Linux
GitComet ships apt, AUR, Gentoo GURU, Homebrew, AppImage and .deb packages, on x86-64 and ARM64. Wayland with automatic X11 fallback, and WSLg.
Compare
GitComet vs Sourcetree
Sourcetree is free, familiar and widely used. It also does not run on Linux, has not changed much in years, and belongs to Atlassian. GitComet is open source, cross-platform and considerably younger.
Platforms
The difference most people arrive for
Sourcetree runs on macOS and Windows. There has never been a Linux build, and that is the single most common reason developers go looking for something else.
macOS
A notarized disk image on Apple silicon and Intel, or brew install --cask gitcomet.
Windows
A signed MSI and a portable build, on x86-64 and ARM64, plus the Microsoft Store.
Differences
Beyond which operating systems they run on
Open source
GitComet is AGPL-3.0 and developed in the open, so you can read exactly what it does with your repository. Sourcetree is proprietary.
No account
GitComet has no sign-in. Sourcetree asks you to authenticate with an Atlassian account on first run.
Staging granularity
GitComet stages by file, by hunk, or by individual line straight from the diff gutter, which is the part of the workflow most people spend their time in.
Assisted conflict resolution
GitComet resolves the unambiguous conflicts when a file opens and leaves the rest, with a three-way view and manual line alignment. How that works.
Doubles as your mergetool
One command registers GitComet as git mergetool and git difftool, in a graphical or a headless mode, so it works from the terminal too.
Maturity
Sourcetree has years of polish and a large body of documentation and tutorials behind it. GitComet is 0.1.x and changes between releases.
No benchmark comparison is offered here. The measurements published on this site were taken on Linux, where Sourcetree does not run, so there is no like-for-like number to quote. Anyone claiming one has not measured it.
FAQ
Questions about switching from Sourcetree
Is there a Sourcetree for Linux?
No. Atlassian has never shipped a Linux build of Sourcetree; it runs on macOS and Windows only. GitComet runs on Linux, macOS and Windows, on both x86-64 and ARM64, which is the most common reason people look for a Sourcetree alternative.
Is GitComet a free replacement for Sourcetree?
The GitComet open source edition is free for personal and commercial use under the AGPL-3.0. Sourcetree is free to download but proprietary and tied to an Atlassian account. GitComet requires no account.
Has GitComet been benchmarked against Sourcetree?
No. The published benchmark was run on Linux, and Sourcetree has no Linux build, so there is no comparable measurement. The benchmark on this site covers ten clients that do run on Linux.
Can GitComet do interactive rebase like Sourcetree?
Yes. GitComet has an interactive rebase editor where commits are reordered by dragging, with pick, reword, squash, fixup and drop, plus git-style autosquash of fixup and squash commits.