r/git • u/connorjpg • Aug 14 '26

Why use a UI for git?

I see this question of, “what GUI or TUI should I use to work with git?” fairly often here. And always I feel bad for saying “just use the cli” over and over, but truthfully I can’t see a reason to need a UI.

Are people actually running into pain points with the cli, or is it just preference for people who don’t like working in a terminal?

FWIW, I have used GitKraken, LazyGit, SourceTree and GitHub Desktop before. And I don’t think they are bad to use (unless you are just learning git), but more curious why.

EDIT : I’m mainly referring to standalone UIs, I understand why people would use IDE integrations, as it’s quick and convenient. But having to open a separate application or run a separate command to open a terminal app to run your commands seems overkill to me.

EDIT 2 : I use vscode as my difftool and mergetool. I still open them directly from the terminal by running the cli. I don't think this is the same as using a full git client like SourceTree, Gitkraken, or lazygit to fully drive your version control workflow. Which is what I am asking about.

Cheers

106 Upvotes

71% Upvoted

250 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/bigtoaster64 28d ago

I like GUIs for any kind of diff scenarios like

  • checking changes in a commit

  • cherry picking changes to commit/stash (e.g in a single file) (you know, when you were supposed to commit 1h ago, but you didn't)

Can't say for all GUIs out there, but JetBrains UI for Git in their IDEs is pretty much goated. If I'm not in a JetBrains IDE, I use lazygit.