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Comparison · Verified 9 August 2026 · Sources at the foot of the page

GitKraken shows you history better than anything else. GitAegis is built for the moment history gets damaged.

These are different products aimed at different anxieties. GitKraken’s interactive commit graph is the best way to understand a repository. GitAegis captures a six-domain recovery capsule before a risky operation, and refuses to run the operation if the capsule can’t be taken.
Download GitAegisSee how recovery works

GitKraken facts verified 9 August 2026 · GitAegis ships for macOS · Corrections to press@gitaegis.com

GitKraken, at its best

An interactive commit graph: branch lanes you can read at a glance, and a branch you can drag onto another to merge or rebase. It is the fastest way to understand a repository you have never seen.

Described rather than screenshotted. This site does not reproduce another vendor’s interface.

GitAegis, at its best

The Operation Preview drawer, in order:

  1. Intent
  2. Risk level
  3. Preconditions checked
  4. Recovery capsule taken first
  5. Exact commands to be run
  6. Rollback path

If the highlighted step fails, the rest of the list never runs.

Two products, two different questions. Neither panel is a screenshot.

What GitKraken is genuinely good at

Being fair here costs nothing and is the only way this page is worth reading. GitKraken is broader than GitAegis on almost every axis a buyer checks: more hosts, more platforms, an editor extension, an organisation layer, and the graph that made its name.

Published pricing, 9 August 2026: Free for public repositories only; Pro $4.95/user/month; Teams $8.95/user/month; On-Premise $24/user/month, tax excluded. The free tier is the one to read carefully. It covers public repositories, so private work needs a paid plan.

If your problem is “I can’t see what this repository has been doing”, GitKraken is the better tool and you should buy it.

Where GitKraken is the better choice

  • The interactive commit graph is the category benchmark. Drag a branch onto another to merge or rebase, and read a tangled history visually. Nothing in GitAegis replaces it.
  • The widest integration coverage in this comparison: GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Azure DevOps and Jira in the client, including self-hosted instances of the major hosts.
  • The only paid client in the usual shortlist with a real Linux build, which matters for a mixed-platform team.
  • Paid plans bundle GitLens Pro for VS Code, a substantial piece of software in its own right. GitAegis has no equivalent inside your editor.
  • Cloud workspaces, organization plans, SSO, and a self-hosted On-Premise deployment.

What GitAegis does that GitKraken does not

Six behaviours. The first two are the product; the rest are what the first two make possible.

  1. The capsule comes before the command.

    Before a risky operation runs, GitAegis writes a recovery capsule covering six domains: refs, index, staged changes, working changes, untracked files and operation state. On disk, before the first git invocation.

  2. No capsule, no operation.

    If the capsule can't be written, the operation is blocked. You get the reason and the domain that failed, and no control in the interface waives it.

  3. Restore per domain.

    Refs only. Working tree only. Untracked files only. Or everything. A restore is a selection, not a reconstruction.

  4. A timeline that includes what the client didn't do.

    A filesystem watcher feeds the Flight Recorder, so branch moves from your terminal, checkouts triggered by an editor extension and index changes from a build script land on the same timeline as GitAegis’s own operations, with state hashes you can roll back to. It records pointer-level truth (refs, HEAD, index, stashes, worktree registrations) rather than every file you edited.

  5. Lost Work goes looking.

    The recent reflog, the stash reflog, Flight Recorder “before” oids, refs/aegis/ recovery refs, capsule bundles, sibling worktree HEADs, and a bounded git fsck --unreachable --dangling, then it offers to put a branch back on what it found.

  6. gc, prune and reflog expiry are not implemented.

    Not behind a confirmation. Not behind a setting. git gc, git prune and git reflog expire are absent from the product, so the objects that make recovery possible stay on disk.

Side by side

Eight of these rows go to GitKraken outright. That is not a formatting accident. It is the broader product, and the table says so.

GitAegis and GitKraken Desktop compared across recovery behaviour, history and graph capability, integrations, platform support and licensing.
CapabilityGitAegisGitKraken Desktop
Snapshot captured before the operationFull supportNot offered
Operation refused if the snapshot cannot be takenFull supportNot offered
Undo of the client's own actions, after the fact1Full supportPartial or limited support
Untracked files included in the safety netFull supportNot offered
In-progress operation state captured2Partial or limited supportNot offered
Restore by domain (refs, index, staged, working, untracked)Full supportNot offered
Timeline of ref and index changes made outside the client3Full supportNot offered
Unreachable or dangling commit discoveryFull supportPartial or limited support
Repository damage scan with evidence and proposed repairsFull supportNot offered
Mutating controls lock when the index or HEAD is damagedFull supportNot offered
Stated commitment never to run git gc, git prune or git reflog expire4Full supportNot offered
Exact commands shown before executionFull supportNot offered
Interactive drag-and-drop commit graphNot offeredFull support
Commit graph, compare and searchFull supportFull support
Hunk- and line-level stagingFull supportFull support
bisect in the interfaceFull supportNot offered
Editor extension (GitLens)Not offeredFull support
GitHub and GitLab in the client, including self-hosted5Not offeredFull support
Bitbucket, Azure DevOps and Jira in the clientNot offeredFull support
Native application (not Electron)Full supportNot offered
macOSFull supportFull support
Windows6Not offeredFull support
LinuxNot offeredFull support
Works with private repositories at no cost7Full supportNot offered
SSO and SCIM for organization accounts8Not offeredFull support
Self-hosted server optionNot offeredFull support
Pricing modelFree, no accountSubscription: $4.95 / $8.95 / $24 per user per month

Full supportPartial or limited supportNot offered

1 GitKraken has an undo control that reverses a set of recent actions. It is real and useful, and it is narrower than a snapshot taken before the operation.

2 GitAegis captures the merge, cherry-pick and revert markers and puts them back on restore. A rebase in progress is recorded as present rather than captured, and it is not replayed.

3 The Flight Recorder records ref, HEAD, index, stash and worktree-registration changes made outside the client. It does not turn edits to file contents into timeline events.

4 A dash means GitKraken publishes no commitment either way, not that GitKraken runs those commands.

5 GitAegis does not connect to a hosting provider from the client today: no pull requests, no merge requests, no reviews, no CI status.

6 GitAegis ships for macOS. There is no Windows or Linux build to download.

7 GitKraken's free tier works with public repositories; private repositories require a paid plan. The GitAegis macOS edition works on any repository, public or private, with no account.

8 GitAegis has no organization sign-in of any kind today: no SSO, no SCIM, and no directory integration.

GitKraken rows and prices are published figures in USD, excluding tax, read on 9 August 2026: GitKraken pricing and plan limits, 2026 · GitKraken vs Fork vs Tower, 2026.

The Electron question, stated fairly

GitKraken Desktop is an Electron application. That was a deliberate trade: one codebase across macOS, Windows and Linux, which is part of why the Linux build exists at all and why the graph is as rich as it is.

The cost shows up on large repositories. Start-up time, memory, and responsiveness when the history is deep or the working tree is enormous. It is the most common complaint in reviews of the product, and it is a real one.

GitAegis is a native desktop application: a Rust core with a web-technology view layer, compiled for the platform rather than shipped as a browser. It is not a reimplementation of Git. It executes the Git already installed on your machine, and every command it runs is visible to you before it runs. On a very large monorepo, run both on the repository you actually work in. That is the only benchmark that matters, and neither vendor’s numbers should substitute for it.

The free tier difference

GitKraken’s free tier works with public repositories only. If your work is private (which, for most professionals being paid to write code, it is) the free tier isn’t usable for it, and the comparison becomes a paid-versus-paid one.

GitAegis works on any repository, public or private, without requiring an account. Local Git work remains available whether you sign in or not.

GitKraken free tier

Public repositories only

Private work needs a paid plan, so for most professional repositories the comparison is paid against free.

GitAegis macOS edition

Any repository, public or private

Account optional, with the whole local product included: Operation Preview, recovery capsules, Doctor, Safe Mode, the Flight Recorder and Lost Work.

Tier boundaries as published 9 August 2026; sources at the foot of the page.

Where GitKraken's organisation layer is further along

GitKraken has cloud workspaces, organization plans, SSO and a self-hosted On-Premise deployment. GitAegis has none of that. There is no organisation sign-in of any kind today: no SSO, no SCIM, no directory integration, no policy distribution and no audit trail. If you are buying a client for a fleet and need a control you can put in front of a security review, GitKraken answers that question and this product does not.

What GitAegis offers a team instead is per-endpoint: the capsule, the refusal, the journal of every mutating operation with the exact commands it ran, and a timeline that includes the changes the client did not cause. That is a different kind of answer, and on some review checklists it is the wrong one.

When GitKraken is the right choice

Choose GitKraken if

  • The interactive graph is how you read history. It is the best one, and no argument here changes that.
  • You need Bitbucket, Azure DevOps or Jira in the client.
  • You need pull requests, reviews or CI status in the client at all. GitAegis has no provider integration today, for any host.
  • GitLens in VS Code is part of what you are buying.
  • You work on Windows or Linux. There is no GitAegis build for either.
  • You want SSO, organization plans or a self-hosted deployment.

Choose GitAegis if

  • You have lost work that the reflog couldn’t get back.
  • You want the safety net created before the operation, and the operation refused without it.
  • You want a timeline of ref and index changes the client didn’t cause.
  • You want a client that will never run git gc, git prune or git reflog expire.
  • You are on macOS and want all of that on private repositories at no cost, with no account.

Honest gaps in GitAegis you should weigh

Not a limits panel about recovery: a list of things GitKraken has and this product does not.

No drag-and-drop graph

There is a commit graph, compare, search, file history, blame and bisect. There is no drag-a-branch-onto-another interaction.

No provider integration

No GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Azure DevOps or Jira in the client. Remotes work; pull requests, reviews and CI status do not.

No editor extension

Nothing equivalent to GitLens inside VS Code.

No organisation layer

No SSO, no SCIM, no policy distribution, no audit trail, and no self-hosted control plane.

macOS only

macOS 12 or later, Apple Silicon and Intel. GitKraken ships for Windows and Linux as well.

No bundled Git

GitAegis runs the Git you already have, 2.38.0 or newer, and never downloads one.

Questions people ask about this comparison

Sources

GitKraken facts verified 9 August 2026. Prices are the vendors’ published figures in USD and exclude tax. If something here is out of date or wrong, send the correction to press@gitaegis.com and it will be applied and re-dated.

Free edition · No account required

A recovery capsule before every risky Git operation.

You see the exact commands before they run, and the operation is refused if the capsule cannot be written.

Download GitAegisSee how recovery works →

Requires Git 2.38.0 or newer, already installed.

Every risky operation, in this order

  1. Previewthe exact commands, shown before anything runs
  2. Capsulerefs, index, staged and working changes, untracked files, operation state: written to disk first
  3. Executethe commands as shown, or not at all
  4. Journalplan, commands, capsule id, outcome
No capsule, no operation. Restore plans, previews, and takes its own capsule.