IBM Rational ClearCase
Shares rank 16 of 26 version control systems by recommenders
Powerful, long-established centralized version control for controlled organizations. Critics most often cite high cost and a steep learning curve needing dedicated admins.
Powerful, long-established centralized version control for controlled organizations. Critics most often cite high cost and a steep learning curve needing dedicated admins.
30 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 12
- criticize it
- 18
- approval share
- 40%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 12 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Suits controlled, centralized environments
“continued use of centralized version control systems (e.g. Perforce, ClearCase) at organizations that need these things.”
Comment from 10 Sep 2026 in “Version control second coming” “Great for controlled environments, but not really built for open collaboration or community growth”
Comment from 29 Apr 2026 in “Before GitHub” Shared binary caches for compilation
“I loved the views, you could actually have snapshots git style, and best of all binary caches for distributed compilation of C and C++”
Comment from 22 May 2026 in “Mounting Git commits as folders with NFS” “those headers were uploaded to the server so that other users didn't have to recompile them”
Comment from 3 Sep 2026 in “We could save petabytes of cache storage with Zstandard and Pingora” Snapshots and file history
“I loved the views, you could actually have snapshots git style, and best of all binary caches for distributed compilation of C and C++”
Comment from 22 May 2026 in “Mounting Git commits as folders with NFS” “which has something similar if you use their NFS based thing, you could see file or directory history and info”
Comment from 21 May 2026 in “Mounting Git commits as folders with NFS”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Needs dedicated admins and teams
“a dedicated admin working full-time to keep it from falling over”
Comment from 4 May 2026 in “From CVS to Git, thirty years of source control” “quite complex and requires a dedicated team”
Comment from 22 May 2026 in “Mounting Git commits as folders with NFS” Hard to learn and unfriendly
“I found it nice and powerful, but 90% of the developers did not understand it.”
Comment from 22 May 2026 in “Mounting Git commits as folders with NFS” “those config specs were a language in themselves and the amount of times people would get in trouble with them was a real drag”
Comment from 23 Mar 2026 in “A Coherent Vision for the Future of Version Control” “it was too powerful for people that did and didn't know how to use it”
Comment from 23 May 2026 in “Mounting Git commits as folders with NFS” - Comment from 14 May 2026 in “A History of IDEs at Google”
High cost and poor value
“IBM buying a popular software product at great expense and running it into the ground”
Comment from 19 Mar 2026 in “LotusNotes” “Clearcase was way ahead of it's time, the main issues there were really just cost”
Comment from 14 Oct 2026 in “Redesigning source control at Anthropic” “it wasn't just the price that was wrong with it”
Comment from 10 Sep 2026 in “Version control second coming” Slow checkouts and waiting
“There was an uncomfortable amount of time wasted waiting for someone to do something in ClearCase”
Comment from 10 Sep 2026 in “Version control second coming” “Centralized servers worsened the problem by doing everything in a synchronous manner”
Comment from 19 Nov 2025 in “Blender 5.0” “You had to get there at 6AM to be one of the first five people to log in”
Comment from 21 May 2026 in “Mounting Git commits as folders with NFS” - Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “Git is a file system. We need a database for the code”
Other version control systems people recommend
The four most recommended other version control systems, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Git | 814 | 503 | 62% | 13 | 15 yrs42 owners | — |
| Jujutsu (jj) | 335 | 106 | 76% | 13 | 1 yr21 owners | Approved |
| Mercurial | 121 | 43 | 74% | 12 | 19 yrs7 owners | Approved |
| jj (Jujutsu) | 115 | 37 | 76% | 12 | 1 yr7 owners | Approved |
| IBM Rational ClearCaseThis page | 12 | 18 | 40% | 8 | — | — |
What people said
29 of the 33 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Clearcase was way ahead of it's time, the main issues there were really just cost”
“move off of clearcase, which was a very reasonable thing to do”
“continued use of centralized version control systems (e.g. Perforce, ClearCase) at organizations that need these things.”
“There was an uncomfortable amount of time wasted waiting for someone to do something in ClearCase”
“What a fucking cursed piece of software!”
“it wasn't just the price that was wrong with it”
“those headers were uploaded to the server so that other users didn't have to recompile them”
“Rational Clearcase, anyone else remember mounting VOBs?”
“wouldn't describe it as pleasant”
“it was too powerful for people that did and didn't know how to use it”
“quite complex and requires a dedicated team”
“I loved the views, you could actually have snapshots git style, and best of all binary caches for distributed compilation of C and C++”
“I found it nice and powerful, but 90% of the developers did not understand it.”
“which has something similar if you use their NFS based thing, you could see file or directory history and info”
“You had to get there at 6AM to be one of the first five people to log in”
“The dot-com era called. They want ClearCase back.”
“both are so unfriendly compared to subversion/cvs or git/mercurial”
“a dedicated admin working full-time to keep it from falling over”
“Great for controlled environments, but not really built for open collaboration or community growth”
“None of them even close to Git usability-wise.”
“those config specs were a language in themselves and the amount of times people would get in trouble with them was a real drag”
“IBM buying a popular software product at great expense and running it into the ground”
“6 hour code checkouts of 10 megabyte projects?”
“their time has come again”
“The feature set, particularly config specs and dynamic views, was brilliant.”
“That POS is the one SW that 100% deserves it place in hell”
“IBM is where good (acquired) software goes to die.”
“it's been doing all of this software configuration auditing stuff for you since the 1990s”
“Centralized servers worsened the problem by doing everything in a synchronous manner”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.