Sublime Merge
Hacker ApprovedRanked 2 of 18 git clients by recommenders
People recommend it as a fast, clean visual Git client that makes line-by-line staging and diff review easy. The most common caveat is slow development.
People recommend it as a fast, clean visual Git client that makes line-by-line staging and diff review easy. The most common caveat is slow development.
23 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 22
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 96%
Recommended in 10 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 22 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 22 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 10 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
Best Git GUI available
“That's nowhere what you would get out of a tool like GitLens or Sublime Merge.”
Comment from 1 Aug 2026 in “Cursor removed cost information from the usage page and CSV export” “I use their Git client daily and there's nothing like it.”
Comment from 22 Sep 2026 in “Sublime Text Build 4213” “it's probably the best GUI for Git there is”
Comment from 24 Oct 2026 in “Roku developer repositories moved from GitHub to GitLab” - Comment from 12 Apr 2026 in “How to build a `Git diff` driver”
Fast, responsive interface
“super fast, nice clean UI on all platforms, still maintained, single purchase license”
Comment from 10 Nov 2025 in “The lazy Git UI you didn't know you need” “It opens and does everything so fast, and I love it.”
Comment from 5 Oct 2026 in “A browser-native classic Visual Basic VB6 IDE” “how fast local ui is compared to web-based git”
Comment from 11 Mar 2026 in “After outages, Amazon to make senior engineers sign off on AI-assisted changes” Clean, visual interface
“super fast, nice clean UI on all platforms, still maintained, single purchase license”
Comment from 10 Nov 2025 in “The lazy Git UI you didn't know you need” “a fantastic visual interface with context and reversible inputs”
Comment from 29 Jul 2026 in “Staging patches with Git add -p” “it's probably the best GUI for Git there is”
Comment from 24 Oct 2026 in “Roku developer repositories moved from GitHub to GitLab” Line-by-line staging and diffs
“I got used to sublime merge to context-switch editing vs reviewing, staging changes line-by-line”
Comment from 6 Oct 2026 in “JetBrains reports revenue growth, net financial loss for 2025” “it's nice for [un]staging individual lines and for looking at some diffs”
Comment from 11 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 MergeThis page | 22 | 1 | 96% | 10 | — | Approved |
| GitButler | 21 | 19 | 53% | 6 | — | — |
| Fork git client | 17 | 2 | 89% | 7 | — | Approved |
| SourceTree | 12 | 7 | 63% | 7 | — | — |
What people said
22 of the 25 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“it's probably the best GUI for Git there is”
“Looks like a good git flow editor.”
“I got used to sublime merge to context-switch editing vs reviewing, staging changes line-by-line”
“It opens and does everything so fast, and I love it.”
“I use their Git client daily and there's nothing like it.”
“All the goodies from sublime text for a git frontend!”
“The value you get for a sublime text+merge is so much higher than whatever you'd get by paying for an equivalent cost”
“free desktop GUIs like Sublime Merge or VS Code exist”
“I did with sublime+sublime merge”
“That's nowhere what you would get out of a tool like GitLens or Sublime Merge.”
“a fantastic visual interface with context and reversible inputs”
“Nothing beats sublime merge for this.”
“how fast local ui is compared to web-based git”
“Hyper + Q is Sublime Merge”
“it's kind of ok but definitely not on the same level”
“I don't really like the UI and the fact that it is proprietary”
“it has all the same drawbacks as ST, the most severe being glacial pace of changes (or total lack thereof)”
“reading/modifying it from Sublime Merge on Windows”
“It’s a fantastic tool, and although I’m very comfortable on the command line, I always reach for Sublime Merge”
“it's nice for [un]staging individual lines and for looking at some diffs”
“I recommend it a lot to people who need to dip their toes in source control”
“super fast, nice clean UI on all platforms, still maintained, single purchase license”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.