# Fossil 106 Hacker News commenters recommended Fossil and 19 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 13 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 17 years (7 owners). It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** Recommended for bundling wiki, tickets and forum with code in one self-hostable SQLite file, with a simpler interface than Git; critics note it forbids history rewriting and is opinionated. ## Why people recommend it - Built-in wiki, tickets and forum (10 comments): "fossil is much more appealing when you look at the underlying model and how it bundles wiki and issues along with the repository" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46145193)) "solves this pretty nicely. You can have documentation as files or in a special wiki namespace and it's versioned both ways" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49815957)) "the built-in features are very useful, especially for anyone looking to reduce their dependence on a centralized host" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49333645)) - Simpler, nicer interface than Git (5 comments): "it's perfect for my needs. Lightweight, has its own integrated web server and forge features should I need them, and it's dead easy to use." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49680202)) "There have been other VCS tools with arguably better UIs and feature sets than Git (Mercurial, Fossil)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45885666)) "The user interface, both command and web, is light-years better than anything Git related." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48176463)) - Local-first and decentralized (4 comments): "Fossil is delightful and definitely nails a feeling of decentralization that I think we ruined completely with git" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47771894)) "a 3rd party addition doesn't make Git as local-first as Fossil when it comes to other things than source code" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46793159)) "I really enjoy how local-first it is, as someone who sometimes work without internet connection." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46778916)) - Easy self-hosting, built-in web server (3 comments): "it's perfect for my needs. Lightweight, has its own integrated web server and forge features should I need them, and it's dead easy to use." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49680202)) "Fossil is very easy to self host. If you already have a web server it needs maybe 10 or 15 lines of server config." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47946206)) "It's nice that unlike git instaweb you don't need to install an additional web server" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47427880)) ## What people warn about - Cannot rewrite history (5 comments): "Fossil already offers a million settings. Add another and make me turn on "dangerously-unsafe-rebase" to get the feature if need be." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49681062)) "Fossil is very opinionated about some things, in particular, the inability to rewrite history, which makes it a non-option for some." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49851798)) "This prioritises accuracy/history of what happened, but this has significant disadvantages and practically no advantages" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49681406)) - Opinionated around SQLite team's workflow (3 comments): "Part of the problem is that fossil is very opinionated. It's great if your development flow is similar to that of the sqlite team." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47943511)) "There's no code review system for Fossil, because the SQLite guy doesn't believe in formalized code review." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46141134)) "Seems like feature creep motivated by the wants of a single project (SQLite)." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46587237)) - Weaker ecosystem than Git (3 comments): "I like it but the problem is everyone else already knows git and everything integrates with git." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46779437)) "I love fossil and the many features it provides in itself and would use it for everything, except that it doesn't have (working) Intellij plugin" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46587758)) "The idea is good, but I do not believe that the better technical solution necessarily wins." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47955132)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Git](https://hackerapproved.com/p/git.md): 814 recommend - [Jujutsu (jj)](https://hackerapproved.com/p/jujutsu.md): 335 recommend - [Mercurial](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mercurial.md): 121 recommend - [jj (Jujutsu)](https://hackerapproved.com/p/jj.md): 115 recommend - [Subversion](https://hackerapproved.com/p/subversion.md): 54 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Fossil", https://hackerapproved.com/p/fossil/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).