Best Graphical Git Clients and Git Repository Viewers for Linux

Git is a free and open source distributed version
control system for software development and several other version control tasks. It is designed to cope with everything from small to very large projects based on speed, efficiency and data integrity.

Linux users can manage Git primarily from the command
line, however, there are several graphical user interface (GUI) Git clients
that facilitate efficient and reliable usage of Git on a Linux desktop and offer most, if not all of the command line operations.

Therefore, below is a list of some of the best Git front-ends with a GUI for Linux desktop users.

Suggested Read: Install
GIT to Create and Share Your Own Projects on GITHub Repository

That said, let’s proceed to listing them.

1. GitKraken

GitKraken is a cross-platform, elegant and highly
efficient Git client for Linux. It works on Unix-like systems such as Linux and Mac OS X, and Windows as well. Its designed to boost a Git user’s productivity through features such as:

Visual interaction and hints

100% standalone

Supports multiple profiles

Supports single-click undo and redo functions

Built-in merge tool

A fast and intuitive search tool

Easily adapts to a user’s workspace and also supports submodules and Gitflow

Integrates with a user’s GitHub or Bitbucket account

Keyboard shortcuts plus lots more.





GitKraken Git Client for Linux

Visit Homepage: https://www.gitkraken.com/

2. Git-cola

Git-cola is a powerful, configurable Git client for
Linux that offers users a sleek GUI. Its written in Python and released under the GPL license.

The Git-cola interface comprises of several collaborative tools that can be hidden and rearranged according to a users wish. It also offers users many useful keyboard shortcuts.

Its additional features include:

Multiple sub-commands

Custom window settings

Configurable and environment variables

Language settings

Supports custom GUI settings





Git-cola – Git Client for Linux

Visit Homepage: http://git-cola.github.io/

3. SmartGit

SmartGit is a also a cross-platform, powerful, popular
GUI Git client for Linux, Mac OS X and Windows. Referred to as Git for professionals, it enables users master daily Git challenges and boosts their productivity through efficient workflows.

Users can utilize it with their own repos or other hosting providers. It ships in with the following illustrious features:

Supports Git pull requests and comments

Supports SVN repositories

Comes with Git-flow, SSH-client and file compare/merge tools

Integrates strongly with GitHub, BitBucket and Atlassian Stash





SmartGit – Git Client for Linux

Visit Homepage: http://www.syntevo.com/smartgit/

4. Giggle

Giggle is a free GUI client for Git content tracker
that uses GTK+ toolkit and only runs on Linux. It was developed as a result of a hackathon Imendio, in January 2007. It has now been integrated into the GNOME infrastructure. Its basically a Git viewer, allows users to browse their repository history.





Giggle – Git Client for Linux

Visit Homepage: https://wiki.gnome.org/giggle

5. Gitg

Gitg is a GNOME GUI front-end to view Git repositories.
Its comprises of features such as – enables GNOME shell integration through app menu, enables users to view recently used repositories, browse repository history.

It also offers a files view, staging area to compose commits, and commit staged changes, open repository, clone repository and user information.





Gitg – Client to View Git Repositories

Visit Homepage: https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Gitg

6. Git GUI

Git GUI is a cross-platform and portable Tcl/Tk based
GUI front-end for Git that works on Linux, Windows and Mac OS X. It mainly focuses on commit generation by enabling users to make changes to their repository by generating new commits, amending existing ones, building branches. Additionally, it also allows
them to perform local merges, and fetch/push to remote repositories.





GitGui – Client for Git

Visit Homepage: https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-gui.html

7. Qgit

QGit is a simple, fast and straight forward yet powerful
GUI Git client based written in Qt/C++. It offers users a nice UI and allows them to browse revisions history, view patch content and changed files graphically by following distinct development branches.

A few of its features are listed below:

View, revision, diffs, file history, file annotations and archive trees

Supports commit changes

Enables users to apply or format patch series from selected commits

Also supports drag and drop functions for commits between two QGit instances

Associates commands sequences, scripts and anything executable to a custom action

It implements a GUI for many common StGit commands such as push/pop and apply/format patches and many more





Qgit – Git Client for Linux

Visit Homepage: http://digilander.libero.it/mcostalba/

8. GitForce

GitForce is also an easy-to-use and intuitive GUI
front-end for Git that runs on Linux and Windows, plus any OS with Mono support. It provides users some of the most common Git operations and it is powerful enough to be used exclusively without involving any other command line Git tool.





GitForce – Git Client for Linux

Visit Homepage: https://sites.google.com/site/gitforcetool/home

9. Egit

Egit is a Git plugin for Eclipse IDE, its an Eclipse
Team provider for Git. The project is aimed at implementing Eclipse tooling on top of the JQit java implementation of Git. Eqit comprises of features such as a repository explorer, new files, commit window and history view.





Egit – Git Plugin for Eclipse IDE

Visit Homepage: http://www.eclipse.org/egit/

10. GitEye

GitEye is a simple and intuitive GUI client for Git
that integrates easily with planning, tracking, code reviewing and build tools such as TeamForge, GitGub, Jira, Bugzilla and lots more. It is flexible with powerful visualization and history management features.

Visit Homepage: http://www.collab.net/products/giteye

11. GITK (Generalized Interface Toolkit)

GITK is a multi-layered GUI front-end for Git that
enables users to work effectively with software in any situation. Its main aim is to vividly enrich adaptivity of software, it runs on a multi-layered architecture where interface functionality is adequately separated from look and feel.

Importantly, GITK lets each use choose the kind and style of UI that fits his/her needs depending on ability, preferences and current environment.

Visit Homepage: http://gitk.sourceforge.net/

Summary

In this post, we reviewed a few of the best known Git clients with a GUI for Linux, however, there could be one or two missing in the list above, therefore, get back to us for any suggestions or feedback through the comment section below. You can as well tell
us your best Git client with a GUI and why you prefer using it.