Products · Product
Sourcetree
Raised as a usability problem by 74 people on Hacker News over 14 years (2012–2025), in 48 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Newcomers unfamiliar with git commands struggle with the GUIUnreviewed
20122026- Slow, laggy performance makes the Git client frustrating to use2025-11-11
- Uses git terminology different from standard git commands, which confuses users2023-07-19
- Git GUI error messages give worthless advice compared to the command line2022-11-09
Slow performance that settings don't fixUnreviewed
20122026- Sourcetree applies its own defaults, like initializing submodules, so sparse checkouts fail to clone2021-08-01
- SourceTree is bloated and slow to use2018-09-20
- Sourcetree is slow to interact with2018-03-26
Selecting a file often shows nothing in the diff viewUnreviewed
20122026- Selecting a file often shows nothing in the diff view2017-04-27
- File and branch selection highlights unreliable, diffs sometimes blank, UI flickers and slow2016-02-24
- Can't show changed-file tree between selected commits; diff list shows only one file2015-06-03
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Slow, laggy performance makes the Git client frustrating to use2025-11-11
- Uses git terminology different from standard git commands, which confuses users2023-07-19
- Freezes constantly, is super slow, and is relatively unintuitive on large repos2023-03-15
- Git GUI error messages give worthless advice compared to the command line2022-11-09
- Described as slow and buggy to use2022-05-31
- UI sometimes contradicted the git docs, causing confusion for a beginner2022-03-20
- Feels sluggish to use, though otherwise dependable2021-11-30
- Sourcetree applies its own defaults, like initializing submodules, so sparse checkouts fail to clone2021-08-01
- Repeatedly leaves coworkers' local git repositories broken and needing repair2021-05-25
- Slow to respond and uses excessive memory on Windows2020-04-22
- Rewritten UI is slower and less clear, lost the repository overview2020-04-22
- Staging area and file tree are merged into one control, making it hard to use2019-08-23
- Became so difficult to use that the commenter stopped using it2019-07-24
- SourceTree is bloated and slow to use2018-09-20
- Slow and painful to navigate when there are dozens of branches2018-09-20
- Slowed to a crawl with bigger projects and long histories2018-08-05
- Stuff is cluttered together and important features are hard to find2018-07-23
- Version 2 is unusable on many systems, forcing users to downgrade to v12018-06-07
- App became very slow to interact with after redesign2018-03-26
- Sourcetree is slow to interact with2018-03-26
- Sourcetree is all but useless for anything moderately complicated like bisecting or reflog2018-03-26
- GUI makes it easy to create repository messes that are hard to undo2017-12-18
- Staging a file takes about 10 seconds, so the app feels slow to use2017-09-23
- Other git clients break on big repos, are slow, or are usability train wrecks2017-09-19
- App has bad UI performance, feels sluggish to use2017-05-19
- ReCAPTCHA images too hard to solve, blocking password reset and re-registration2017-05-11
- Every action freezes for seconds as antimalware pegs the CPU; a one-line revert takes 30 seconds2017-05-09
- Two ways to switch repos causes selecting the wrong repo, looking at the wrong stuff2017-04-28
- Diff text shows blurry first, then sharpens after half a second, straining eyes2017-04-27
- Newer versions are uglier and have less functionality, making the user stay on an old version2017-04-27
- Drag-and-drop between staged and unstaged areas stopped working after update, and UI components removed without toggle2017-04-27
- Can't tell same-named repos apart and can't see all repos' branch status at a glance2017-04-27
- Can't tell what the (+) button does and new flow adds barrier to reaching projects2017-04-27
- Each scroll arrow click moves the tab bar only about a tenth of a tab2017-04-27
- Selecting a file often shows nothing in the diff view2017-04-27
- With many repos open, tabs are too wide and scroll buttons make scrolling terrible2017-04-27
- Slow to respond for many common operations2017-01-10
- Disorganized layout, poor diffing, and slow interaction make it worse than alternatives2017-01-09
- UI is getting worse and recent releases are buggy2016-11-06
- Team members new to Git found it awful to use2016-10-10
- Slow and clunky to use, and not integrated with the file browser2016-10-10
- Frequent UI overhauls with no clear benefit, and basic features break across versions2016-10-10
- UI takes 5-6 seconds to update after nearly any operation2016-08-29
- Redesign removed functionality and the removed features still aren't restored months later2016-07-09
- User feels like they are poking around in the dark2016-05-24
- User must triple-check checkboxes to avoid accidentally messing up their repository2016-03-02
- Login screen opens a browser window that goes nowhere, needs 3 or 4 tries2016-02-24
- File and branch selection highlights unreliable, diffs sometimes blank, UI flickers and slow2016-02-24
- New UI is hard to look at, forcing a revert to the old version2016-02-24
- Can't easily browse repository state at a given commit2016-02-24