Design your way

GitHub is one of the most widely used git repositories for developers.

It comes with a lot of functionality, both for beginners and advanced users as well, but it doesn’t always fit the bill when you’re looking for something specific.

For example, you might have clients that want to host everything on their own servers, or some other problem that doesn’t allow you to use GitHub.

Even more so, for some beginner developers, grasping what is a Git repository can be a bit difficult and they have problems with getting used to the service.

There was a GitLab survey not long ago, and it turns out that the majority of developers, 98% of them to be exact, use open source tools. Git, as a specific tool, was the version control tool of choice of 92% of the developers.

Even though there are plenty of alternatives to GitHub, its users continue to support it immensely and the company’s branding efforts only add up to that.

If you’re in the market for a distributed version control language software (DVCS), you will notice that there is more than one alternative to GitHub, and some of them have plenty to offer.

There are a couple of reasons why you might be looking at a GitHub alternative, some of the key ones include, but are not limited to:

You work on projects that rely on security you can only achieve with an in-house system
Your team has grown to be fairly large, and GitHub’s prices aren’t worth it for you
The version control language you use differs from Git

Whichever of the aforementioned is you, here is a list of GitHub alternatives that you’ll want to try.

BitBucket

Quora and Reddit both favorite this option, and there’s good reason for that. Since it’s a paid service, you’ll appreciate that the first five users you connect are for free, which gives you a chance to try things out before you commit.

Since it’s a part of the Atlassian software family, BitBucket works well with other services such as Bamboo or Jira. It comes with all the features that you’d love with a Git repository, such as pull requests, in-line comments etc.

Depending on your specific needs in terms of security, you can deploy BitBucket on a local server, in the cloud, or even on your data center.

GitLab

Another great alternative with plenty of features, you will find a dedicated project website as well as a project Wiki with GitLab. The testing and delivery of your code are both automated, thanks to the continuous integration, which significantly reduces how long you wait for things.

All the standard features that users of Git repositories are used to, such as code viewer, pull requests, etc.

SourceForge

Once a staple for open source software code repositories, SourceForge went through a bit of problems in 2015, but by 2016 it was back up and running as good as ever.

SourceForge predated a lot of open-source alternatives for version control, and you will now find multi-factor authentication, which supports their claim that they’ve moved towards higher security levels.Standard features such as discussions, issue tracking and others are present, as expected.

ChiliProject

This is a great option for anyone looking for a full-fledged web-based project management system. It’s there for you from the moment you start to set up the project plan, until the very end. It was made with Ruby on Rails.

Codeplane

This is also a paid solution, and another one that gives you 30 days to see whether you like it. Afterwards, you get Git as your version control software, and 2 gigabytes of storage for your repositories, and no limits on how many repositories you have or how many users access them, for $9 a month, which is half the price of the previous alternative.

This is best suited for smaller companies, and even freelancers or freelance teams. Your repositories will be backed up and stored in the Amazon S3, so that’s one less thing to worry about.

CodePlex

A Microsoft-made solution, you will get an option to create your projects and each of them will get a domain. However, this means that they should all have names that haven’t been used before, which might get tricky.

And, the domain name is limited to yournamehere.codeplex.com, you don’t get to create a custom website for the project. You do get a fair share of VCS, as Team Foundation Server, Mercurial and Git are all options.

Your projects will be private for the first 30 days, and you get an option to make them public earlier than the expiry of those 30 days. If you don’t, your projects will be removed. CodePlex doesn’t set any limits for the number of users, and all its features are free to use.

Redmine

If you’re after a complete toolset for flexible project management, Redmine is one of the best possible alternatives to GitHub. It’s free, it’s open source, and won’t ask you for any payments of any kind.

You can create as many repositories as you want, and no, there aren’t any hidden charges, which are all things that developers will love. It’s a bit tricky to install and set up, but it will save you a lot of money and time in the long run.

It comes with plenty of cross-platform and cross-database capabilities, and supports Wiki, forums, SCM integration, role-based access control etc.

Beanstalk

Again a paid solution, you get two weeks of free trial period with Beanstalk. Afterwards, you get packages which start at $15 for 3 gigabytes of storage, 5 users and a limit of 10 repositories, and only go up from that.

There’s support for Git Version Control Systems, as well as Subversion, and the code can be edited within the browser which saves you time from switching to the command line interface all the time.

Apache Allura

This is one of the free ones, and it gives you a simple, yet functional toolset. Code comments, issue tracking, and committing everything to a Mongo database are all included, and there’s support for Subversion, Hg, and Git, which is enough flexibility.

You can track changes with color coding, build Wiki pages and search artifacts, and there’s also the ability to connect other tools as well.

Cloud Source by Google

This is Google’s version control, which appeared after Google Code’s demise. You can choose between Google’s own repositories, and connecting to other ones such as GitHub or Bitbucket.

There’s an advantage with using Google’s repositories, since the storage is across Google’s infrastructure, which guarantees safety.

You get things such as the Stackdriver Debugger, which lets you see debugging, side by side with any app, as well as cloud diagnostics to deeper investigate issues, all while your code is continuously running in the background.

AWS CodeCommit

If security is your primary concern, this is one that’s worth looking into. You get private and secure Git repositories, and the option to connect other AWS products.

CodeCommit is completely usable with the Git tools you’re using now, but your code is safe in the AWS environment. You don’t need to purchase any hardware, and AWS has plenty of partners that give you a lot of plugins, for greater control over the software stack.

GitKraken

It’s a fact that many of the tools mentioned don’t really have the prettiest user interface, but GitKraken stands out. It is beautiful to use, and the focus on ease of use and speed will be a welcome improvement.

You have a free version for companies with less than 20 employees, or a pro version with plenty of exclusive features.

GitKraken works on multiple platforms, such as Linux, Mac and Windows, and comes with a goal of cutting down on building and testing time, which can be pretty useful in the long run.

Conclusion

Regardless of what your team chooses as a version control software, you will want to put an emphasis on privacy and security. You have a great deal of options available, and all come with different pros and cons, and at different prices. You can definitely find the ideal one for you and your team, just make sure your team agrees on it.