What is SourceTree?
SourceTree is Atlassian's free graphical client for Git and Mercurial, and free is the whole argument — it does the work of clients that charge per seat without asking for a licence at all. It covers the everyday surface: a visual commit graph, staging and discarding changes by file, hunk or line, interactive rebase, Git LFS, git-flow and submodule management, local commit search, and a remote repository manager for finding and cloning. It is the only widely used Mac client that still handles Mercurial as well as Git. The trade-offs are that it is closed source, that Atlassian publishes no macOS requirement or architecture statement for it, and that releases arrive slowly.
Verified product facts
- Type
- Git clientEditorially reviewed
- Platform
- macOS
- Pricing
- FreeDeveloper-stated
- Developer
- AtlassianDeveloper-stated
- Relationship to Nuanyue
- Third-party product — not published by NuanyueEditorially reviewed
- Licence
- Proprietary; distributed free of charge by Atlassian, with no licence text published
- Current version
- 4.2.19Developer-stated
- Official website
- www.sourcetreeapp.com/
Last updated . Facts marked developer-stated come from the developer and are not independently confirmed; editorially reviewed marks a Nuanyue judgement.
Key features
What SourceTree does at a glance.
Handles Git and Mercurial
From one interface, which almost no other current Mac client does
Visual commit graph showing branch and merge structure at a click
Stage and discard changes
By file, by hunk or by individual line
Interactive rebase
For cleaning up a commit series before sharing it
Git LFS support
So large assets are tracked in one place
Git-flow branching out of the box
Submodule and subtree management
Local commit search
Across commits, file changes and branches
Remote repository manager
Finds and clones repositories from inside the app
Cherry-pick, stash and changeset review
For more advanced workflows
What you can use SourceTree for
- Working on a repository that still uses Mercurial rather than Git
- Staging part of a file — a hunk or a line — rather than the whole thing
- Managing repositories with submodules or git-flow branching
- Teaching someone Git without putting them on the command line
Who is SourceTree for?
- Anyone who wants a full-featured Git client at no cost
- Developers maintaining Mercurial repositories alongside Git ones
- People already using Bitbucket or other Atlassian tooling
Who is SourceTree not for?
- Users who need the vendor to confirm a native Apple Silicon build — Atlassian publishes no architecture or macOS requirement
- Anyone who needs an actively developed client; releases arrive slowly
- People who want an open-source Git GUI
Limitations
- Closed source and proprietary, despite being free
- Atlassian publishes no macOS version requirement and no architecture statement for SourceTree, so neither is recorded here
- Releases arrive slowly, and the vendor's release notes are a bare HTML file per version with no structured date
- Mercurial support is increasingly a reason to choose it rather than a mainstream feature, since most hosting has moved to Git
- The product page also funnels readers toward Bitbucket, which is a paid Atlassian service
Strengths and trade-offs
What SourceTree does well, and what to weigh before choosing it. Points marked developer-stated come from the developer’s own material and have not been independently confirmed.
Strengths
- Free outright, with no paid tier, licence key or seat limit.
- Handles Mercurial as well as Git, which nearly every other current Mac client has dropped.
- Staging by hunk or by individual line, which is finer control than most GUIs offer.
- Covers the advanced surface too: interactive rebase, Git LFS, git-flow, submodules and local commit search.
Trade-offs
- Closed source and proprietary, even though it costs nothing.
- Atlassian states no macOS requirement and nothing about architecture anywhere on the product site.
- Releases arrive slowly, and the release notes are an unstructured HTML page per version with no machine-readable date.
- Mercurial support, its distinguishing feature, matters to a shrinking number of projects.Editorially reviewed
First-use experience
What the app asks of you when you set it up. Only established facts appear here; anything we could not confirm is left out rather than guessed at.
- Installation
- Download the current zip from sourcetreeapp.com — Atlassian serves it from product-downloads.atlassian.com — unzip it and move SourceTree into Applications.
- First launch
- It asks for an existing local repository or offers to clone one. Mercurial repositories are handled alongside Git ones from the same interface.
- System integration
- Works against repositories on disk alongside a command-line Git installation, and integrates with Atlassian's own Bitbucket hosting.
What it is
SourceTree is Atlassian’s graphical client for Git and Mercurial, and the price is the headline: it is free, with no paid tier, no licence key and no seat count. Everything else about it is the ordinary surface of a competent Git GUI, done competently — a visual commit graph, staging and discarding changes by file, hunk or line, cherry-pick, stash, and a remote repository manager that finds and clones repositories from inside the app.
Where it goes further than most free clients is the advanced surface: interactive rebase, Git LFS, git-flow branching out of the box, submodule and subtree management, and local commit search across commits, file changes and branches.
The Mercurial point
SourceTree’s distinguishing feature is that it still handles Mercurial as well as Git, in one interface. Almost every other current Mac client has dropped it. That makes SourceTree the default answer if you maintain a Mercurial repository — and close to irrelevant if you do not, since hosting has moved almost entirely to Git.
What is not published
Two things Atlassian does not say, and both are worth knowing before you rely on it: no macOS version requirement appears anywhere on the product site, and nothing is stated about architecture. Whether SourceTree runs natively on Apple Silicon is therefore not recorded here rather than assumed from the fact that it is a current release.
Releases also arrive slowly. The current one is 4.2.19, and Atlassian publishes release notes as a bare HTML file per version rather than a dated changelog, so its cadence is hard to read from outside.
The cost question
It is free, with no catch that the vendor discloses. The one thing to be aware of is that the product page is also a funnel toward Bitbucket, Atlassian’s own hosting, which is a paid service — but nothing about SourceTree requires it.
Questions about SourceTree
Is SourceTree free?
Yes, entirely. The vendor's own description is 'a free Git client for Windows and Mac', and there is no paid tier or licence key.
Does SourceTree support Mercurial?
Yes, and this is the main reason to pick it over its rivals. Its product page states 'Git and Hg on your desktop' and 'Wield the power of Git and Mercurial on the two most popular operating systems'.
Which macOS version does SourceTree need?
Not stated. Atlassian publishes no macOS requirement for SourceTree on its product site, so none is recorded here.
Does SourceTree run natively on Apple Silicon?
Not stated. Neither the product page, the download nor the release notes say anything about architecture, so Nuanyue records it as unknown rather than assuming.
Is SourceTree open source?
No. It is free of charge but proprietary, distributed by Atlassian with no published licence text.
Is SourceTree still being developed?
Slowly. The current release is 4.2.19, and the vendor publishes release notes as a bare HTML file per version rather than a dated changelog, which makes its cadence hard to read from outside.
Alternatives to SourceTree
Apps that could replace this one — the same job, a different trade-off.
GitHub Desktop
The official GitHub GUI.
Both are free graphical Git clients for macOS, but GitHub Desktop is scoped to GitHub while SourceTree works with any host and adds Mercurial.
Competitors
Direct competitors: overlapping features aimed at the same users.
Fork
Native Git client for Mac with visual rebase and merge tools.
Both are graphical Git clients for macOS with interactive rebase and merge tools, but Fork costs $59.99 once while SourceTree is free.
GitKraken
Visual Git client, free for local and public repos.
Both are graphical Git clients for macOS, and both are free for a restricted set of repositories — but GitKraken charges per seat for private ones where SourceTree is free outright.
Links
Sources
Facts on this page are checked against the sources below. Last updated .
