# SourceTree

12 Hacker News commenters recommended SourceTree and 7 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Free Git GUI that people like for branch views, staging and history, though many find it slow and crash-prone on Windows.

## Why people recommend it

- Good branch and commit history views (2 comments): "“see only current branch” is super useful in ST to see only the current branch’s commit log." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45881876)) "Its file status and history view is unmatched IMO." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45880203))
- Handles complex Git operations reliably (2 comments): "stick with SourceTree for anything moderately complicated" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45886958)) "Never failed me from the base, squash, orphans, forks" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45881997))
- Easy to use, long-time favorite (2 comments): "I have used sourcetree for years and love it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49347265)) "still SourceTree is easier to use." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45885959))

## What people warn about

- Slow performance (2 comments): "It's pretty good but also really slow." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45881564)) "I don't know why I've put up with the terrible performance for so long." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45888521))
- Crashes and hangs at times (2 comments): "the Windows version of it felt neglected in that it would often crash or become very slow" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45885317)) "It hangs every now (using MacOSX) and in general the experience is not as smooth as it was with SmartGit." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45884632))
- Recurring bugs and weird issues (2 comments): "That pile of junk has cost me so many hours of life trying to support the developers in fixing a thousand weird issues." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45881103)) "A long time ago with SourceTree I'd have issues mixing git CLI and SoureTree" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45881405))
- Fork and Tower considered better (2 comments): "I can't believe anyone would voluntarily use Sourcetree over it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45885365)) "I find both Fork and Tower to be much better than SourceTree" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45881072))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Magit](https://hackerapproved.com/p/magit.md): 120 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
- [Git Tower](https://hackerapproved.com/p/tower.md): 12 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "SourceTree", https://hackerapproved.com/p/sourcetree/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).