SmartGit vs Tower
Two of the top three Git clients, compared rule by rule on published facts.
In short
- SmartGit has 72 points and Tower 71, 1 apart on our git clients rules.
- SmartGit earns more on systems and upkeep; Tower earns more on git features.
- Cheapest way to use it for work: SmartGit $5/mo, Tower $5.75/mo.
- Only Tower meets: undo for Git actions.
SmartGit72/100 #2 of 11
Best for: Developers who use several Git hosts and want a free licence for personal projects.
Tower71/100 #3 of 11
Best for: Developers who want one undo command and pull requests inside a paid client.
Points by group
| Group | SmartGit | Tower |
|---|---|---|
| Git features of 29 | 23 | 26 |
| Hosts and review of 26 | 26 | 26 |
| Systems and upkeep of 16 | 16 | 12 |
| Licence of 15 | 0 | 0 |
| Price of 14 | 7 | 7 |
| Total | 72 | 71 |
Rule by rule
What each vendor publishes, and the points it earns. Sources are on each product page.
| Rule (points) | SmartGit | Tower |
|---|---|---|
| Core Git features (15) | Interactive rebase, Git LFS, Submodules, Visual merge conflict editor, Stage single lines or hunks 15 | Interactive rebase, Git LFS, Submodules, Stage single lines or hunks 12 |
| Undo for Git actions (6) | Not published 0 | Yes 6 |
| Worktrees (4) | Yes 4 | Yes 4 |
| Git-flow built in (4) | Yes 4 | Yes 4 |
| Hosts with built-in sign-in (12) | GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Azure DevOps 12 | GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Azure DevOps 12 |
| Pull requests in the app (8) | Yes 8 | Yes 8 |
| Signed commits (6) | Yes 6 | Yes 6 |
| Other systems (8) | macOS, Linux 8 | macOS 4 |
| Release in the last 12 months (8) | Yes 8 | Yes 8 |
| Open source (7) | No 0 | No 0 |
| Free for commercial work on private repos (8) | No 0 | No 0 |
| Cheapest way to use it for work (14) | $5/mo 7 | $5.75/mo 7 |
SmartGit
SmartGit suits developers who want one client for four Git hosts, worktrees, Git-flow and a built-in conflict solver on any desktop system. Commercial licences start from $5 a user per month. The catch: free licences are non-commercial only, and the docs describe only an Undo Last Commit command.
Tower
Tower suits developers who want undo, worktrees, Git-flow, signing and in-app pull requests on Windows or macOS. Basic at $69 a year, billed annually, is the entry price. The catch: there is no free plan for work, and its Conflict Wizard hands combined edits to an external merge tool.
Both products are scored by the same rules: how we score Git clients.