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Why is the Windows version of SourceTree, which is my favorite Git UI on Mac, so much worse?

Why is the Windows version of SourceTree, which is my favorite Git UI on Mac, so much worse?

Hi!

I have been using SourceTree for AEONS on the Mac, and I absolutely LOVE IT!

When I was asked to do some development for Windows, (might as well say it here: Hate WIndows and everything about it: Slowness, copies of something that was in the background but is now on my front window due to graphic updates not working right...whatever. In short, everything that macOS does faster, better etc.)
I was hopeful that at least SourceTree would be my faithful companion to ease my pain of having to work on Windows.

FAR FROM IT!

It is SLOW (which may be Windows), cumbersome, the Multi-document UI (compared to SourceTree on the Mac) is HORRIBLE (and slow, which may be Windows), the two step staging doesn't even REMOTELY work as nice as on the Mac... it keeps on going.

Atlassian, what WERE you thinking calling this SourceTree and saying it's available on Mac and Windows?
SourceTree is available on Mac... I don't know what that thing on Windows is.

Any comments?

3 answers

2 votes

Ouch @mbleidistel 😕

I have never actually tried both OS versions as I only have Windows. 👀

As for the feedback from the forums, I did see people reporting more cons for Mac compared to Win but again, this is mainly observatory from my side.

I am curious - apart from slowness, are you experiencing any other negatives compared to Windows version?

Cheers, Tobi

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0 votes

Welcome to the Community @mbleidistel !

I tried couple months ago SourceTree on Windows. It wasn't that bad.

I ma not saying you are making up stories but my experience was different. I agree Mac is way better.

Can you please send a UI screenshot?

Best,

Fadoua

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0 votes

Hi @mbleidistel 👋🏻

First of all, welcome to community! ✨

A few things worth noting:

Different codebases — SourceTree for Mac and SourceTree for Windows were historically developed as separate applications (the Mac version is native Cocoa/Swift, while the Windows version is .NET/WPF), which is why the look, feel, and performance can differ so significantly. They share the name and general purpose, but under the hood they're quite different products.
Performance on Windows — Some of the slowness you're experiencing may indeed be Windows-related (especially with UI rendering), but SourceTree for Windows has also had its own performance issues that users have reported, particularly with large repos or many open tabs in the MDI interface.
Alternatives to consider — If SourceTree on Windows continues to be painful, you might want to look at:
- Git command line (via Git Bash or Windows Terminal) — fast and consistent across platforms
- VS Code's built-in Git integration — lightweight and you're likely already using an editor
- GitHub Desktop — simpler but snappy on Windows
- GitKraken or Fork — other GUI clients that some users find more performant on Windows
Feedback to Atlassian — The best place to submit product feedback or feature requests for SourceTree is through the Sourcetree | Atlassian Community or the SourceTree issue tracker on Jira. The product team does monitor those channels.

Thanks,
Anwesha

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Why is the Windows version of SourceTree, which is my favorite Git UI on Mac, so much worse?

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