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What is Version Control Systems?

Version control systems are a category of software systems made for software teams to oversee the changes into a source code. It follows each adjustment made to the source code, who made it, and when it was made in a special type of file database. This is important for software developers working in teams and agile projects with multiple authors to trace modifications and avoid conflicts in concurrent work. When an error is made, developers can compare earlier versions of the code, follow where the mistake was executed, and fix the problem without having to start from scratch and interrupting all team members. Start by checking our leader AWS CodeCommit, and other recommended solutions in this category.

How was this ranking made?

List of Top 22 Version Control Systems

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1. AWS CodeCommit

Our score: 9.9 User satisfaction: 97%

AWS CodeCommit is a version control system developed by Amazon for businesses of all scales. Through branching, merging, and pull requests, programmers can collaborate and make adjustments as needed. The platform also allows users to view the working history and encrypts files for added security.

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2. Azure DevOps Server

Our score: 9.8 User satisfaction: N/A

Azure DevOps Server is an end-to-end version control system that lets users share code, track work histories, and facilitate software shipping. The software is equipped with agile tools like Kanban and Scrum as well as full code traceability so that you can easily make adjustments.

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3. GitHub

Our score: 9.6 User satisfaction: 98%

GitHub is a leading software development platform that provides a robust web-based graphical interface, access controls, and numerous app development collaboration features. With its issue tracker, users can quickly spot and eliminate bugs in the system. It also lets programmers share code so that teams can collaborate on complex tasks.

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4. JEDI VCS

Our score: 9.7 User satisfaction: 94%

Jedi VCS is a free and open-source version control software. The dynamic platform lets users trace the changes made to the coding as well as compare software versions. Built as a system for managing software projects, it is equipped with tools for monitoring bugs, tracking time, and an interactive to-do list.

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5. IBM Rational ClearCase

Our score: 9.6 User satisfaction: 94%

IBM Rational ClearCase is an enterprise-grade configuration management software that tracks asset changes and controls access to company software resources. Programmers can delete compare and merge versions, create branches, and refer to the version history to track the changes made for the entirety of a project.

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6. IBM Rational Synergy

Our score: 9.6 User satisfaction: 95%

IBM Rational Synergy is a software configuration management (SCM) solution that merges distributed development teams in a centralized platform. With it, teams can collaborate on projects regardless of their location. The platform offers a set of productivity tools and has an SCM repository for individual codes between team members.

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7. BitBucket

Our score: 9.2 User satisfaction: 96%

Bitbucket is a web-based hosting solution for projects that use either the Mercurial or Git revision control systems. This makes it attractive to both professional developers and coders. The application provides a distributed control system to facilitate easy scaling and easy collaboration.

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8. Subversion

Our score: 9.4 User satisfaction: 93%

Apache Subversion is a full-featured version control system that boasts of a model, design, and interface that is more advanced than most Concurrent Versioning System (CVS) offerings on the market. It is designed with a variety of solutions that include merge tracking, interactive conflict resolution, and file locking.

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9. GitLab

Our score: 9.0 User satisfaction: 89%

Gitlab is an all-in-one DevOps lifecycle platform that provides a complete CI/CD toolchain enabling users and IT developers to plan projects, create apps, manage source code, and share their apps. It offers a git-repository manager with issue tracking, wikis, and continuous integration/deployment pipeline.

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10. Git

Our score: 8.8 User satisfaction: 95%

Git is a free and open-source distributed version control system designed to handle small to large projects with speed and efficiency. Seamless collaborations take place within the platform through its various workflow modes and role-based codelines. To identify coding errors, programmers can access the project's complete development history.

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11. GNU RCS

Our score: 9.0 User satisfaction: N/A

GNU RCS is a revision control platform that automates the storing, retrieval, logging, identification, and merging of revisions. It lets software teams view the development history of projects, which accounts for the software versions and details of each. Code changes are monitored and can be edited through the system.

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12. CA Harvest SCM

Our score: 8.8 User satisfaction: 100%

CA Harvest SCM is a revision control software that supports source code versioning and suggests streamlined workflows that incorporate comprehensive auditing, storage, and security of codework. Coding errors are tracked through the software, which also comes with a remote site repository cache to boost code storage.

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13. StarTeam

Our score: 8.6 User satisfaction: 99%

StarTeam is a change and configuration management software designed to help development teams implement changes across multiple ALM tools and repositories. With its collaboration tools, software teams can get full project visibility and track changes to the code, see which members built each section, and squash bugs within the codework.

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14. TortoiseSVN

Our score: 8.4 User satisfaction: 96%

TortoiseSVN is a version control software designed to leverage subversion efficiently on Windows Operating Systems (OS) or as a Windows shell extension. It lets teams modify the source code to develop versions. The coding can be merged and edited with ease, bolstered by an interactive spell checker and an auto-completion feature.

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15. Alfresco

Our score: 8.6 User satisfaction: 98%

Alfresco is an open platform that helps businesses control content, optimize processes, and make collaboration an easy task. This is made possible by the system's management tools that let software development teams collate, view, and adjust processes. documents, and records.

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16. OnlyOffice

Our score: 8.5 User satisfaction: 97%

OnlyOffice is an integrated productivity suite that lets users manage projects, documents, and customer relations in one place. With an extensive set of business collaboration tools, it lets users consolidate tasks and help managers assign and monitor each while its document management functionality stores and presents files in an orderly manner.

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17. Beanstalk

Our score: 8.3 User satisfaction: 99%

Beanstalk is a simple version control software designed to remove the hassle of managing deployments and hosting codes, allowing development teams to concentrate on creating software. As such, it lets users view the development history of projects, review the code, and apply the necessary changes upon perusing the information.

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18. Helix Core

Our score: 8.3 User satisfaction: 94%

Helix Core is a powerful version control and collaboration software designed to help organizations manage digital assets and source codes efficiently. With its distributed workflow, developers can collaborate as they branch locally and clone specific sections. The system provides IP protection to projects to safeguard their coding integrity.

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19. CVS

Our score: 8.2 User satisfaction: 99%

CVS is an open-source version control system that records source files and document development histories. It lets development teams collaborate remotely as each individual works on sections concurrently. The codework is consolidated into modules that users can leverage to map out their progress or reference other projects.

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20. ArX

Our score: 8.2 User satisfaction: 100%

ArX is a high-performance, powerful, and flexible version control solution built based on a distributed architecture, permitting developers to work on the same file simultaneously, use powerful branching and merging features, implement patch pooling, and publish collections of files known as archives to any HTTP web server.

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21. OnBase

Our score: 8.7 User satisfaction: 97%

OnBase by Hyland provides you with the luxury to collaborate and innovate the ideas equally. Deliver your relevant information with OnBase ECM!

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22. Fossil

Our score: 6.9 User satisfaction: 97%

An open source distributed version control system originally authored by D. Richard Hipp.

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Version Control Systems Guide

Table of contents

Industry Report - Version Control Systems for 2022

CloudRank™ system is a unique algorithm that our research team uses to evaluate Version Control Systems solutions in a detailed and accurate way. The Summer 2022 edition of the ranking was prepared by Nestor Gilbert, our leading expert in the field of Version Control Systems, who has authored 1380+ product reviews in this category. The goal of CloudRank™ is to present an unbiased, multi-layered perspective on Version Control Systems, considering a wide range of metrics and factors, and educating potentiala customers about both opportunities and challenges associated with each piece of software.

In order to achieve full objectivity the position in our CloudRank™ is based on:

  • Expert Score: which involves extensive analysis by our internal team which carefully examined all key elements of each software and testing it in real-life situations
  • User Score: which involves an aggregated opinion of actual users of each product whose identity was properly verified
  • Market Position: which involves general recognition of a given vendor on the market and reflects its overall popularity and reach
What do the tiers in CloudRank™ mean?

What do the tiers in CloudRank™ mean?

We’ve calculated a score for each product based on the average experience shared by our users in their product reviews and arranged the list in three tiers. You can see the methodology below on how the calculations were made.

  • Leaders: those with a User Score of 8 or higher; this tier includes products that are currently leaders on the market and are appreciated by both experts and actual users. They always represent the best of what the Version Control Systems market has to offer and are all worth trying out if you’re looking for a reliable solution.
  • Contenders: those with a User Score between 7 and 8; this tier includes high-quality products that still have some minor drawbacks that prevent them from becoming leaders on the market. They always represent well-designed tools that, over time, will most likely develop into market leaders as the missing features are added.
  • Rising Stars: those with a User Score between 6 and 7; this tier includes products that have high-potential but still lack some crucial features or services expected from a leading solution. They are products with solid foundations and a vision that makes us eager to see what they will become as their solution improves in the future.

Regardless of their tier, all products included in our CloudRank™ are popular, quality products considered top-performers by our team of experts. Make sure you read a more detailed review of each solution to find one that will work best for your specific needs and budget.

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Rising Star
Contenders
Front-Runners

MARKET POSITION

A score between 1 and 10 based on popularity and market reach of each product.

TOTAL score

A score between 1 and 10 based on the average of our Expert Score and User Score.

How does CloudRank™ work?

Arrow top

Market Position

A score between 1 and 10 based on popularity and market reach of each product.

Arrow right

Total Score

A score between 1 and 10 based on the average of our Expert Score and User Score.

CloudRank™ tier

Based on product's total score.

Rising Star

Contender

Front Runners

25 Most Popular Version Control Systems

Here is a list of all 25 Version Control Systems solutions evaluated with our CloudRank™ analysis. We have compared their features, user satisfaction, market presence and other key factors in an in-depth analysis you can find below:

1. AWS CodeCommit

8.32
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Our score and features analysis:

Total User Satisfaction

Total Expert Score

Market Position

} CloudRank™
Score:8.32
Customers company size

No. of employees:

1-10 11-50 51-100 100+
Best features

Project Management

%

Large File Storage

%

Repository

%

Code Review

%

Branch Permission

%
Worst features

Merge Checks

%

Pull Requests

%

2. GitHub

8.27
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Our score and features analysis:

Total User Satisfaction

Total Expert Score

Market Position

} CloudRank™
Score:8.27
Customers company size

No. of employees:

1-10 11-50 51-100 100+
Best features

Built-In Integrations

%

Repository

%

Code Review

%

Large File Storage

%

Pipeline

%
Worst features

Project Management

%

Statistics

%

Branch Permission

%

Merge Checks

%

Release Notes

%

3. Team Foundation Server

8.03
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Our score and features analysis:

Total User Satisfaction

Total Expert Score

Market Position

} CloudRank™
Score:8.03
Customers company size

No. of employees:

1-10 11-50 51-100 100+
Best features

Merge Checks

%

Project Management

%

Branch Permission

%

Large File Storage

%

Pull Requests

%
Worst features

Repository

%

Built-In Integrations

%

Code Aware Search

%

Code Review

%

4. BitBucket

8.02
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Our score and features analysis:

Total User Satisfaction

Total Expert Score

Market Position

} CloudRank™
Score:8.02
Customers company size

No. of employees:

1-10 11-50 51-100 100+
Best features

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%

Pipeline

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%

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%

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5. Backlog

8.02
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Our score and features analysis:

Total User Satisfaction

Total Expert Score

Market Position

} CloudRank™
Score:8.02
Customers company size

No. of employees:

1-10 11-50 51-100 100+
Best features

Project Management

%

Repository

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Built-In Integrations

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Pipeline

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Code Review

%
Worst features

Large File Storage

%

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%

Pull Requests

%

6. Git

7.85
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Our score and features analysis:

Total User Satisfaction

Total Expert Score

Market Position

} CloudRank™
Score:7.85
Customers company size

No. of employees:

1-10 11-50 51-100 100+
Best features

Branch Permission

%

Code Review

%

Code Aware Search

%

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Pipeline

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%

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7. GitPrime

7.80
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Our score and features analysis:

Total User Satisfaction

Total Expert Score

Market Position

} CloudRank™
Score:7.80
Customers company size

No. of employees:

1-10 11-50 51-100 100+
Best features

Branch Permission

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Worst features

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%

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8. GitLab

7.79
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Our score and features analysis:

Total User Satisfaction

Total Expert Score

Market Position

} CloudRank™
Score:7.79
Customers company size

No. of employees:

1-10 11-50 51-100 100+
Best features

Pipeline

%

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%

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%

Large File Storage

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Release Notes

%

9. OnlyOffice

7.57
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Our score and features analysis:

Total User Satisfaction

Total Expert Score

Market Position

} CloudRank™
Score:7.57
Customers company size

No. of employees:

1-10 11-50 51-100 100+
Best features

Code Review

%

Built-In Integrations

%

Code Aware Search

%
Worst features

10. IBM Rational ClearCase

7.44
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Our score and features analysis:

Total User Satisfaction

Total Expert Score

Market Position

} CloudRank™
Score:7.44
Customers company size

No. of employees:

1-10 11-50 51-100 100+
Best features

Large File Storage

%

Repository

%

Project Management

%

Branch Permission

%

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%
Worst features

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%

11. IBM Rational Synergy

7.33
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Our score and features analysis:

Total User Satisfaction

Total Expert Score

Market Position

} CloudRank™
Score:7.33
Customers company size

No. of employees:

1-10 11-50 51-100 100+
Best features

Repository

%

Built-In Integrations

%

Large File Storage

%

Project Management

%

Code Aware Search

%
Worst features

Code Review

%

12. CA Harvest SCM

7.21
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Our score and features analysis:

Total User Satisfaction

Total Expert Score

Market Position

} CloudRank™
Score:7.21
Customers company size

No. of employees:

1-10 11-50 51-100 100+
Best features

Project Management

%

Pipeline

%

Code Review

%

Large File Storage

%

Branch Permission

%
Worst features

Repository

%

Built-In Integrations

%

Merge Checks

%

Pull Requests

%

13. Alfresco

7.05
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Our score and features analysis:

Total User Satisfaction

Total Expert Score

Market Position

} CloudRank™
Score:7.05
Customers company size

No. of employees:

1-10 11-50 51-100 100+
Best features

Project Management

%

Pull Requests

%

Branch Permission

%

Built-In Integrations

%

Code Review

%
Worst features

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%

Code Aware Search

%

Repository

%

14. Assembla

7.01
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Our score and features analysis:

Total User Satisfaction

Total Expert Score

Market Position

} CloudRank™
Score:7.01
Customers company size

No. of employees:

1-10 11-50 51-100 100+
Best features

Project Management

%

Built-In Integrations

%

Branch Permission

%

Repository

%

Code Aware Search

%
Worst features

Large File Storage

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%

Release Notes

%

Pipeline

%

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%

15. Helix Core

6.91
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Our score and features analysis:

Total User Satisfaction

Total Expert Score

Market Position

} CloudRank™
Score:6.91
Customers company size

No. of employees:

1-10 11-50 51-100 100+
Best features

Branch Permission

%

Pull Requests

%

Large File Storage

%

Release Notes

%

Code Review

%
Worst features

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%

Repository

%

Pipeline

%

Built-In Integrations

%

Project Management

%

16. Subversion

6.83
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Our score and features analysis:

Total User Satisfaction

Total Expert Score

Market Position

} CloudRank™
Score:6.83
Customers company size

No. of employees:

1-10 11-50 51-100 100+
Best features

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%

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%

Code Aware Search

%

Repository

%

Branch Permission

%
Worst features

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17. FogBugz

6.63
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Our score and features analysis:

Total User Satisfaction

Total Expert Score

Market Position

} CloudRank™
Score:6.63
Customers company size

No. of employees:

1-10 11-50 51-100 100+
Best features

Project Management

%

Release Notes

%

Branch Permission

%

Repository

%

Merge Checks

%
Worst features

Built-In Integrations

%

Code Review

%

18. SourceAnywhere

6.49
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Our score and features analysis:

Total User Satisfaction

Total Expert Score

Market Position

} CloudRank™
Score:6.49
Customers company size

No. of employees:

1-10 11-50 51-100 100+
Best features

Merge Checks

%

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%

Large File Storage

%

Repository

%

Code Review

%
Worst features

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%

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%

19. Beanstalk

6.48
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Our score and features analysis:

Total User Satisfaction

Total Expert Score

Market Position

} CloudRank™
Score:6.48
Customers company size

No. of employees:

1-10 11-50 51-100 100+
Best features

Release Notes

%

Code Aware Search

%

Repository

%

Pull Requests

%

Code Review

%
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%

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%

Branch Permission

%

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20. JEDI VCS

6.30
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Our score and features analysis:

Total User Satisfaction

Total Expert Score

Market Position

} CloudRank™
Score:6.30
Customers company size

No. of employees:

1-10 11-50 51-100 100+
Best features

Code Aware Search

%

Project Management

%

Pull Requests

%

Built-In Integrations

%

Merge Checks

%
Worst features

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%

21. TortoiseSVN

6.24
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Our score and features analysis:

Total User Satisfaction

Total Expert Score

Market Position

} CloudRank™
Score:6.24
Customers company size

No. of employees:

1-10 11-50 51-100 100+
Best features

Repository

%

Merge Checks

%

Code Review

%

Branch Permission

%

Pull Requests

%
Worst features

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%

Release Notes

%

22. StarTeam

6.17
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Our score and features analysis:

Total User Satisfaction

Total Expert Score

Market Position

} CloudRank™
Score:6.17
Customers company size

No. of employees:

1-10 11-50 51-100 100+
Best features

Merge Checks

%

Built-In Integrations

%

Repository

%

Branch Permission

%

Code Aware Search

%
Worst features

Large File Storage

%

Project Management

%

Pull Requests

%

Code Review

%

23. CVS

6.16
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Our score and features analysis:

Total User Satisfaction

Total Expert Score

Market Position

} CloudRank™
Score:6.16
Customers company size

No. of employees:

1-10 11-50 51-100 100+
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Project Management

%

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%

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%

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%

Code Aware Search

%
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%

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%

24. SourceGear Vault Pro

6.04
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Our score and features analysis:

Total User Satisfaction

Total Expert Score

Market Position

} CloudRank™
Score:6.04
Customers company size

No. of employees:

1-10 11-50 51-100 100+
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Project Management

%

Built-In Integrations

%

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%

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%
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%

25. Bazaar

5.94
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Our score and features analysis:

Total User Satisfaction

Total Expert Score

Market Position

} CloudRank™
Score:5.94
Customers company size

No. of employees:

1-10 11-50 51-100 100+
Best features

Merge Checks

%

Project Management

%

Repository

%

Branch Permission

%

Code Aware Search

%
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%

Our report covered 25 most popular products from the Version Control Systems category. We’ve analyzed their features, performance, integration, customer support, pricing, and several other key buying factors and combined it with feedback from user reviews to come up with the current list of best solutions:

Amazon is an American tech conglomerate and is one of the global leaders in eCommerce, cloud computing, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. The company was founded by Jeff Bezos from his garage in Bellevue, Washington, on July 5, 1994, and started as an online bookstore but gradually expanded to sell other things such as electronics, software, video games, apparel, furniture, food, toys, and jewelry. A couple of decades later, Amazon made Jeff Bezos the richest man alive and is dubbed as one of the most valuable brands. Amazon is continuously expanding its market reach by tapping into various sectors outside eCommerce such as SaaS development. One of their products from that aforementioned market is AWS CodeCommit, the leader of this CloudRank.

AWS CodeCommit is marketed as a fully-managed source control service that hosts secure Git-based repositories. This software stores all of your team’s data in the cloud but rest assured that it is guarded with supreme security. It automatically encrypts your files in transit and at rest, to ensure that they are safe from unauthorized access from every point of attack. Furthermore, AWS CodeCommit is designed to keep your repositories highly available and accessible because it has a highly scalable architecture. More importantly, it fosters collaboration within your development team via pull requests, branching, and merging. Since it is a cloud-based service, it has the capability to keep your repositories close to your build, staging, and production environments, which allows you to increase the speed and frequency of your development lifecycle.

Most users of Version Control Systems solutions confirm that in most cases these tools allow them to reach the following business goals:

  • It empowers team collaboration and communication. [ 88.0% of users ]
  • It gives a consistent filename and directory structure to all team members. [ 89.0% of users ]
  • It provides insight into project history. [ 86.0% of users ]
  • It resolves conflicts during the software development project lifecycle. [ 86.0% of users ]
  • It supports off-site source code backup. [ 84.0% of users ]

How did we select products for this Version Control Systems report?

The Summer 2022 version of the report includes a total of 25 Version Control Systems products that were compared and analyzed by our team. We selected them based on the following factors:

  • Popularity of a given brand in the SaaS market (based on our own market research)
  • How popular a given brand is among FinancesOnline users (based on number of mothly readers for each review page)
  • Availability of statistical data generated from user reviews of a particular product (we excluded products with not enough data to draw meaningful conclusions)
  • The current listing reflects the state of our database and research as of July 2022. An updated version of the report will be released quarterly to keep data fresh and incorporate information about shifts and changing trends in the market.

What are the current Version Control Systems trends?

Continuous Market Growth

Version control systems allow developers to automatically track and monitor all the changes in app development without any manual intervention. Its supposed use is to reduce the complexity of the entire software development process. As such, companies that deal with app development are beginning to see the importance and utility of such software. According to a recent study, the global version control system market will have a compound annual growth rate of 9.92% between 2019 and 2026, which translates to a market value growth from $462.94 billion to $985.67 billion.

Source: Verified Market Research

Going Mobile

It is no longer news that the number of smartphone and mobile phone users in the world is continuously growing. Moreover, this phenomenon is rapidly affecting how businesses approach their day-to-day operations. In version control systems, the importance of going mobile has never been more relevant. With the availability of such software in mobile app forms, developers can easily work on their projects wherever they are using only their phones or tablets.

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Biggest Cloud Security Concerns

Survey Results among Cybersecurity Professionals

Biggest Cloud Security Concerns
Data loss and leakage: 67

Data loss and leakage

%
Biggest Cloud Security Concerns
Data privacy: 61

Data privacy

%
Biggest Cloud Security Concerns
Confidentiality: 53

Confidentiality

%
Biggest Cloud Security Concerns
Accidental Exposure: 47

Accidental Exposure

%
Biggest Cloud Security Concerns
Legal and regulatory compliance: 46

Legal and regulatory compliance

%
Biggest Cloud Security Concerns
Data sovereignty/control: 46

Data sovereignty/control

%
Biggest Cloud Security Concerns
Lack of forensic data: 37

Lack of forensic data

%
Biggest Cloud Security Concerns
Incident response: 35

Incident response

%
Biggest Cloud Security Concerns
Visibility & transparency: 34

Visibility & transparency

%
Biggest Cloud Security Concerns
Fraud (theft of records, etc.): 27

Fraud (theft of records, etc.)

%

Source: Cybersecurity Insiders' Cloud Security Report

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Version Control as a Cloud Service

The times are rapidly changing and many version control systems are now migrating to the cloud. With a cloud-based version control virtualization and remote data storage is readily available and this gives more room for work flexibility among your team members. However, cloud-hosted platforms are more susceptible to malicious cyberattacks compared to on-premise ones. As such, alongside cloud-migration is the reinforcement of security measures to prevent incidents such as data leakage and loss.

Version control tools are used by software developers to track changes made into the source code and easily trace back and correct any errors. There are plenty of robust and reliable version control tools in the category to choose from, hence, it can be difficult to select the best version control tools. To help you in searching for the right platforms and narrowing down your choices, we prepared this buyer’s guide with key features and factors you should consider in making comparisons of products and choosing the best version control system tools.

Get to know each product with free trial

When you start your search, we request you to sign for the free trial or demo offered by top version control tools providers. This enables you to explore their features and determine if they match your requirements at no cost. It is also vital to conduct a comprehensive comparison of leading platforms in the category to narrow down your choices. Some examples of the programs you should check out include Git, Mercurial, Apache Subversion, Helix VCS, and Fossil. These tools received impressive overall ratings and rankings in our version control systems reviews.

Targeted Businesses

  • Companies with software developers that continually write new source code or update existing source code.

Examples of Version Control Systems

  1. Git. This free and open source distributed version control system handles small and large projects efficiently. The easy-to-learn tool is equipped with features such as staging areas, multiple workflows, and local branching. It is used by companies and projects such as Google, Netflix, Facebook, Twitter, and Microsoft, among others.
  2. Mercurial. Another free, distributed source management tool, it offers an intuitive interface for managing projects of any size. It supports multiple workflows, enhances functionality with extensions, and ensures actions are fast and efficient with each clone containing the entire project history. It doesn’t require expert skills in working on tasks from the get-go.
  3. Apache Subversion. This open-source VCS that is being distributed under the Apache license. It employs atomic operations and enables cheaper branch operations as it’s designed to lend itself to large and forked projects in various directions. Additionally, it offers a wide variety of plug-ins for IDEs. It doesn’t use a peer-to-peer model which is ideal for some business situations.
  4. Fossil. A distributed software configuration management system, it offers a simple and highly reliable solution for your projects. It has a built-in web interface that enables a rich variety of information pages. Some of the main features of this free and open source tool include integrated bug tracking, simple networking, auto sync, and CGI/SCGI enabled.
  5. Helix Core. This is an enterprise-class VCS that keeps versions of all your digital content from small to large files in one repository. It is a secure solution for valuable assets with its tight security features and multi-factor authentication. Scalable for large teams, this tool quickly delivers files to your team members and manages hundreds of transactions daily.

Types of Version Control Systems

  1. Centralized Version Control. It functions in a client and server relationship. It has a central repository that can be accessed by multiple clients and where all changes, users, information, and commits are sent and received.
  2. Distributed Version Control. It is a newer type that provides each user a copy of the entire repository—from files to history. It easily swaps a new VCS instance to lead development if an instance is lost to avoid a serious impact on productivity.

Key Features of Version Control Systems

  1. Pull requests. Administer code reviews to create a higher quality of code which you can share with your team.
  2. Code review. This enables early discussion and direct integration with your branch for team feedback.
  3. Code aware search. A semantic search that saves you time by ranking definitions first.
  4. Branch permission. Granular access control for the team to ensure only allowed users can make changes to the code.
  5. Project management. Organize repositories into projects to empower teams in focusing on a process, product or goal.
  6. Statistics. An overview of your team’s progress and code review coverage of your repositories.
  7. Release notes. Notifications for each team member on each deployment—what’s deployed and when—and view environment status.

Benefits of Version Control Systems

  1. Branching and merging. The “branch” in the VCS tool creates multiple streams of independent work apart from each other and, at the same time, enables you to merge them back together. This verifies that the changes made don’t conflict with each other.
  2. Long-term change history. Changes—including the creation, edits, and deletion—of files and their contents made by each individual over the years are recorded. Having the complete history is crucial in reverting to older versions when fixing problems and performing root cause analysis for bugs.
  3. Traceable adjustments. Tracing each change performed in the software and annotating each one with its purpose help in root cause analysis. This is essential in trying to understand the changes in the code and its purpose for developers to make appropriate and harmonious changes in accordance with its intended long-term design.
  4. Extended team collaboration. Messaging and communication tools in VCS provide an organized, threaded discussion of line-by-line source code development. Software development teams working on projects with many authors will benefit from streamlined collaboration and communication.
  5. Measurement and insights. It captures, tracks and measures important KPIs such as time in development, created and fixed bugs, code creation velocity, and newly deployed features, among others. This gives you in-depth insights into the speed and efficiency of the operation on your software development project.

Hybrid Version Control Environments. Collaboration platforms will no longer be separated by either centralized or distributed. Development teams can use a hybrid approach in a distributed version control, also called DVCS, such as Git integrated with centralized VCS that supports large files and trunk-based development.

“Mono Repo” Re-Emergence. “Mono repo,” massively scalable and trunk-oriented, plays a critical role in administering modern trends in product delivery. Some examples include DevOps and Continuous Delivery. This will pave the way for its comeback, especially with startups and open source teams standardizing on lightweight local branching.

Integration of Security Teams. Discussions in organizations will no longer be limited to Dev and Ops teams with the rising vulnerabilities and IP theft matters. Hence, security teams will be added in the scene to tighten defense during early DevOps discussions.

Potential Issues

Complicated to understand. When it comes to a distributed model, it is a newer model which means it doesn’t have as many GUI clients and it may be more complex to understand. It is also challenging to reference revisions as they’re not in incremental numbers. Familiarity with the model and choosing the right system for your business are keys to increasing your team’s efficiency.

Dependent on the server. If you have a centralized VCS, your access is dependent on the server. This makes it hard to manage the server and backups. It also has a tendency to be slower as all commands are connected to the server, however, this gives you more control over users and access. In this model, branching and merging is difficult to use. Hence, you have to make sure you employ the VCS tool that matches your workflows.

List of Version Control Systems Companies

Order by:

Newest
  • Newest
  • Score
  • User Score
Product name:
Category:
Smart Score:
Price:
User Satisf.
User reviews:
Azure DevOps Server reviews

Azure DevOps Server

Version Control Systems
9.8
$6
-
Simul Docs reviews

Simul Docs

Version Control Systems
8.0
$15
94%
Bazaar reviews

Bazaar

Version Control Systems
7.9
Free
99%
Veracity SCM reviews

Veracity SCM

Version Control Systems
6.0
Free
-
ImageSite reviews

ImageSite

Version Control Systems
6.2
By quote
-
Darcs reviews

Darcs

Version Control Systems
6.2
Free
97%
RicohDocs reviews

RicohDocs

Version Control Systems
6.4
By quote
100%
DynaFile reviews

DynaFile

Version Control Systems
6.5
By quote
93%
Mayan EDMS reviews

Mayan EDMS

Version Control Systems
6.7
$1,200
-
Simul reviews

Simul

Version Control Systems
6.8
$15
99%
Kallithea reviews

Kallithea

Version Control Systems
6.8
Free
100%
Fossil reviews

Fossil

Version Control Systems
6.9
Free
97%
Plastic SCM reviews

Plastic SCM

Version Control Systems
7.1
$6.95
-
HyperOffice Document Management reviews

HyperOffice Document Management

Version Control Systems
7.3
By quote
-

Things to consider when you invest in a SaaS

First, be clear about the reasons why you want to use a SaaS system. You should also have a good understanding of your existing infrastructure and business processes. This information will assist you to effortlessly integrate the SaaS platform with your existing infrastructure without any difficulty.

The second consideration is a follow up to the first one. Ask yourself what you want the SaaS product to do for your company. Then, be clear about the functionality the app should have. For instance, if you want improved data collaboration between different business sections you need a system that can be accessed by multiple users. However, if you need a competent program that is similar to an on-premise solution, you need to invest in a SaaS product that can be accessed by only a few users at a time.

After you choose a suitable provider, do not sign an agreement before you take a good look at the Service Level Agreement (SLA). The SLA will clearly describe what the SaaS vendor is offering and the reparation they will pay if they do not deliver the agreed services. Read and understand the SLA thoroughly to know what you are getting into and to avoid issues later.

Frequently asked questions about Version Control Systems

What is the best version control software?

The best version control software is AWS CodeCommit. This reliable platform scales to meet your project requirements. It does away with the cumbersome process of maintaining and backing up your source control servers. Meanwhile, its architecture makes for repositories that are easily accessed and adjusted.

Another competency that lifts this software above the rest is the ease of collaboration. Through merging, branching, and pull requests, you can work with your team and make changes to relevant branches. You can also set users who can access particular branches for security and privacy.

Speaking of security, AWS CodeCommit automatically encrypts your files. This bars unauthorized parties from accessing your team’s work.

What is the easiest version control software to use?

Generally, version control systems are easy to use for professionals who are versed in programming languages. However, there are applications that took the extra mile in making tasks a little less painless for users. Here are three such platforms:

Microsoft Team Foundation Server. Currently known as Azure DevOps, this platform makes collaborations simple with its adjustable Kanban and scrum boards. It also adds a lot of convenience to the project development process through functionalities like task tracking, agile planning, and code repositories. Furthermore, it supports a wide variety of programming languages.

Git. Built with speed and efficiency in mind, this software lets users view project histories and quickly apply adjustments. Changes made are documented and reproduced in relevant repositories. With this, tracking changes is a breeze.

AWS CodeCommit. As a fully-managed, highly scalable version control system, this platform accepts most file types. Its architecture is also structured in a way that grants easy access to users and paves for a seamless workflow. Moreover, it is equipped with collaborative tools, making it easy for programmers to work simultaneously.

What are the benefits of version control software?

The benefits of version control software center on flexible code adjustments, tracking changes, and seamless collaborations. We have noted down some of its specific advantages here:

Branching and Merging. VCS tools typically feature streams of coding work that you can merge with those of other team members. In this way, members of your team can work independently, en route to unifying the code later.

Adjustments That are Easy to Track. Changes made can easily get lost in a sea of code, thus systems are designed to let users see the content made by each member of the team. The date and time when changes were made are also recorded.

Seamless Collaborations. Discussions between programmers are conducted through messaging and communication tools that VCS platforms offer. As such, teams can work in unison in putting together code for complex tasks.

Visible Code History. Coding history is made available to users so that changes are easily tracked and adjusted. Older versions can be pulled as needed while bug activity can be monitored and addressed accordingly.

What are the features of version control software?

Although there are variations, most version control platforms carry similar core features. These help you manage your source control servers, collaborate on code, and easily view the changes made. We have detailed some of the key VCS features here:

Code Reviews. Version control software allows you to assess code branches and identify areas of adjustment. Through built-in communication tools, discussions are conducted within the platform.

Pull Requests. Reviews can be requested to thoroughly assess the code and administer adjustments in a unified manner. This fosters collaborations among team members.

Release Notes. Notes surrounding each deployment are shared with the team for reference. This also prevents users from unknowingly working on areas that have already been completed.

Project Management. Tasks are broken down per member of the team to avoid redundancies. This feature also holds each user accountable for his or her corresponding work scope and schedule.

Branch Permissions. Through the software, you can set the members who can access each branch. Some platforms also automatically encrypt files to boost security.

What is a good free version control software?

JEDI VCS is the best free version control software. Created by the Delphi JEDI projects and distributed under the Mozilla Public License, this open-source version control system comes equipped with a detailed project and line history as well as a customizable diff checker. It also supports project-based rights management so you can better control access permissions. Moreover, it can be integrated with your existing development environment for a streamlined workflow.

Another thing that makes this free tool great is that it has built-in project management tools. With its time tracker, a to-do manager, and a bug tracker, users can easily streamline workflows and facilitate better collaboration.

Nestor Gilbert

By Nestor Gilbert

Nestor Gilbert is a senior B2B and SaaS analyst and a core contributor at FinancesOnline for over 5 years. With his experience in software development and extensive knowledge of SaaS management, he writes mostly about emerging B2B technologies and their impact on the current business landscape. However, he also provides in-depth reviews on a wide range of software solutions to help businesses find suitable options for them. Through his work, he aims to help companies develop a more tech-forward approach to their operations and overcome their SaaS-related challenges.

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