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GitDesktop vs Tower
GitDesktop is a free, open-source Tower alternative: the same daily Git craft, plus the parts Tower leaves to the browser. Pull-request review with approval, CI, and issues stay in one window across GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket (on Bitbucket, issues go through a linked Jira project), with releases on GitHub and GitLab. It ships from one codebase to Windows, macOS, and Linux, costs nothing, and runs AI on your own keys or local CLI agents, or not at all.
Verified against Tower for Mac 17.3 (dated September 17, 2026) and Tower for Windows 14.0 (dated September 15, 2026), plus Tower's help center, release notes, and pricing pages, on September 30, 2026. Something stale? Open an issue.
Where Tower still wins
- Undo, everywhere. ⌘Z on a Mac, Ctrl+Z on Windows, across commits, merges, rebases, branch operations, and stashes. GitDesktop journals risky operations, restores dropped stashes, and undoes the last unpushed commit; it has no one-keystroke undo for every operation.
- Local stacked branches. Tower Pro's Stacked Branches track parent-child branch relationships on Mac and Windows (the Mac app keeps them in Git config). GitDesktop stacks pull requests on the forge instead; local chains are yours to rebase.
- Hosting-service breadth. Azure DevOps (its Server variant on Tower Pro), Beanstalk, Perforce GitSwarm, and Gitea on Windows, alongside the big three. GitDesktop stops at GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket Cloud, with Jira Cloud for issues.
- Years of polish on the Git craft. The drag-and-drop interactive rebase and the conflict wizard are the product's spine, and user reviews consistently credit Tower with making complex operations approachable.
- Free for students, educators, and non-profits. With an academic or non-profit affiliation, the subscription drops to zero. GitDesktop is free for everyone either way.
Feature by feature
Both clients cover the fundamentals: clone, stage by file, hunk, or line, commit, branch, stash, sync, resolve conflicts, rebase interactively, manage worktrees and submodules. The table keeps to where they diverge, in both directions.
| Capability | Tower | GitDesktop |
|---|---|---|
| Where you can use it | ||
| Free to use | No — subscription tiers from $69 to $149 per user per year; free for students, educators & non-profits | Yes — free & open source (Apache-2.0); there is no paid plan |
| Works after the subscription ends | No — its pricing page: access ends with the last paid period | Yes — nothing to license or renew |
| Linux | No — macOS & Windows only | Yes — Windows, macOS & Linux |
| Same features on every platform | No — separate apps on separate tracks — Mac sits at v17, Windows at v14; several features differ by platform, such as AI commit messages (Mac only) and Gitea (Windows only) | Yes — one codebase, one release cycle across all three platforms |
| Hosting services | Yes — GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Azure DevOps, Beanstalk & Perforce GitSwarm, plus Gitea on Windows | Yes — GitHub (+ Enterprise), GitLab (+ self-managed) & Bitbucket Cloud — Bitbucket issues via linked Jira |
| Pull requests | ||
| Approve or request changes in-app | No — its PR actions are comment, merge, close & inspect (Mac adds check out) | Yes — on all three forges; thread resolution on GitHub & GitLab |
| Line-anchored review comments | No — one flat conversation per pull request | Yes — single lines or dragged ranges (ranges on GitHub & GitLab); drafts batch and survive a restart |
| Apply a reviewer's suggestion locally | No | Yes — straight to your working tree |
| Create, comment & merge in-app | Yes — on GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket & Azure DevOps (Azure DevOps comments read-only) | Yes — merge & squash on all three; rebase (GitHub), fast-forward (Bitbucket) |
| Stacked branches, locally | Yes — Tower Pro, Mac & Windows; the Mac app stores parent-child links in Git config | No — local chains are rebased by hand; stacks live on the forge instead |
| Stacked PRs on the forge | Partial — through the Graphite integration — Pro tier, plus a Graphite account & CLI, built on GitHub | Yes — native: create, extend & dissolve stacks (GitHub); MR chains detected (GitLab) |
| Local PRs with no remote at all | No | Yes — review & merge offline, promote to GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket later |
| CI, releases & findings | ||
| See & control CI runs | No — no documented CI view or controls | Yes — runs, jobs & logs; re-run, cancel & dispatch (GitHub, GitLab & Bitbucket) |
| Debug a failed CI run with AI | No | Yes — the failing step's log, explained in-app |
| Publish releases | No | Yes — create, edit & upload assets (GitHub & GitLab) |
| Security findings in-app | No — a pre-commit secret-scan hook in its hooks library; no forge findings surface | Yes — Dependabot alerts, advisories, code & secret scanning (GitHub); SAST, secrets & code quality (GitLab); Code Insights reports (Bitbucket) |
| Issues & trackers | ||
| Work with issues in-app | No — issue numbers in commit messages become links out to your tracker | Yes — GitHub & GitLab issues (sub-issues & dependencies on GitHub, related issues on GitLab), GitHub Projects boards, plus private local issues |
| Jira | No — referenced keys link out | Yes — browse, create, comment, transition & log work on a linked Jira Cloud project |
| GitHub Discussions | No | Yes — create, comment, react, mark answers, close & lock |
| Your PRs & issues across repositories | No — PRs listed per repository, one remote at a time | Yes — a My work inbox: GitHub & GitLab PRs & issues account-wide, Bitbucket PRs from recent repos |
| History & safety | ||
| Undo the last operation with one keystroke | Yes — ⌘Z / Ctrl+Z across commits, merges, rebases, branch operations & stashes | Partial — the last unpushed commit, ⌘Z / Ctrl+Z in the History tab; riskier operations are journaled for recovery, not one-key undone |
| AI — one feature or the whole loop | ||
| AI commit messages | Partial — Mac only, via a locally installed Claude Code or Codex CLI, with prompt presets | Yes — every platform — your own API keys, local Ollama, or keyless Claude Code, Codex, Copilot & opencode CLIs |
| AI past the commit message | No | Yes — PR & issue descriptions, conflict help & CI debugging |
| AI code review & security audit | No | Yes — agentic & read-only; postable as a PR comment |
| Delegate whole tasks to coding agents | No | Yes — Claude Code, Codex, Copilot & opencode in parallel worktrees; optional container sandbox |
| Use it from an AI assistant (MCP) | No | Yes — GitDesktop doubles as an MCP server — read-only by default |
Every Tower cell was checked against Tower's own release notes, help center, and pricing pages on the date above, per platform. Rows where both clients are simply fine were left out on purpose. Also compared: GitDesktop vs GitHub Desktop, GitDesktop vs Sourcetree, and GitDesktop vs GitKraken — or see all comparisons.
Create, comment, merge, close, inspect — and that's the list
That list is Tower's own feature-page copy; its per-platform help pages document commenting, merging, closing, and inspecting (check out joins them on the Mac app), with comments forming one conversation on the whole PR. Approval, request-changes, and line-anchored review comments aren't among them; a review still means the browser. In GitDesktop the whole review lives next to your staging and history: comments on exact lines or dragged ranges (ranges on GitHub and GitLab), suggestions applied to your working tree, approve or request changes, and the merge, on GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket.
Common questions
Is GitDesktop a free Tower alternative?
For the daily Git loop and the forge loop, yes. GitDesktop is free and open source (Apache-2.0), runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux, and keeps pull-request review, CI, and issues in the app across GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket (on Bitbucket, issues go through a linked Jira project), with releases on GitHub and GitLab. It does not have Tower's one-keystroke undo for every operation, its local stacked branches, or its Azure DevOps and Beanstalk support — the sections above count both directions.
Can Tower approve pull requests?
No. Tower's help pages for both platforms document the pull-request actions as adding a comment, merging, closing, and inspecting (the Mac app adds check out), and comments form a single conversation on the whole PR. There is no approve or request-changes action and no line-anchored commenting. GitDesktop submits real reviews on GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket: line-anchored threads, suggestions applied locally, and a verdict.
Does Tower run on Linux?
No. Tower ships for macOS and Windows only, and one subscription covers both. GitDesktop ships the same free app on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Is Tower the same app on Windows and on a Mac?
They are separate products on separate release tracks: as of the date above, Tower for Mac is at version 17.3 while Tower for Windows is at 14.0. AI commit messages (Tower 16) exist only in the Mac app, and Gitea support only in the Windows app. GitDesktop ships from one codebase, so releases land on Windows, macOS, and Linux at once.
Try the whole loop.
Free, open source, and nothing to sign up for. Keep Tower installed; GitDesktop needs no migration, no account, and no seat.