Mercurial vs Perforce

Overview

Mercurial

Stacks229

Followers219

Votes105

Perforce

Stacks83

Followers113

Votes9

Mercurial vs Perforce: What are the differences?

Key Differences between Mercurial and Perforce

Revision System: Mercurial uses a distributed revision control system (DVCS), where every developer has their own copy of the entire repository with complete version history. Perforce, on the other hand, uses a centralized version control system (CVCS), where a central server stores the repository and developers checkout files and submit changes to it. This decentralized vs centralized approach affects branching, merging, and overall workflow.
Branching and Merging: Mercurial provides native and seamless support for branching and merging, making it easier for developers to work on parallel development lines and merge changes back easily. In contrast, Perforce's branching and merging capabilities are reported to be more complex and less intuitive, requiring developers to be mindful of the file directory structure and other technical considerations.
Performance: Mercurial is known for its performance and efficiency, even when working with large repositories. It performs well with both small and large projects, thanks to its compact data storage and smart algorithms. Perforce, on the other hand, has been criticized for its performance on large codebases, especially during large-scale operations like branch creation or code refactoring.
Ease of Use: Mercurial is often regarded as user-friendly, with a straightforward command-line interface and a well-documented workflow. Its commands are designed to be intuitive and simple to understand, making it easier for new users to grasp. Perforce, although it offers a graphical user interface (GUI) and command-line interface, has a steeper learning curve due to its more complex and varied command set.
Pricing and Licensing: Mercurial is an open-source software released under the GNU GPL, making it freely available for anyone to use and modify. This makes it a cost-effective choice for small teams or individual developers. Perforce, on the other hand, is a proprietary software that requires a paid license, making it a less economical option, particularly for small or open-source projects.
Community and Ecosystem: Mercurial has a strong and active open-source community, with numerous plugins and extensions available to enhance functionality and integrate with third-party tools. It is widely supported by various hosting platforms and has a vibrant user base. Perforce, although it has a dedicated user community, may have a more limited ecosystem due to its proprietary nature.

In summary, Mercurial stands out for its decentralized nature, smooth branching and merging capabilities, performance, ease of use, open-source nature, and active community, while Perforce offers a centralized approach, arguably more complex branching and merging, paid licensing, and a potentially narrower ecosystem.

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CLI (Node.js)

Manual

Detailed Comparison

Mercurial	Perforce
Mercurial is dedicated to speed and efficiency with a sane user interface. It is written in Python. Mercurial's implementation and data structures are designed to be fast. You can generate diffs between revisions, or jump back in time within seconds.	Visibility, access control, workflow and code management for Git environments. Flexibility of collaborating on the same codebase and code reviews using any combination of Perforce and Git workflows and tools without compromise.
-	Version Control; Application Lifecycle Management; Static Code Analysis for C, C++, C#, and Java; Codeless Selenium Test Automation; Open Source Support; Enterprise PHP Development
Statistics
Stacks 229	Stacks 83
Followers 219	Followers 113
Votes 105	Votes 9
Pros & Cons
Pros 18 A lot easier to extend than git 17 Easy-to-grasp system with nice tools 13 Works on windows natively without cygwin nonsense 11 Written in python 9 Free Cons 0 Does not distinguish between local and remote head 0 Track single upstream only	Pros 3 Great for Enterprise level use 3 Powerful 2 Robust 1 Scalable
Integrations
Windows Fedora FreeBSD Debian Gentoo Linux Mac OS X	Git

What are some alternatives to Mercurial, Perforce?

GitHub

GitHub is the best place to share code with friends, co-workers, classmates, and complete strangers. Over three million people use GitHub to build amazing things together.

Git

Git is a free and open source distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency.

Bitbucket

Bitbucket gives teams one place to plan projects, collaborate on code, test and deploy, all with free private Git repositories. Teams choose Bitbucket because it has a superior Jira integration, built-in CI/CD, & is free for up to 5 users.

GitLab

GitLab offers git repository management, code reviews, issue tracking, activity feeds and wikis. Enterprises install GitLab on-premise and connect it with LDAP and Active Directory servers for secure authentication and authorization. A single GitLab server can handle more than 25,000 users but it is also possible to create a high availability setup with multiple active servers.

RhodeCode

RhodeCode provides centralized control over distributed code repositories. Developers get code review tools and custom APIs that work in Mercurial, Git & SVN. Firms get unified security and user control so that their CTOs can sleep at night

AWS CodeCommit

CodeCommit eliminates the need to operate your own source control system or worry about scaling its infrastructure. You can use CodeCommit to securely store anything from source code to binaries, and it works seamlessly with your existing Git tools.

Gogs

The goal of this project is to make the easiest, fastest and most painless way to set up a self-hosted Git service. With Go, this can be done in independent binary distribution across ALL platforms that Go supports, including Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows.

Gitea

Git with a cup of tea! Painless self-hosted all-in-one software development service, including Git hosting, code review, team collaboration, package registry and CI/CD. It published under the MIT license.

Upsource

Upsource summarizes recent changes in your repository, showing commit messages, authors, quick diffs, links to detailed diff views and associated code reviews. A commit graph helps visualize the history of commits, branches and merges in your repository.

Beanstalk

A single process to commit code, review with the team, and deploy the final result to your customers.

Related Comparisons

Mercurial vs Perforce: What are the differences?

Key Differences between Mercurial and Perforce

Revision System: Mercurial uses a distributed revision control system (DVCS), where every developer has their own copy of the entire repository with complete version history. Perforce, on the other hand, uses a centralized version control system (CVCS), where a central server stores the repository and developers checkout files and submit changes to it. This decentralized vs centralized approach affects branching, merging, and overall workflow.
Branching and Merging: Mercurial provides native and seamless support for branching and merging, making it easier for developers to work on parallel development lines and merge changes back easily. In contrast, Perforce's branching and merging capabilities are reported to be more complex and less intuitive, requiring developers to be mindful of the file directory structure and other technical considerations.
Performance: Mercurial is known for its performance and efficiency, even when working with large repositories. It performs well with both small and large projects, thanks to its compact data storage and smart algorithms. Perforce, on the other hand, has been criticized for its performance on large codebases, especially during large-scale operations like branch creation or code refactoring.
Ease of Use: Mercurial is often regarded as user-friendly, with a straightforward command-line interface and a well-documented workflow. Its commands are designed to be intuitive and simple to understand, making it easier for new users to grasp. Perforce, although it offers a graphical user interface (GUI) and command-line interface, has a steeper learning curve due to its more complex and varied command set.
Pricing and Licensing: Mercurial is an open-source software released under the GNU GPL, making it freely available for anyone to use and modify. This makes it a cost-effective choice for small teams or individual developers. Perforce, on the other hand, is a proprietary software that requires a paid license, making it a less economical option, particularly for small or open-source projects.
Community and Ecosystem: Mercurial has a strong and active open-source community, with numerous plugins and extensions available to enhance functionality and integrate with third-party tools. It is widely supported by various hosting platforms and has a vibrant user base. Perforce, although it has a dedicated user community, may have a more limited ecosystem due to its proprietary nature.

Mercurial vs Perforce

Overview

Mercurial vs Perforce: What are the differences?