Money is a gangster! Microsoft recently acquired GitHub, an exponentially growing open repository platform for developers. This news has hit developers hard because GitHub will be no longer work as an open source platform. Which means Microsoft will use it mainly for its own sake.
We can feel just as bad as you are feeling right now, especially for those developers who love to work independently and on open source platform. Therefore, we know that most of you are trying to find some best open source GitHub alternatives.
If you couldn’t find any of them, don’t worry. This article will provide seven best GitHub alternatives and reasons why these alternatives could be the best. Therefore, without wasting any more time, lets quickly move on to seven best GitHub alternatives in 2018.
GitLab
If you have already decided to leave GitHub and looking for same kind of platform, then GitLab is the best alternative for you. The GitLab repository administration tool is very similar to GitHub. Likewise, when you use GitLab, you will probably get the same experience and feel due to its similar interface with GitHub.
GitLab software offers some incredible tools such as integrated assignment, continuous integration, automated testing, code reviews, problem tracking, etc. One of the best features of GitLab is that user can easily migrate from GitHub due to quite similar interface and functions it offers.
Moreover, this software is open source and you can download it on your personal server. It means that you have an open platform running GitLab on a modified domain or a customized host.
Reasons to Use GitLab
- The user can avail private repositories without any limit
- Catchy and Interactive design
- Quite similar to GitHub that’s why easy to adapt
- Considered as one of the best alternatives to GitHub
Link: https://about.gitlab.com/
BitBucket
If you would ask us about a second-best option to GitHub, then according to our expert analysis, BitBucket is the answer.
This GitHub alternative features unlimited free repositories for up to five registered members. You can avail these free repositories with both private and public purposes.
Some of its unique features such as smart mirroring, BitBucket pipelines, flexible deployment models, branch restrictions and permissions to make your work as secure as possible.
Last but not the least, BitBucket offers to push files features in case the user is using any Git command or Git client line. Based on user’s requirements, this GitHub alternative can be deployed in cloud, your company’s data center, or on a local server.
Moreover, since this software is a part of Atlassian software, it offers users to merge and integrate with other Atlassian management tools such as Confluence, Bamboo, Jira, and HipChat.
Reasons to Use BitBucket
- Supports large data files storage such as LFS for developing games
- Provides one the most secure platform for developers especially for long projects
- Provide feature to users to import their project directly from GitHub
- Considered and best alternative to GitHub regarding personal and unique projects
Link: https://bitbucket.org/
SourceForge
With almost 3.7 million users, SourceForge is one of the oldest alternatives to GitHub as compared to other online open repositories.
This SourceForge software offers some unique features such as it hosts Git repository on Apache Allura. This helps to develop a unique feature of the project that other platform failed to do.
This GitHub alternative offers its users to host both dynamic and static pages. On this developer base, users have the option to select their desired version control system such as Git, Subversion, or Mercurial.
The best feature offered by SourceForge platform according is that the user can transfer specific files or entire GitHub repositories into current assignments. Moreover, it also offers some well-known directories that help users to connect with uncountable open source projects.
Reasons to Use SourceForge
- Offers broad range for hosting open source projects
- One of the best alternative to GitHub that supports individual number assignments
- Offers features like blogs and discussion forum that provides excellent assistance to users to use this platform in a proficient manner
Link: https://sourceforge.net/
GitKraken
GitKraken is one of the newest alternatives and is attaining popularity exponentially. GitKraken offers some incredible features, which makes it one of the best alternative to GitHub. Its unique features include astonishing speedy placement for Git.
At primary, it offers all the features that other top GitHub alternatives do. However, GitKraken software provides the functionality of “Undo” that creates one of the easiest ways to correct the mistake.
Moreover, GitKraken also offers Integration Bridge to import repositories and projects from some renowned platforms such as GitLab, GitHub, and BitBucket, etc.
The free version of GitKraken free version offers 20 developers at a time. And in case you get addicted to this fantastic platform, you can upgrade to premium version any time you want to avail more exclusive features such as support for separating projects.
Reasons to Use GitKraken
- Offer button feature to undo and redo in case of any mistake
- Offers import project features from different renowned platforms
- Search function to make the process faster by directly go on to the relevant line of code
Link: https://www.gitkraken.com/
LaunchPad
Offered by one of the most famous software developing platforms, Ubuntu’s parent company, Canonical Ltd. It offers some incredible features that make it list in the seven best GitHub alternatives. However, this platform is mostly used for Ubuntu development projects, it supports Git most efficiently.
The main feature of this platform is that it offers all its tools free of cost that you may find only in the paid version of GitHub alternatives. The main features of this platform include mail listing, language translations, answer tracking and FAQs.
Ubuntu Linux, MySQL, Terminator, are bug tracking, code reviews, Ubuntu package building hosting and OpenStack are some of the few favorite projects that are hosted on Launchpad.
Reasons to Use LaunchPad
- Great support for Ubuntu assignments
- Strong bug detectors
- Handy to use for beginners
Link: https://launchpad.net/
Phabricator
This GitHub alternative is a bit of sophisticated software for developers who are at a beginner level. However, it works proficiently when it comes to professional development.
Features like code review system (Differential), rules system (Herald), CLI (Arcanist), and API (Conduit), makes it superior to what GitHub offered.
In the starting, it’s complicated for developers to understand this platform, mainly due to its different interface and functionality tools as compared to GitHub. But once you get your eye in, Phabricator platform has the potential to assist you greatly in code reviews, especially for huge assignments.
Reasons to Use Phabricator
- Offers professional tools for long projects
- Performs code reviewing way better than GitHub
- Provide simple pattern to standardize a workflow within a plan
Link: https://www.phacility.com/phabricator/
Gitea
Gitea is one of the lightest alternatives that offers almost every essential tools provided by GitHub. The reason why this platform ranks in the top seven GitHub alternatives is that it runs necessary tools very well.
The best feature we love about this platform is that you can use it on different operating systems such as Windows, Mac, ARM, Linux, etc.
Reasons to Use Gitea
- Easy to install
- Lightweight that can run on economic raspberry Pi and saves your system energy
- Open source that means you can import everything from GitHub
Link: https://gitea.io/en-us/
Wrapping-Up
We hope that you would find this article helpful in choosing, which one is the best GitHub alternative for you out of seven potential source-coding platforms.
Our pick is BitBucket and SourceForge, as they provide the maximum utility and easy transition from GitHub.
If you want to add something valuable or have any query, contact us by shouting out your comment below.
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