaling its infrastructure. The service can automatically scale to meet the growing needs of your project and company.
Another big feature of AWS CodeCommit is security. The service automatically encrypts your files in transit and at rest thus ensuring that your code is always protected. The service also brings all the collaboration features that you can expect from a Git-based repository.You can easily collaborate with teammates via pull requests, branching, and merging.Finally, just like GitHub, the AWS CodeCommit works with all your existing Git tools so that you can keep using your preferred development environment plugins, continuous integration/continuous delivery systems, and all the other Git tools that you are familiar with.
Visit:Website(Free, $1/user/month)
7. Cloud Source Repositories by Google
The last GitHub alternative on our list is from Google. Dubbed as the Cloud Source Repositories the service provides you with a single place where you can your team can track, manage, and store your code.Teams can easily collaborate on their code on a fully featured, scalable, and private Git repository.You can also extend Git workflow by connecting to other GCP tools, including Cloud Build, App Engine, Stackdriver, and more.
One of the best things about Cloud Source Repositories is that youget access to unlimited free and private git repositoriesin contrast to GitHub where you need to have a paid account to get a private repository. The service also allows developers to set up triggers to automatically build and test their code using Cloud Build. Other features include fast code search, source browser, automatic syncing, and more. If none of the above GitHub alternatives met your needs, you can check this one out.
Visit:Website(Free, starts at $1/project-user)
SEE ALSO:15 Best Free PHP Frameworks
Use These GitHub Alternatives to Host Your Code
That ends our article on the best GitHub alternatives that you can use to host your code. We have included both paid and free GitHub alternatives so you can find the right one for you. All the apps and services mentioned on this list have millions of users and who speak very highly of them. So, do check them out and let us know which one you went with by writing in the comments section below.
Aniruddha Mysore
I am a student who loves programming, web design and reading fantasy novels, not necessarily in that order. I blog about technology and life at ‘The New Age Tech Connoisseur’
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