Bitbucket vs. GitHub

Are you a programmer? Or, are you a computer science enthusiast? If yes, then you must have heard about Bitbucket and GitHub. If you are a software developer and write code for any project like an application, software, or website, you need to permanently save your project’s source code to a place from where you can access it when needed. Then, in that case, websites like Bitbucket and GitHub come into use. Bitbucket and GitHub are Internet servers where you can save your project’s source code forever. And you can use the tools available on these websites to edit or rewrite the source code of your coding project.

If you are a programmer or about to become one, and wondering which git repository is best for your project’s source code – GitHub or Bitbucket? Well, don’t worry, we have compiled all the hectic Internet research work in this article. We will be guiding you to choose the best website for your source code. We will be discussing it right from the beginning. From everything about GitHub and Bitbucket to the features of the two websites.

We will also compare the tools available on the two websites for editing and writing your code. Have you ever thought about whose developer community is better so that you can collaborate with the best developers for your computer software project? You don’t need to do any research; we have summarized everything for you in this article.

What is Bitbucket?

Bitbucket is owned by Atlassian and was founded in 2008. It was written in python using the Django framework. Bitbucket is a cloud-based online service that assists developers by saving the project’s source code on the Internet. So, they can access their code whenever, wherever they would like to. It provides special tools for editing, maintaining, and managing the code.

It enables the user to have track and control of their code. Its interface is very beginner-friendly. Even a newcomer coder can use this cloud-based repository service very skillfully. Bitbucket provides various tools that a user can use to collaborate with an experienced developer community for their coding project. The developer on Bitbucket can effortlessly work, test, collaborate, and deploy the code.

To learn Bitbucket, the person should experience version control and GIT. The version control helps the developer work safely by using merging and branching. Branching helps a developer easily copy the part of the code they want to change, and then make the required changes in that part of the code.

The developer can use merging to merge the edited code with the main source code. This facilitates the developer to write and edit the code safely without messing up the main code. GIT is an open-source vision control system. It was created in the year 2005 by Linus Torvalds. All the code base and history stored on GIT are available on every developer’s computer, which helps in the easy merging and branching.

How to Create an Account on Bitbucket?

As of now, we have understood some basics of Bitbucket and what it is. Now, it’s time to know how to create an account on Bitbucket. We have provided all the steps for creating your first ever Bitbucket account. You can very easily create an account on Bitbucket and start the journey of saving your code on the Internet. Follow the steps mentioned below to start your account.

1. Visit the official website bitbucket.org and sign up. Enter email, name, and password and verify yourself as the website asks.
2. When you have verified yourself. Now it’s time to create a unique name for your bitbucket server.
3. Now, you can create your repository or import a repository.
4. Now you can add files, review your code, edit your code, download repository, share repository, and much more cool stuff.

Features of Bitbucket

1. Bitbucket has a very fast code review feature. You can also add other developers as reviewers so that they can make their contributions to your coding project.
2. It has very good JIRA tools for finding bugs in the code. The user can easily track the bug’s status in the code without leaving the current tool.
3. It provides a real-time in-line conversation feature. Thus, it makes the conversation between the team members easy.
4. Bitbucket provides two different services. Bitbucket cloud for small team size and Bitbucket server for a larger team.
5. With the help of a built-in issue tracker in Bitbucket, we can easily track the errors. This feature is very flexible. It helps in tracking bugs and also helps in checking the demands made for new features by clients/developers.
6. The Bitbucket interface is very easy. It comes in very handy for the new coders. One can easily branch, merge, pull requests, usernames, and use other tools.
7. It has a powerful Trello integration. It is very easy to use, Trello can be used easily even by non-developers.

Bitbucket Advantages

1. Bitbucket authenticates the user and allows the user to add social media.
2. The Query Management System in Bitbucket is very good. It makes the work easy by providing an integrated system.
3. It supports the JIRA tool. It automatically detects any bug in the code.
4. We can also import old repositories.
5. Bitbucket provides free services for small teams. An unlimited number of private repositories can be used. It can also be used by the teacher and the students for free. It is very handy to be used by normal people also.

Bitbucket Disadvantages

1. Bitbucket does not have a good PR management team like other companies. GitHub, which is the competitor of Bitbucket, spends a huge amount of money to maintain its market. They advertise their product and its features. They have very strong online support; that’s why they are more famous and acceptable than GitHub.
2. Bitbucket is free for small teams. But after that, the user will have to pay for each new additional member.
3. Bitbucket is still under development. Many users have reported peculiar errors while working on the Bitbucket interface. Solving these errors can be very annoying, and hence, it results in a wastage of time.
4. Many users on Bitbucket have also faced some search feature issues. First of all, the repository needs to be saved, and then you can search locally. It’s a little longer procedure.

What is GitHub?

GitHub is a free and open-source version control system. It was founded in 2008, and the platform was written in Erlang and Ruby programming languages. It has a great working capacity, and it can handle small to large projects. It also supports the feature where multiple developers can access, review, and edit a source code from anywhere and anytime. Every GitHub repository is complete because it has all the features like writing the code, editing tools, chat options to talk with other developers, and many more. It helps the people of the team to work together with the same files and code.

Together all the team members can solve the errors and problems. The usage of GitHub for saving source code online comes in very handy because users have experienced very few bugs or errors on the interface; it saves time as all the tools are inbuilt, and a user can take help from other experienced people available on the GitHub’s developer community. But, in the pricing sector, it can fall behind other git service providers.

The usage of GitHub is free only up to three team members on a project, but after that, it charges some amount on adding more members to the team. Well, the point can also be ignored because of GitHub’s features and services. No one can match that quality and excellence.

How to Create an Account on GitHub?

1. First of all, you need to set up your GitHub account and then log in to your GitHub account.
2. Click the new repository option. And after that give a name to your new project. Then it would be best if you filled in some other options. After that, click on create a repository.
3. Now, you can add as many files as you want. You can review, write, edit, and maintain your code. The user can also collaborate with other developers to complete their projects.

Features of GitHub

1. Supports fast branching and merging. Provides specific tools for non-linear development history.
2. Branches in GitHub are very lightweight.
3. GitHub provides a separate copy of the source code to every developer working in the code. And any change in any repository is copied from each other. The changes made in every local repository can be easily merged.
4. GitHub provides great compatibility with existing systems.
5. GitHub is much faster as compared to other version control systems. The fetching from the local repository is very quick. The big and large projects can be handled very smoothly in GitHub.
6. The GitHub history is really good. Every change made by any user gets stored and displayed. No change can be made in the project without the other team members.
7. GitHub automatically starts the process of garbage collection. And we can also call this process explicitly in GitHub.

GitHub Advantages

1. GitHub has a distributed model. It means that not everything related to your project will be public. Only the part of your project that you would like to show will be visible publicly.
2. The merging and branching become very easy in GitHub. While reviewing and editing code in GitHub, the use of branching and merging is so simple that it feels like it’s part of the workflow.
3. Workflow in GitHub is quite flexible. You can choose your working panel. If you want your workflow to be sober and easy, you can do so. If you want your workflow to be more complex and professional, you can also go.
4. GitHub is very fast compared to other DVCS for local and network work.

GitHub Disadvantages

1. Several commands in GitHub must be understood first.
2. It becomes slow if a project contains images, websites, or MS Office documents.
3. The staging area in GitHub is very complex compared to other sections of GitHub. And this section is not very beginner-friendly.

Differences Between Bitbucket and GitHub

Bitbucket

1. It provides unlimited private repositories.
2. The user can view the development history with branch comparison.
3. The user can explicitly control the branch permissions and restrict the branch access.
4. It supports third-party API with integration with Trello.
5. It allows users to have a free private repository but with a collaboration with up to five members.
6. It does not have a navigation feature.
7. It helps the developers to have a visual representation of the analysis with the help of charts.
8. Bitbucket is very good for private use.
9. Most of the users of Bitbucket are businesses and enterprises.

GitHub

1. It specifies some special labels and restrictions in the projects.
2. There is a comparison view between the branches.
3. GitHub pages allow publishing and hosting the websites within GitHub.
4. There is a syntax highlight feature in GitHub.
5. It allows third-party ALI integration for bug tracking and clouding.
6. It allows users to have an unlimited free repository.
7. It allows users to have unlimited free private repositories with a collaboration of up to a three-member team.
8. It has the feature of navigation
9. It doesn’t have the chart representation of the data, but you can see the committed history in GitHub.
10. GitHub is more focused on public code.
11. GitHub is an open-source community.

Hence we can say that Bitbucket is best for new coders due to the handiness of its interface. Newcomers in programming can easily start storing their code online with the help of Bitbucket. While on the other side GitHub works on several inbuilt commands. A user must be aware of these commands to use GitHub with the best efficiency. Even the staging section of GitHub is difficult to understand for a new coder. The complexity and availability of many new features for editing and writing code make GitHub the best for any experienced programmer. After the experience, a user can easily use the branching and merging tools of GitHub.

Bitbucket also provides unlimited free private repositories, which is best for an individual. But if you want to work with a team, then GitHub is best. Because you will be able to get the best team of developers here. The in-line messaging feature in GitHub’s interface is good because you can chat with other team members while writing the coding of your project. If any error or confusion occurs, you can take other team members’ help. Private individuals mostly use Bitbucket, while GitHub is mostly used by programmers where help is required because GitHub is an open-source server.

GitHub provides a full-fledged community of new and experienced coders. Any experienced programmer always recommends GitHub to the newbies in coding. From starting their programming career, they will have a habit of using GitHub. Though GitHub is a little difficult and complex for a newcomer. But still, several courses and articles are available on the Internet to help with all the confusion of using GitHub.

Bitbucket is also good but only for the newbies in coding. One can start using Bitbucket, and after having some hands-on experience, they can shift to GitHub to save their code because as the person gets advanced in programming, they tend to build more advanced projects. And if a person got stuck while coding for their project, they can take help from the experienced community of developers from GitHub.

We can’t ignore another important factor – the pricing of the two servers. Bitbucket provides unlimited private repositories to an individual, and a team of five members can be formed for free for a coding project. While on GitHub, we can create a team of only three members for free. If we want to create a larger team, we have to buy the premium version. It is only the pricing factor in which GitHub lags. Otherwise, almost from every point of view,

GitHub is better than Bitbucket. Every programmer also recommends GitHub because the open-source code is public, and people can use each other’s code to study and learn. It is open-source software, and anybody can read your code, but you can change these settings. But, Bitbucket is also used by many people who want to save their code in private on the Internet. GitHub was designed to focus on open-source software to create a powerful developer community. At the same time, this thought was not the primary thought on the launch of BitBucket.

Well, after reading all these characteristics, you might have chosen the best server for your programming projects. If you are a beginner, you can go for Bitbucket due to its ease of working on its interface. It also ensures a subtle workflow. While even as a beginner, you can go for GitHub. You don’t need to worry about the complex commands after a little understanding of the inbuilt commands of GitHub’s interface through videos and articles available on the Internet. You can easily use the GitHub repository.

Conclusion

In the end, we will let you decide which repository is better. We recommend you choose the best among Bitbucket and GitHub as per your need, experience, and expertise. This debate on GitHub versus Bitbucket will never come to an end because new features and updates will keep coming in both of them, and the points of the debate will keep on changing, and hence, the winner will keep fluctuating. At present, there are more users on GitHub, but it is also possible that soon or soon, people will migrate from GitHub to Bitbucket to save and maintain their code.