Cornerstone vs Versions for Mac OS X [closed]

Question

I've been using svn on the command line for 5+ years, but I'm thinking of switching to GUI. The two kings of Mac subversion apps seem to be Versions and Cornerstone. Most of the reviews/comments I've seen comparing the two are from way back in 2008, when Cornerstone was first released. It's now 2010, and both apps have undergone significant changes.

I've been running trial copies of both apps for the past week, and I still can't make up my mind. Which would you recommend and why?

Answer 1

Cornerstone has been out a few years and version 2 was just released. It is now by far the best value, fastest and feature rich Subversion client for the Mac. The merge features and annotations alone are awesome. I have never seen such a cool take on either of them and the way you can just click a block of text when comparing and have the log message displayed for that block together with all the statistical information you'll ever need in a stunning UI, it's just awesome.

Seriously I can't recommend this tool enough. It is in a different league to Versions.

Answer 2

I've tried both and like Cornerstone better, mainly because it has a far superior file-diff interface.

With Cornerstone, you can double-click on any file in your commit-list and it instantly brings up a diff of your version vs the repository version. This makes it very easy to quickly code-review your changes before checking in.

With Versions, as far as I can tell, you have to hit Ctrl-D, then hit Compare, and then wait a good few seconds before it loads up the diff tool.

Answer 3

After reading this and looking at CornerStone 2.0 and Versions, Corner Stone won on just the simplicity of their file compare.

With versions I have to download or install XCode (or something else). Cornerstone had it built in, and for my tastes the Cornerstones file compare is the best I've seen for a casual user. It's just immediately clear what was added and deleted.

I haven't tried the branch and merge but it seems Cornerstone has made that a big push.

Answer 4

I'd like to add Cornerstone 2 now has branch & merge, which is a real 1-up on Versions. Irritatingly I bought Versions just before that release so I feel a little stung :-(

Answer 5

I purchased Cornerstone several years ago, primarily because I had heard good things about their support. I have contacted support several times, once or twice with bugs and several times to ask questions. They were always very responsive, and I've been happy with my choice.

Cornerstone also has a good educational discount if you're a student.

I do wish that when viewing the history of a folder you could view the changes to individual files within that folder the way you can in Tortoise on Windows.

Answer 6

I like Versions GUI more. Cornerstone has more features, but I don't NEED them, so they tend to get in the way.

Plus Kaleidoscope is an AWESOME text comparison tool and they work beautifully together.

I was hoping that XCode 4 would make both obsolete... maybe one day (sigh).

Answer 7

Cornerstone won. We did a smack down and cornerstone 1.5 was far better both for our experienced team members and our production engineers ( more casual SVNers )

Answer 8

Cornerstone doesn't do svn merges. For me that's a deal killer (merging revisions from a a branch into the trunk? nope).

If all you need to do is commit and browse and checkout, Cornerstone is sexy and awesome, I like the UI better than Versions.

For daily usage -- branching, tagging, merging -- I like SmartSVN best and it's cross platform. UI isn't as sexy.

Answer 9

We just bought 15 licenses of Cornerstone 2 after spending a few days evaluating it against the competing products included Versions. Save to say, Cornerstone 2 is in a different league to everything else. The entire application has been so well conceived it often boggles the mind. From browsing your working copy to awesome merge support, it just does not get any better. It's super fast and easy to use. Worth mentioning are the annotations as well, which make everything else the competition has done look dated and lame. Keep up the amazing work Zennaware.

Answer 10

I tried both cornerstone 2 and versions.

In the end I went with cornerstone 2 as it provided a more intuitive workflow. You can easily add a file, apple + enter to see the diff and then apple + t to commit. I found it easier to see the diff information in cornerstone and it felt more like an apple application if that makes sense.

Answer 11

Another consideration is SVN 1.7 support. Cornerstone has had this feature since mid February, 2012. No official date for when this will be supported in Versions.

--sigh-- I own Versions, but will be purchasing Cornerstone this week because I just can't wait any longer.

Answer 12

Cornerstone has such an excuse for diff that is painful to watch. Can't wait for trial to expire and move on, testing something else.

Answer 13

Try SmartSvn, it has much more features and way more powerful then any of those. I also use svnx, however the UI is awful.

Answer 14

I'm using versions because it suits my needs and I never even heard of cornerstone before i bought it.

If you cannot make up your mind that probably means that both work well enough for you, so go with the cheapes option, or the one with the best support. (i have no idea how the support on either is, never needed any)