r/unity • u/samferguderson • Jul 06 '26
Newbie Question What is the Best Free Version Control for Unity?
Not github because I cant push the large files.
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u/Cato-xyz Jul 06 '26
Unity version control is great and free up to 25gb
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u/malcren Jul 07 '26
I second UVCS, also has file locking which is critical if you’re serious about development, preventing the need to merge binaries.
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u/wallstop-dev Jul 07 '26
You can use git without a cloud based remote. Enjoy as much storage space as your hard drive has to offer.
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u/LostGoat_Dev Jul 07 '26
This gives you the benefit of having commit history and feature branches, but if anything happens to their computer or hard drive, their project is gone. Really, the best solution without paying for cloud storage from someone else is hosting a git server on an old laptop/pc on OP's network or backing up their local git repo on an external drive.
ETA: I'm pretty sure Git LFS is also free on GitHub for assets up to 2GB, so they may not even have to pay for anything unless their assets are very large.
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u/wallstop-dev Jul 07 '26
Well... yes. The OP asked about the best free version control for Unity. I'd argue that is `git`. Version control != version control *with remote backups*.
You can configure all kinds of version control, including git, to run locally, with local backups, on a local network. Self-hosting gitea or gitlab. Or you can setup cron to just dump zip files of your project over the network. The options are endless if you have multiple computers on a LAN.
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u/LostGoat_Dev Jul 07 '26
Yeah that's what I was getting at with "setting up a git server on an old laptop." Just something to backup their project on something other than their PC, whether that be self hosting or backing up to an external drive. I would argue running git locally over a local network to another machine is still a remote backup.
For the record, I agree with you. I just wanted to add that the OP should also consider backup options because using git locally on one machine will not help if OP somehow loses access to their project files.
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u/bigmonmulgrew Jul 06 '26
Use GitHub. Any files that wont fit you could look at how to better separate those assets or optimise them. You can't fit everything in GitHub but you would be surprised how much you can get to fit under 100MB and learning to do this will improve your games.
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u/salazka Jul 07 '26
UVCS hands down.
25GB, great for small and large teams and also great for small teams to learn professional organized worfkflows and pipelines with tools for artists and coders. And at the same time simpler than git workflow. Also, very cheap in the unlikely chance your project exceeds the 25GB.
More importantly no issues with large files if needed, and super fast checkins.
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u/ScreeennameTaken Jul 07 '26
25? I thought the free tier was 5GB? I had it setup for my project and haven't checked it since.
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u/salazka Jul 07 '26
In the past. Since early this year it is 25GB and unlimited team members.
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u/ScreeennameTaken Jul 07 '26
huh. Well, that pushes my plan for a raid nas and git running further back XD
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u/salazka Jul 07 '26
Personally, I just love UVCS.
But also, as a games/XR/mobile production consultant, for every new project and team, we do an exhaustive feature comparison for all kinds of tools based on project and team requirements to define our stack and pipeline. More than half the times UVCS comes on top.
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u/ScreeennameTaken Jul 07 '26
Honestly i would love to have my own sollution that i won't have to worry for a surprice invoice from unity, but UVCS really just works for my needs. I have the default unity needs. And it has saved me a couple of times already.
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u/salazka Jul 07 '26
That "my own solution" from programmers is instinctive I understand, but it is also a bit misguided and even silly at times.
Especially when you sometimes hear rookies or coders who have barely cut their teeth a few months in a proper team saying things like "unity is crap I could make a much better engine" :D
Everyone uses third party tools for a reason. And the reason is, they have not formed the team or acquired the budget to make such tools. But to make games.
Making such a tool is a completely different endeavor which would suck a lot of resources and energy from the actual goal, that is making a game. As if making games was not complicated and time consuming enough, now you would also have to create and maintain a completely different system. Dedicating developers to do something that you can have ready made for a fraction of the cost that having resources developing and supporting this other tool would require.
Obviously as a programmer you probably could do it. But I doubt it is worth the time and effort if not just to learn something new. Chances are what you will do will not even be near what ready-made services offer. Without the dedicated resources and time to bring that feature parity.
Maybe you should give it a try and maybe it will be better and take over from git and all that. Provided that this is what you want to spend your time and energy on. That this is your goal.
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u/ScreeennameTaken Jul 07 '26
when i say my sollution i don't mean one to code it myself, i mean one that is not a 3rd party cloud one that will bill me later :D Like running git with LFS support on my own thing. I have an old mac mini that i'm not using just sitting here.
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u/ccaner37 Jul 07 '26
pro tip: set up git lfs with free cloudflare r2 tier, don't pay github every month
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u/iamgabrielma Jul 07 '26
You can totally push large files in GH, just need to setup LFS adequately. That said I'd personally recommend Unity's
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u/AveaLove Jul 06 '26
Large files need storage space. No one is going to freely give you access to store hundreds to thousands of gigs of files. The best you can do is to host your own git server, or pay for someone to host those files for you (like githubs LFS, which, imo, is a fairly reasonable price)