SourceTree
Shares rank 5 of 18 git clients by recommenders
Free Git GUI that people like for branch views, staging and history, though many find it slow and crash-prone on Windows.
Free Git GUI that people like for branch views, staging and history, though many find it slow and crash-prone on Windows.
19 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 12
- criticize it
- 7
- approval share
- 63%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not 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.
- 1.7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 7 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
Good branch and commit history views
““see only current branch” is super useful in ST to see only the current branch’s commit log.”
Comment from 10 Nov 2025 in “The lazy Git UI you didn't know you need” “Its file status and history view is unmatched IMO.”
Comment from 10 Nov 2025 in “The lazy Git UI you didn't know you need” Handles complex Git operations reliably
“stick with SourceTree for anything moderately complicated”
Comment from 11 Nov 2025 in “The lazy Git UI you didn't know you need” “Never failed me from the base, squash, orphans, forks”
Comment from 10 Nov 2025 in “The lazy Git UI you didn't know you need” Easy to use, long-time favorite
“I have used sourcetree for years and love it.”
Comment from 18 Aug 2026 in “Splitting a Git Commit” “still SourceTree is easier to use.”
Comment from 11 Nov 2025 in “The lazy Git UI you didn't know you need”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Slow performance
“It's pretty good but also really slow.”
Comment from 10 Nov 2025 in “The lazy Git UI you didn't know you need” “I don't know why I've put up with the terrible performance for so long.”
Comment from 11 Nov 2025 in “The lazy Git UI you didn't know you need” Crashes and hangs at times
“the Windows version of it felt neglected in that it would often crash or become very slow”
Comment from 11 Nov 2025 in “The lazy Git UI you didn't know you need” “It hangs every now (using MacOSX) and in general the experience is not as smooth as it was with SmartGit.”
Comment from 11 Nov 2025 in “The lazy Git UI you didn't know you need” Recurring bugs and weird issues
“That pile of junk has cost me so many hours of life trying to support the developers in fixing a thousand weird issues.”
Comment from 10 Nov 2025 in “The lazy Git UI you didn't know you need” “A long time ago with SourceTree I'd have issues mixing git CLI and SoureTree”
Comment from 10 Nov 2025 in “The lazy Git UI you didn't know you need” Fork and Tower considered better
“I can't believe anyone would voluntarily use Sourcetree over it.”
Comment from 11 Nov 2025 in “The lazy Git UI you didn't know you need” “I find both Fork and Tower to be much better than SourceTree”
Comment from 10 Nov 2025 in “The lazy Git UI you didn't know you need”
Other git clients people recommend
The four most recommended other git clients, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Magit | 120 | 20 | 86% | 12 | 10 yrs6 owners | Approved |
| Sublime Merge | 22 | 1 | 96% | 10 | — | Approved |
| GitButler | 21 | 19 | 53% | 6 | — | — |
| Fork git client | 17 | 2 | 89% | 7 | — | Approved |
| SourceTreeThis page | 12 | 7 | 63% | 7 | — | — |
What people said
All 22 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“it at least tends to actually work without being too intrusive as far as updating”
“which are free and are super convenient for staging”
“I have used sourcetree for years and love it.”
“lovely software is all there like Notepad++, MobaXTerm, SourceTree”
“it's actually somewhat different from the Windows version, that was a bit jarring”
“even if I prefer to use Sourcetree or GitKraken”
“SourceTree is also decent enough for the price (free vs GitKraken paid version)”
“SourceTree also isn't too shabby”
“I don't know why I've put up with the terrible performance for so long.”
“stick with SourceTree for anything moderately complicated”
“still SourceTree is easier to use.”
“I can't believe anyone would voluntarily use Sourcetree over it.”
“the Windows version of it felt neglected in that it would often crash or become very slow”
“It hangs every now (using MacOSX) and in general the experience is not as smooth as it was with SmartGit.”
“Never failed me from the base, squash, orphans, forks”
““see only current branch” is super useful in ST to see only the current branch’s commit log.”
“It's pretty good but also really slow.”
“A long time ago with SourceTree I'd have issues mixing git CLI and SoureTree”
“have not run into any issues at all”
“That pile of junk has cost me so many hours of life trying to support the developers in fixing a thousand weird issues.”
“I find both Fork and Tower to be much better than SourceTree”
“Its file status and history view is unmatched IMO.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.