Guides · Git clients for Mac
Git clients for Mac in 2026: an honest comparison.
I make Nori, a Git client for the Mac, and it is one of the nine clients below. Every fact about the others comes from their own website, documentation or release notes, linked at the end and dated. The guide is ordered by what you need rather than ranked, and it says where another client fits better than Nori. One fact first, because it rules Nori out for many Macs: Nori needs an Apple silicon Mac running macOS 26 or later.
The nine clients at a glance
| Client | Price | Mac it needs | Also on | Built with |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tower | Basic $69, Pro $129, per user per year | macOS 14 or later | Windows | Objective-C and Swift |
| Fork | $59.99 once, up to 3 machines | Not checked | Windows | Swift and Cocoa |
| Sourcetree | Free | macOS 10.15 or later | Windows | Native Mac app |
| GitHub Desktop | Free, MIT licence | macOS 12 or later | Windows | Electron and TypeScript |
| Sublime Merge | $99 once, 3 years of updates | Not checked | Windows, Linux | Its own interface toolkit |
| GitKraken Desktop | Free for local and public repositories; Pro $120 per seat per year | macOS 12 or later, Intel or Apple silicon | Windows, Linux | Electron |
| SmartGit | From $5 per user per month, or perpetual; free for non-commercial use (28 October) | Not checked | Windows, Linux | Not checked |
| lazygit | Free, MIT licence (28 October) | Any Mac with a terminal | Windows, Linux | Go, terminal UI |
| Nori | Free; Pro US$20 once | Apple silicon, macOS 26 or later | Windows, Linux | Swift, SwiftUI and AppKit |
If you want a free client
Sourcetree
Atlassian’s Sourcetree is free and runs on macOS 10.15 or later, natively on Apple silicon since 4.1.6. For many developers it was their first Git GUI. It handles submodules and Git LFS, and Mercurial repositories too. Conflicts are resolved by taking mine or theirs, or in an external merge tool. Its pull request features are for Bitbucket and Azure DevOps. Nori vs Sourcetree.
GitHub Desktop
GitHub Desktop is free and open source under the MIT licence, built with Electron and TypeScript, for macOS 12 or later. It works with GitHub and GitHub Enterprise. You can reorder and squash commits by drag and drop, and conflicted files open in your editor, where Copilot can help. It sends usage metrics by default, and a setting turns them off. If your work lives on GitHub and simple branching is enough, it is a good fit. Nori vs GitHub Desktop.
Nori
Nori is free too, on public and private repositories, with no account. On top of the daily work it has a three-way conflict resolver, an interactive rebase plan editor and an undo for commits, branch deletions, stash drops and discards. Pro, for reviewing pull requests in the app, is optional.
GitKraken also has a free plan, limited to local repositories and public remotes; private remote repositories need a paid plan.
If you would rather buy once than subscribe
Fork
Fork is $59.99 once, for one user on up to three machines, Mac and Windows with the same key, after a free evaluation. It is native, in Swift and Cocoa on the Mac. It has a merge conflict resolver, interactive rebase with --update-refs, submodules, Git LFS with locks, bisect and Git-flow, and writes commit messages through Claude, Codex or Cursor. Nori vs Fork.
Sublime Merge
Sublime Merge is $99 once for personal use, with three years of updates and one key for all your computers; a business licence is $75 per user per year. Its evaluation has no enforced time limit. It is built on its makers’ own interface toolkit, with a three-pane merge tool and commit editing. If you already live in Sublime Text, it will feel familiar. Nori vs Sublime Merge.
Nori Pro
Nori itself costs nothing. Nori Pro, US$20 once for two devices with every update included, adds GitHub pull request and GitLab merge request reviews, CI checks and issues, after an optional 14-day trial. See Pricing.
If your team pays for a full-featured client
Tower
Tower is a mature native client for Mac and Windows, from macOS 14. Basic is $69 and Pro $129 per user per year, with a 30-day trial, and it is free for students and non-profits. It covers a great deal of Git: submodules, Git LFS, worktree creation, Git-flow, stacked branches and SSH or GPG keys, and it integrates GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Azure DevOps, Gitea and Forgejo. Since Tower 16, it writes commit messages through Claude Code or Codex. Nori vs Tower.
GitKraken Desktop
GitKraken runs on Intel and Apple silicon Macs from macOS 12, and on Windows and Linux. Pro is listed at $120 per seat per year. It integrates GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket and Azure DevOps, runs agent sessions, and offers AI on paid plans. It asks you to sign in at first launch. Nori vs GitKraken, or GitKraken alternatives.
SmartGit
SmartGit, by syntevo, is sold from $5 per user per month or as a perpetual licence with one to three years of updates, and is free only for non-commercial use. It has a three-way conflict solver, Git-Flow, Git LFS and undo, with GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Azure DevOps and Gerrit integrations.
If you would rather stay in the terminal
lazygit is an MIT-licensed terminal UI, installed on the Mac with Homebrew. It does interactive rebase, line and hunk staging, worktrees, undo and bisect from the keyboard, and shows a branch’s GitHub pull request status through gh. It runs in any terminal you already use.
Memory and load time, measured
On 7 October 2026, I measured six of these clients on the same Mac, an Apple M4 Pro with 24 GB, opening the same two large repositories, git/git and microsoft/vscode. Each figure is the median of three runs after a warm-up launch. Tower, SmartGit and lazygit were not measured. Memory at rest, with a repository open:
- Nori 1.14.0: 72 to 76 MB, measured again on 28 October 2026
- Fork: 85 to 97 MB, less than Nori on git/git
- Sourcetree: 143 to 146 MB
- Sublime Merge: 126 to 168 MB
- GitHub Desktop: 297 to 336 MB
- GitKraken: 900 to 932 MB
The method, load times, idle CPU and every version are on the comparison page. One Mac and two repositories are a narrow test: try the clients on your own repository before you decide.
Where Nori fits, and where it does not
Nori is a native Mac app in Swift, SwiftUI and AppKit: a 16 MB download, 41 MB installed. It runs your own git, with your configuration, hooks and SSH keys, and offers each update in the app. Beyond the graph, staging and conflicts, it lists the worktrees that Claude Code, Codex and T3 Code work in and shows what each changed: Nori beside your agents. More on the Mac app: Git client for Mac.
Choose another client if:
- Your Mac has an Intel processor, or runs a macOS older than 26.
- Your repositories rely on submodules or Git LFS: Nori has no submodule interface and no dedicated LFS support.
- You work on Bitbucket, Azure DevOps, Gitea or Forgejo: Nori connects to GitHub, GitHub Enterprise and GitLab.
- You need Git-flow, bisect or SSH and GPG key management in the app.
- You want open source: GitHub Desktop and lazygit are.
Sources
Checked on 7 October 2026; SmartGit and lazygit on 28 October 2026. Measurements: Nori’s comparison page.
- Tower: pricing, Mac features, all features, integrations, release notes
- Fork: home page, purchase page, release notes
- Sourcetree: home page, release notes
- GitHub Desktop: repository, supported systems, usage data
- Sublime Merge: home page, store
- GitKraken: pricing, system requirements, GitKraken AI
- SmartGit: pricing, features
- lazygit: README
Every name above is a trademark of its owner. Nori is not affiliated with any of them. Something out of date? Write to [email protected] and I will correct it.