Git LFS
The most recommended of 3 version control extensions
Keeps large binary files out of the main repo so it stays small. Critics call it brittle and buggy, and say binaries still cannot be merged.
Keeps large binary files out of the main repo so it stays small. Critics call it brittle and buggy, and say binaries still cannot be merged.
63 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 21
- criticize it
- 42
- approval share
- 33%
Recommended in 11 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 21 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 11 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
Works well for Unity projects
“I've used git+LFS for unity projects without much issue.”
Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “Epic Games announces Lore version control system” “I use git+lfs for unity projects and it works out great.”
Comment from 10 Sep 2026 in “Version control second coming” “git-lfs did the job quite well for me”
Comment from 13 Apr 2026 in “We've raised $17M to build what comes after Git” - Comment from 2 Dec 2025 in “Ask HN: Binary files in Git repository, what is you workaround”
Keeps the main repo small
“Git LFS can be used to store directly in repo, helping not just with repo size”
Comment from 3 Aug 2026 in “Don't be a meat proxy” “LFS doesn't really pollute your repo once you get to learn its ergonomics”
Comment from 4 May 2026 in “Job Postings for Software Engineers Are Rapidly Rising” “provides a neat way to manage the dep without fattening the main repo”
Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “Epic Games announces Lore version control system” Enough for most teams
“We use git-lfs quite contentedly but we don’t require diffs on binaries”
Comment from 15 Apr 2026 in “GitHub Stacked PRs” “for majority git + LFS is enough.”
Comment from 22 Jun 2026 in “Git is forever. I'm building Oak anyways”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Breaks often and is buggy
“Git LFS is unusually bad. I think the maintainers are trying their best but it is one of those things where there are so many bugs”
Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “Epic Games announces Lore version control system” “Git LFS is extremely brittle and will break your local check out if you so much as breath on it wrong”
Comment from 10 Sep 2026 in “Version control second coming” “Git LFS breaks so often that it can't be seen as a serious professional tool”
Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “Epic Games announces Lore version control system” - Comment from 22 Mar 2026 in “A Coherent Vision for the Future of Version Control”
Easy to reach bad states
“you can easily get into weird states with LFS pushing up to two different remotes”
Comment from 24 Apr 2026 in “Incident with Multple GitHub Services” “it is much easier to get yourself into a bad state with git-lfs than vanilla git”
Comment from 18 Jun 2026 in “Epic Games announces Lore version control system” “still not great. Users who don't have it configured can still commit binary blobs”
Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “Epic Games announces Lore version control system” Cannot merge or diff binaries
“git-lfs is okay but it has some tricky quirks, and you end up with lots of bloat, and you can't merge.”
Comment from 22 Mar 2026 in “A Coherent Vision for the Future of Version Control” “Git LFS mostly uses a generic xdelta diff which is kind of mediocre at everything”
Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “Epic Games announces Lore version control system” Setup, auth and team adoption friction
“LFS needs an install step and it needed to be brought into git itself to cut through all of the problems.”
Comment from 23 Apr 2026 in “Highlights from Git 2.54” “I now have to authenticate my ed25519-sk key with my Yubikey thrice (!) when using LFS.”
Comment from 28 Apr 2026 in “Ted Nyman – High Performance Git” “but it is annoying to get everyone on your team to work in this workflow”
Comment from 21 Aug 2026 in “Version Control for Everything”
Other version control extensions people recommend
The two most recommended other version control extensions, 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.
See all 3 version control extensions, rankedWhat people said
40 of the 81 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Can't wait for git lfs support to land”
“a combination of git-scalar, git-lfs, and bazel will work for a small 50GB monorepo”
“Git LFS tries to address large non-text files, but in my experience teams tend to prefer VCS systems that handle this natively.”
“Git LFS is extremely brittle and will break your local check out if you so much as breath on it wrong”
“I use git+lfs for unity projects and it works out great.”
“feels like it was designed first and foremost for the Github API rather than generically for Git users with Git principles”
“but it is annoying to get everyone on your team to work in this workflow”
“Git LFS can be used to store directly in repo, helping not just with repo size”
“Git LFS is unsuitable for the kinds of assets used by creative studios.”
“Git (even with the LFS crutch) completely breaks down in such a scenario”
“This thing is a centralized server version control materialized on demand.”
“for majority git + LFS is enough.”
“it is much easier to get yourself into a bad state with git-lfs than vanilla git”
“Git LFS is unusually bad. I think the maintainers are trying their best but it is one of those things where there are so many bugs”
“git lfs/annex and git sparse "cone" checkouts can get pretty close to hitting the 90 or 95% case”
“there's LFS and submodules. It's just that those both suck balls.”
“provides a neat way to manage the dep without fattening the main repo”
“still not great. Users who don't have it configured can still commit binary blobs”
“I've used git+LFS for unity projects without much issue.”
“how often it breaks, especially when used with forges like GitHub”
“Git LFS breaks so often that it can't be seen as a serious professional tool”
“Git LFS mostly uses a generic xdelta diff which is kind of mediocre at everything”
“git-lfs tries to patch around that, but that makes a complex tool that creatives struggle to understand even more complex.”
“I'm personally not a fan of Git LFS, especially since GitHub charges you to use it”
“the various extensions to Git like git-lfs are just hacks that graft a separate half-baked version control system”
“LFS doesn't really pollute your repo once you get to learn its ergonomics”
“LFS just chose different tradeoffs.”
“I now have to authenticate my ed25519-sk key with my Yubikey thrice (!) when using LFS.”
“Seemingly seconds on every remote-touching command, even on a very small repo.”
“you can easily get into weird states with LFS pushing up to two different remotes”
“LFS is a great example of something git should be able to do”
“LFS needs an install step and it needed to be brought into git itself to cut through all of the problems.”
“We use git-lfs quite contentedly but we don’t require diffs on binaries”
“git-lfs did the job quite well for me”
“With LFS you can cobble something together but it's not fast or easy.”
“LFS locks are somehow still buggy and the CLI doesn't support batched updates”
“git-lfs is okay but it has some tricky quirks, and you end up with lots of bloat, and you can't merge.”
“leveraging their git lfs support”
“git lfs for essential binaries”
“Git LFS is probably better.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.