
Ask HN: GUI Git client for macOS recommendations - petecooper
I&#x27;ve flattened and rebuilt a macOS environment for web development work. I&#x27;m looking for a GUI git client, and I&#x27;d be most grateful for your input -- good or bad.<p>I&#x27;m a front-end person and I&#x27;m dabbling with other parts of the stack, though my new project is purely HTML&#x2F;CSS&#x2F;PHP.<p>I&#x27;m running SourceTree right now, which connects to a networked GitLab CE server. It works, but it feels overkill for what I need, and I haven&#x27;t yet tuned it to work with my incremental &amp; frequent commit style...which makes for about 6 mouse clicks for each commit. Maybe I&#x27;m using it incorrectly.<p>My personal preference is for open source, but I&#x27;m not averse to proprietary&#x2F;commercial (e.g. Tower [2]) if the feedback is positive.<p>The medium-term goal is to master the terminal commands, but for the short term I&#x27;m really interested in what you use for macOS git in the GUI style so I can improve my confidence.<p>Thanks very much in advance.<p>[1] https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.sourcetreeapp.com<p>[2] https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.git-tower.com&#x2F;mac&#x2F;<p>Edit: formatting.
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adambrenecki
Cannot reccomend GitUp ([http://gitup.co/](http://gitup.co/)) enough. It's
open source too.

That said, I use it differently to you; I use a graphical Git client mostly to
view and browse around the commit graph, and I generally make commits and
stuff like that from the CLI. I think it's pretty simple to do commits through
GitUp as well.

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balac
I have the same workflow as you and GitUp works great.

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kzisme
Is there a nice Windows version of something similar? GitUp looks awesome!

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brianjking
If I use a GUI tool on my Mac I use Git Tower, while it's definitely not open
source and has a reasonably high price tag it's definitely a superb Git GUI
application. Github Desktop and SourceTree are both quite nice as well,
however, it's generally Git Tower (on Mac or Windows) but more often than not
I stick to the terminal.

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alexgaribay
I use Tower and I love it. I've been using it for 2 years now and I'm so glad
I paid for it. It has been so critical my git workflow.

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chris_7
GitX is buggy and terrible and yet it still has the best staging interface
I've used. I don't use any other features though, and just do those on the
command line, because they're easier, but a GUI is much better than "add -p".

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cauterized
There are also a couple of forks of GitX, and IIRC Google doesn't bring the
best-maintained one to the top of search results. You may have to dig a bit to
find it.

The tree visualization in GitX is also pretty decent as such things go.

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mostlystatic
I use GitHub Desktop and am really happy with it. It works for non-GitHub
repos too

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petecooper
Thanks for this. The GitHub Desktop is what I've come from, and it's almost
_too_ easy to use. I suspect I'm letting it taint my workflow for SourceTree,
especially with all the additional stuff that SourceTree offers.

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bitshiffed
GitKraken (gitkraken.com) is very nice, though not open source.

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wingerlang
Why don't you learn keyboard shortcuts in ST? Of course clicking the files you
want to commit is necessary (or just do select all). Then CMD+SHIFT+C for
commit, then CMD+ENTER for committing. Not sure how you make it into 6 clicks
even using the mouse.

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petecooper
That might be the way forward, good call.

Here's my workflow -- and please bear in mind I'm a new SourceTree user, not
yet proficient:

* make changes to source files

* switch to ST (cmd+tab or mouse click #1)

* click (#2) commit

* fill in commit details

* click (#3) `Sign off` checkbox

* click (#4) `Commit mode` dropdown, then `Selected files`

* click (#5) `Push commits immediately to [...]` checkbox

* click (#6) `Commit` button

I'm sure I could make this a more streamlined workflow. Research continues.

Edit: formatting.

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sandis
I recently switched to Fork [1] after seeing it on HN and so far am liking it.
It's currently in beta and is actively being developed.

[1] [https://git-fork.com](https://git-fork.com)

~~~
alexeldeib
To me, Fork has the cleanest UI, although sometimes I prefer GitKraken. Things
seem a little closer to the surface sometime with GitKraken. Ultimately,
though, nothing has really beaten the command line, and that's where I still
do most of my git work.

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M0llyPolly
I don't like write git command in terminal. I like GitX ;)

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Adamsimet
GitUp is a good app. Beautiful UX, pretty simple to do commits.

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ThomPete
I used to use Git Tower

