We are often asked which Git service is better: GitHub or Bitbucket?
If you are new to the world of Git, I recommend reading our Git tutorial first so that you understand the basics. After that, this article will be interesting to help you understand the differences between the currently most popular remote repository services.
Fundamental difference: GitHub vs. Bitbucket
If we really just focus on the most fundamental difference between GitHub and BitBucket, it is this:
- GitHubfocuses on public repositories
- Bitbucketfocuses on private repositories
Basically, GitHub has a huge open source community, and Bitbucket tends to have a huge number of corporate and business customers.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t have a private repository on GitHub (you can of course!).
You can just as easily create a public repository on Bitbucket.
However, many users follow the scheme shown above. In addition, the default settings for new repositories are set by the providers so that they are automatically public or private repositories.
Other than this difference, the two platforms work very similarly .
You can create and manage repositories both via the website or in the command line, log in with two-factor authentication (2FA), invite team members, open questions and discussions, create pull requests, merge branches and do everything you want otherwise know about Git.
The features just listed are very similar on both platforms. Still, we should deal with the specifics of each platform so that you can make the best possible decision for your Git projects.
Let’s start with Bitbucket.
Bitbucket
Bitbucket is part of the Australian company “Atlassian”, which is used for corporate applications such as JIRA, Confluence, Trello and many more. are known. What I particularly like about Atlassian products is that the interface is very clear and easy to use.
You can immediately see that the company focuses on professional teams who need a complete package for their software development.
Not just git
GitHub is the absolute house number for Git version control. On the other hand, BitBucket supports a lot more than just Git. You can also track your repositories in Mercurial, another popular version control management system. Unfortunately, it does not yet support SVN, another version control system.
interface
Using the Atlassian products is simply easy. And Bitbucket’s website is no exception here either. Bitbucket is clear and you always know what’s going on.
GitHub’s website is fine too, but you need to be more knowledgeable here to get there. That’s rarely the case with Bitbucket. A sidebar clearly tells you where you are and what you can do. Please note here that I am only talking about the graphical user interface of the website. Of course, you can also use the command line for both services to execute commands.
Desktop client
One area that is surprisingly missing from Atlassian’s Bitbucket is a desktop client (GitHub provides a client called Github Desktop). While many users prefer the command line by default to have more control and work faster, there are still many users who prefer a Git app. If you choose Bitbucket, you don’t get a first-party application, but an open source program called SourceTree .
SourceTree does what it should. It works and it’s free. However, it cannot keep up with the efficiency of the CLI. However, it offers a good solution for users who prefer to work with a GUI.
Wikis and forums
Having a project wiki as an information system is helpful. Your team can use it not only for internal notes during development, but also when the information needs to be made public. With Bitbucket, any repository can have a wiki. All you have to do is activate it. You can control the wiki as well as your repo.
Also, many development teams use Kanban boards for project management. GitHub offers a Boards tab by default, but Bitbucket doesn’t. However, you have the option of linking your Trello account or JIRA account to a repository so that these services are available within the website dashboard.
Atlassian also has a very good app marketplace that offers many app integrations and additional functions for your project. You may not need something like this at first, but it is always helpful to know that there is such a thing.
Branch permissions
The last point about Bitbucket is the branch permissions. With Bitbucket you can choose who can work on each branch.
Instead of just giving every team member access to the repository, you can restrict access to a single branch.
This feature is even included with Bitbucket’s free plans. If you have a large team of developers and need to manage features, bug fixes, releases, betas and various aspects of the project in a very specific way, branch permissions are a suitable feature.
GitHub
GitHub is the Git provider with the largest market share in the world. The service was recently bought up by Microsoft, which led to a platform change for some users. Many users switched to Bitbucket, among other things. However, that doesn’t mean your repositories are at risk. You can still use them as public or private repositories.
The interface
Since we started with Bitbucket’s interface, we’ll start in the same place with GitHub. It’s functional and it works. What else has to be said?
It’s not exactly pretty, but what it lacks in style it makes up for in sheer utility. With the majority of GitHub users working from the command line, the aesthetics of the website isn’t really on the test bench. In terms of usability, it is not the best, but neither is it too complicated.
Desktop client
GitHub offers its own desktop client. In terms of aesthetics and ease of use, the client is much more in line with Bitbucket’s web interface.
As with SourceTree, the GitHub client is great for getting started with Git for people who might not like the command line. The desktop client will probably be rather unattractive for Git Power users, as they are much faster on the command line. Other than that, the GitHub client is very good for what it’s supposed to do.
Free private repos
Bitbucket’s strongest selling point was its unlimited free private repositories. However, Github has followed suit and now also offers free private repos. Previously, only public repositories could be created for free, and private repositories were only for paid members.
However, now you can create as many as you want, completely free. The catch is, however, that you can only have 3 contributors for the repo (not counting yourself). So if you’re on a large team, it’s time to upgrade to a paid plan.
For hobbyists as well as developers who want to share their code for smaller projects, the free private repositories are an amazing addition to GitHub.
Wikis and forums
Every project you create on GitHub can have its own built-in Kanban board. However, it is not as feature-rich as, for example, Trello (Atlassian).
One weakness that GitHub has compared to Bitbucket, however, is that private repositories cannot have a wiki. We should be more specific about this: free, private repositories cannot have a wiki.
If you’re creating a free plan with a public repository, you can create a wiki.
A private repository has access to wiki functionality as soon as you switch to a paid plan. This is not a big hurdle for many companies, but hobby developers find it annoying to have to dig into their pockets.
High memory limit
Git is not a backup program. You’re not using Git for cloud storage or backup. But it is inefficient, and it clogs the servers and your computer with “unnecessary files”.
If you pull a large number of commits, pushes, and branches, a repo can get quite large. One advantage of GitHub is that you won’t be charged for this space.
Even on a free plan, there is a 100GB cap per GitHub repository. The recommendation, however, is to keep your repository under 1 GB. File uploads are limited to 100 MB for command line and 25 MB for web uploads.
GitHub or rather Bitbucket: which is better?
From my point of view, there is no clear “winner” in the comparison between Github and Bitbucket. Although the services have a different target group, you will achieve your goal with both providers. We use services on lerneProgrammieren.de. Since we work with many Atlassian products such as JIRA and Confluence, it is a “no-brainer” for us to also run the private repositories via Bitbucket. In contrast, we use our GitHub repositories for fun projects and tutorials.
In the end, you won’t be wrong with your choice of one of the services.
If you are part of a small development team, both services are suitable. If you are completely new to Git, you will likely get along with Bitbucket faster. The interface is easier to use and you get used to the processes more quickly. However, if you are primarily interested in open source projects, I would recommend GitHub.
When it comes to business projects, it’s hard to make any recommendation. Bitbucket specializes in business customers and offers a complete solution through the Atlassian suite, but since GitHub is the premier platform for open source and public code, GitHub might be the way to go if your company specializes in it.
In reality, both providers are very solid and highly recommended Git hosting services. Honestly, you can’t go wrong with either!
