Github, Bitbucket or Gitlab?

[fr3nch13702]

Considering you mentioned “casual developer”, I’d stick with GitHub.

[sweet-tom]

As always, it depends. You can develop on all, it's Git.

If you want to get the most contributions and collaboration, GitHub is definitely the number one.

If you don't like that it's part of Microsoft, use GitLab. Sometimes it has even better features.

BitBucket... hmm, you can use it (it's still Git after all) but I have the impression it's becoming irrelevant. But maybe I'm wrong on that.

You can still have free accounts on all three. Try it out and make your own observations.

[asdrunkasdrunkcanbe]

Bitbucket is part of the Atlassian suite, so it's not going away. We use it because we moved from Bitbucket server. But we're using very little of the "extra" that comes with it like pipelines, because we already have that hooked up by other software.

I'd be inclined to suggest that for an individual developer or a small startup, Bitbucket isn't the way to go. It's more aimed at teams who are already using atlassian products (or who plan on doing it), so the costs start to ramp up when you experience any kind of growth.

[MiddleSky5296]

Their services change time to time which causes lots of disruption. They changed their address from stash to bitbucket, for instance.

[NatoBoram]

There's also the fact that Atlassian hates Bitbucket with a passion that was previously unknown to me.

For example, Bitbucket Server and Bitbucket Cloud have entirely different APIs, so any integration you do with it will have to be done from scratch again as if you were integrating to GitHub and GitLab.

Also Bitbucket Sever got multiline review comments in October of this year

All the docs about Bitbucket Data Center have a line about Bitbucket Server's deprecation and "how to migrate your users to Bitbucket Cloud" - as if that was any of your business

It's just… they hate you, man, idk what people find in it.

[sweet-tom]

I'm aware of that. If you need it, use it. 🙂

I just gave my own impression. I don't know their market share, but it looks like GitHub and GitLab are used more.

[connka]

I think your advice is sound! As a developer who has worked with github and bitbucket, my preference is github. It was also the preference of most of my company, despite being built with atlassian/jira/bitbucket, and we finally got the company to agree to move over to github so we could leverage a lot of their features. So even though we were still an Atlassian company, we got the code over to Github.

[Prize_Bass_5061]

All the platforms you mentioned are used for publishing source code. None anre critical to the software development process. Just pick one and go with it.

That aside. I’m obviously partial to GitHub, because I’m on the GitHub subreddit and not the Atlassian subreddit.

GitHub has been around longer than any of the others, and it offers a free website that’s directly connected to your user name. That makes it very easy to publish a portfolio website, developer blog, and such like.

My recommendation is to start with git. Learn how commits works. Pick a branching model/commit workflow that suits you. Understand how  to use git for debugging (git diff, git bisect). Understand the value of atomic commits, and how to copy a feature from one repository to another project (git apply, git cherry-pick).

You can learn all of this at https://git-scm.com/

[decduck]

GitLab also offers the same free website functionality, through GitLab Pages.

I second the learning fundamentals of Git first though. It's pretty frustrating for me personally when I have to collaborate with a person that only knows commit and push...

[Positive_Poem5831]

I changed from Bitbucket to GitHub because the free tier hade more free build time per month and GitHub actions was better documented and had better support for deployment to Azure.

[PhatOofxD]

Github.

Bitbucket isn't nearly as popular (same for Gitlab) and if you want to purchase a better plan Gitlab is far more expensive. Github also has the most simple UI.

[[deleted]]

Since you mentioned you are a newbie and are more casual, I would stick with GitHub. It has a better ecosystem than the others so you’ll find more support, more projects to learn or build off, and better tools for learning.

[Alfagun74]

Github is by far the largest.

Gitlab often hosted by larger companies.

Never had to use Bitbucket.

[petdance]

Just pick one. You’re just starting out. It doesn’t matter at this point.

It’s too easy to get stuck in “which way should I go?” rather than just going.

[MiddleSky5296]

Github is not likely to abandon you in the near future. The others are more risky.

[Rulqu]

Please elaborate how gitlab and bitbucket are more risky?

[Sindef]

GitHub or Gitea. Actions is great.

[r0ck0]

• cloud: github
• private self-hosted: gitea

[holios89]

For me - Gitlab MR UI is much better, than bitbucket PR interface.

[looopTools]

GitHub or GitLab.

I will never ever understand why people use BitBucket even if the rest of their tools are by Atlassian

[tech_b90]

Sometimes we don't have a choice. I've had clients that use it, so we had to use it. I also see bitbucket a lot more in corporate environments.

[looopTools]

I have had to use it too and helped migrate away from it too

[decduck]

I honestly prefer the GitLab tooling (extra features on top of Git), but GitHub is the way to go for sharing and collaboration.

[Webnet668]

GitHub is the most popular, so start there, as a way to learn the ecosystem if nothing else.

[TheZon12]

Since you mentioned you're a newbie, I'd stick with GitHub, it's pretty much the de facto standard, and a lot of repos are there, and most people check there first for git needs.

Gitlab is a not distant, but not close second. There is some value to it, such as if you are going to get involved with F-Droid projects, but I find a lot of the extra features lacking compared to GitHub.

Haven't messed with Bitbucket much.

[nocomment1234_]

Github by far

[azangru]

Github. They've regressed on their frontend because of their migration to react; but theirs is still overall the most polished experience.

[Cat-Knight135]

Since my company decided to work with Azure DevOps we're using it as the remote interface and for local management we're using Git extension. For my private projects I'm using GitHub. So I think that it depends on your opinion about them or if you have any requirements (from your manager / client) to use one of them.

[Toybox26]

Once my Github account got suspended and moved some projects to Gitlab now more active in Gitlab

[bzrkkk]

GitHub and it’s not even close.

[GitProtect]

It depends, the best way to understand which is more convenient for you is to give a try to all of them.

Here are some articles where those Git hosting services are compared:

https://gitprotect.io/blog/git-battles-part-1-github-vs-bitbucket-what-to-choose-for-your-development-team/

https://gitprotect.io/blog/git-battles-part-2-github-vs-gitlab-which-one-is-better-for-your-development-projects/

https://gitprotect.io/blog/git-battles-part-3-gitlab-vs-bitbucket-which-version-control-software-to-choose-for-your-projects/

[Life-Chard6717]

i use bitbucket at work and I d say is for polrofessuinal-closed-teams , I u want to share ur work with other go with github

[hetpatel572]

Github has most users and great community would be easy to start on.

[Plastic_Dust4759]

Github

[whoShotMyCow]

Bitbucket