I am not what you would consider a “Pro User” for git. Not at all. I would classify myself as an intermediate user. But even as an intermediate user, things can get pretty ugly and inconvenient when you only rely on the standard Git console client.

When things got more complicated, I started to use GitKraken. It was available on all platforms, it had a nice overview about changes and I was quite happy for a while. But when they started to force a registration and login to use the (still free) client, I decided to move on.

There are a lot of Git Desktop Clients out there, but none of the free clients were quite to my liking. With a heavy heart, I decided to pay for Git Tower. At the time, Git Tower was not a subscription app, you could buy for a one time fee of 82,00 €. It was a bit pricy for my use case, sure, but the app was definitely worth it. Especially when that money supports a smaller, independent German company.

When they released version 3.0, they decided to switch to a subscription based model. While there is nothing wrong with a subscription, especially as it is a more secure, and more stable revenue model for small and mid-size companies, I am not a fan for my particular use case. I am not a full-time developer and I am probably using only a very small subset of features Git Tower has to offer. I subscribed for a year, to support the company and because i really love the app. But as described, it is not worth it for me personally to pay 59,00 € a year going forward.

While Git Tower switched to a subscription based model, SublimeHQ, the creators of the editor SublimeText (which I really, really love), developed their own Git Client called SublimeMerge. As the editor, the Git Client also does not require a subscription, but is sold for 99,00 € and comes with 3 years or free updates.

When my Git Tower subscription ends in July 2020, I will give SublimeMerge a try and see if the application will work for me. If not, Fork matured a lot over the last two years, and I guess it will continue to do so. Until then, I will probably find a couple of other application that I can try out. Maybe I will also give GitKraken another try.