# Magit 120 Hacker News commenters recommended Magit and 20 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 10 years (6 owners). It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** A keyboard-driven Git interface inside Emacs that makes Git discoverable and makes hunk/line staging and history editing easy; critics find it slow, UI-blocking and quirky. ## Why people recommend it - Precise hunk and line staging (5 comments): "for reviewing, selectively staging, and selectively rejecting the changes of an LLM agent? I feel like I'd die without it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48076587)) "The nice thing with magit is how easy it is to manipulate hunks and line, truly editing commits with a surgical precision" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49054172)) "I use magit, so it's always easier to select only the lines/hunks/files that is for one specific change" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49306655)) - Discoverable, well-designed interface (5 comments): "Honestly, magit is just a masterclass in UI design. It makes most everything incredibly easy to do while still giving you the ability to tweak things if you need to." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47940144)) "With magit, the routine git tasks are very fast & flowing, git becomes highly discoverable, and complex tasks are made easy." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47330948)) "Magit surfaces all available commands and options for you, along with key shortcuts" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47325405)) - Makes advanced Git tasks easy (5 comments): "With magit, the routine git tasks are very fast & flowing, git becomes highly discoverable, and complex tasks are made easy." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47330948)) "probably 95% of the use cases described here are straightforward (and flexible) operations in magit." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47700703)) "if you create a fixup or a squash commit, it will present you with the log to select the target" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45882000)) - Best Git client available (4 comments): "I've never seen anything getting remotely close to Magit. It's both in-depth and a simplified stateful interface." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48903696)) "Magit really is the only git frontend worth using. It exposes all of this kind of stuff in an easy to use way." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49816552)) "Magit is considered by many --even non Emacs user-- as the best Git interface ever." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48000860)) ## What people warn about - Slow and blocks the editor (7 comments): "Magit just feels slower (and definitely is slower to start if you're not already in emacs) and less intuitive." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47330163)) "Git will be inherently slower, so magit will hang your UI more often." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47331847)) "I love it, I just wish it wouldn't hang so much rendering the output" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48725701)) - Quirky UI never clicks (3 comments): "It forces the user into doing things the "Magit way", and I'd rather not." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45882185)) "Magit forcing you into its own quirky UI, but it never clicked for me." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47325320)) "Something about it just refuses to "click" with me." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45884372)) - Requires using Emacs (2 comments): "Magit just feels slower (and definitely is slower to start if you're not already in emacs) and less intuitive." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47330163)) "Emacs is a blocker as it's not something I'd like to pick up and maintain." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47324261)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Sublime Merge](https://hackerapproved.com/p/sublime-merge.md): 22 recommend - [GitButler](https://hackerapproved.com/p/gitbutler.md): 21 recommend - [Fork git client](https://hackerapproved.com/p/fork.md): 17 recommend - [SourceTree](https://hackerapproved.com/p/sourcetree.md): 12 recommend - [Git Tower](https://hackerapproved.com/p/tower.md): 12 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Magit", https://hackerapproved.com/p/magit/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).