Unlike open source software, Microsoft code management software is not free. It’s usually an additional subscription purchased separately from your actual Microsoft license. However, it’s very easy to use and will help you get the most out of your ASP.NET website from a repository control perspective.
Code management isn’t always easy, which is why hundreds of thousands of developers are using code-management software to maximize the productivity and efficiency of their coding activities. From bug tracking and code reviews to release management, code disclosure and much, much more, Microsoft has several products available.
The best Microsoft code management software is available from [company name]. This company has been in business for over 10 years and offers the highest quality products. The team at [company name] provides a wide range of services to clients, including:
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Microsoft code management software is a tool that allows you to manage your code. It makes it easier for you to keep track of the changes being made in your code, and it gives you many other benefits as well.
Using Microsoft code management software allows you to see who changed what, when they changed it, and why they made those changes. You’ll also be able to view a history of all the changes that have ever been made to your code. This will help you with debugging, as well as in making sure that the latest version is actually being used by everyone who needs it.
1) Git
Git is one of the best version control tools that is available in the present market.
Features
- Provides strong support for non-linear development.
- Distributed repository model.
- Compatible with existing systems and protocols like HTTP, FTP, ssh.
- Capable of efficiently handling small to large sized projects.
- Cryptographic authentication of history.
- Pluggable merge strategies.
- Toolkit-based design.
- Periodic explicit object packing.
- Garbage accumulates until collected.
Pros
- Super-fast and efficient performance.
- Cross-platform
- Code changes can be very easily and clearly tracked.
- Easily maintainable and robust.
- Offers an amazing command line utility known as git bash.
- Also offers GIT GUI where you can very quickly re-scan, state change, sign off, commit & push the code quickly with just a few clicks.
Cons
- Complex and bigger history log become difficult to understand.
- Does not support keyword expansion and timestamp preservation.
Open Source: Yes
Cost: Free
Click here for official Website.
#2) CVS
It is yet another most popular revision control system. CVS has been the tool of choice for a long time.
Features
- Client-server repository model.
- Multiple developers might work on the same project parallelly.
- CVS client will keep the working copy of the file up-to-date and requires manual intervention only when an edit conflict occurs
- Keeps a historical snapshot of the project.
- Anonymous read access.
- ‘Update’ command to keep local copies up to date.
- Can uphold different branches of a project.
- Excludes symbolic links to avoid a security risk.
- Uses delta compression technique for efficient storage.
Pros
- Excellent cross-platform support.
- Robust and fully-featured command-line client permits powerful scripting
- Helpful support from vast CVS community
- allows good web browsing of the source code repository
- It’s a very old, well known & understood tool.
- Suits the collaborative nature of the open-source world splendidly.
Cons
- No integrity checking for source code repository.
- Does not support atomic check-outs and commits.
- Poor support for distributed source control.
- Does not support signed revisions and merge tracking.
Open Source: Yes
Cost: Free
Click here for official Website.
#3) SVN
Apache Subversion, abbreviated as SVN aims at to be a best-matched successor to the widely used CVS tool that we just discussed above.
Features
- Client-server repository model. However, SVK permits SVN to have distributed branches.
- Directories are versioned.
- Copying, deleting, moving and renaming operations are also versioned.
- Supports atomic commits.
- Versioned symbolic links.
- Free-form versioned metadata.
- Space efficient binary diff storage.
- Branching is not dependent upon the file size and this is a cheap operation.
- Other features – merge tracking, full MIME support, path-based authorization, file locking, standalone server operation.
Pros
- Has a benefit of good GUI tools like TortoiseSVN.
- Supports empty directories.
- Have better windows support as compared to Git.
- Easy to set up and administer.
- Integrates well with Windows, leading IDE and Agile tools.
Cons
- Does not store the modification time of files.
- Does not deal well with filename normalization.
- Does not support signed revisions.
Open Source – Yes
Cost: Free
Click here for official Website.
#4) Mercurial
Mercurial is a distributed revision-control tool which is written in python and intended for software developers. The operating systems that it supports are Unix-like, Windows and macOS.
Features
- High performance and scalability.
- Advanced branching and merging capabilities.
- Fully distributed collaborative development.
- Decentralized
- Handles both plain text and binary files robustly.
- Possesses an integrated web interface.
Pros
- Fast and powerful
- Easy to learn
- Lightweight and portable.
- Conceptually simple
Cons
- All the add-ons must be written in Python.
- Partial checkouts are not allowed.
- Quite problematic when used with additional extensions..
Open Source: Yes
Cost: Free
Click here for official Website.
#5) Monotone
Monotone, written in C++, is a tool for distributed revision control. The OS that it supports includes Unix, Linux, BSD, Mac OS X, and Windows.
Features
- Provides good support for internationalization and localization.
- Focuses on integrity over performance.
- Intended for distributed operations.
- Employs cryptographic primitives to track file revisions and authentications.
- Can import CVS projects.
- Uses a very efficient and robust custom protocol called netsync.
Pros
- Requires very low maintenance
- Good documentation
- Easy to learn
- Portable design
- Works great with branching and merging
- Stable GUI
Cons
- Performance issues observed for some operations, most visible was an initial pull.
- Can’t commit or checkout from behind the proxy (this is because of a non-HTTP protocol).
Open Source: Yes
Cost: Free
Click here for official Website.
#6) Bazaar
Bazaar is a version control tool that is based on a distributed and client-server repository model. It provides cross-platform OS support and is written in Python 2, Pyrex and C.
Features
- It has commands similar to SVN or CVS.
- It allows you to be working with or without a central server.
- Provides free hosting services through the websites Launchpad and Sourceforge.
- Supports file names from the entire Unicode set.
Pros
- Directories tracking is supported very well in Bazaar (this feature is not there in tools like Git, Mercurial)
- Its plugin system is fairly easy to use.
- High storage efficiency and speed.
Cons
- Does not support partial checkout/clone.
- Does not provide timestamp preservation.
Open Source: Yes
Cost: Free
Click here for official Website.
#7) TFS
TFS, an acronym for team foundation server is a version control product by Microsoft. It is based on client-server, distributed repository model and has a proprietary license. It provides Windows, cross-platform OS support through Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS).
Features
- Provides entire application lifecycle support including source code management, project management, reporting, automated builds, testing, release management and requirement management.
- Empowers DevOps capabilities.
- Can be used as a backend for several IDEs.
- Available in two different forms (on-premises and online (known as VSTS)).
Pros
- Easy administration. Familiar interfaces and tight integration with other Microsoft products.
- Allows continuous integration, the team builds and unit test integration.
- Great support for branching and merging operations.
- Custom check-in policies to aid in implementing a steady & stable codebase in your source control.
Cons
- Frequent merge conflicts.
- Connection to the central repository is always required.
- Quite slow in performing a pull, check-in, and branching operations.
Open Source: No
Cost: Free of cost for up to 5 users in the VSTS or for open source projects via codeplex.com; else paid and licensed through MSDN subscription or direct buy.
The server license can be bought for around $500 and the client licenses are also nearly the same.
Click here for official Website.
#8) VSTS
VSTS (Visual Studio Team Services) is a distributed, client-server repository model based version control tool provided by Microsoft. It follows the Merge or Lock concurrency model and provides cross-platform support.
Features
- Programming Language: C# & C++
- Changeset storage method.
- File and Tree scope of change.
- Network protocols supported: SOAP over HTTP or HTTPS, Ssh.
- VSTS offers elastic build capabilities thru build hosting in Microsoft Azure.
- DevOps enables
Pros
- All the features that are present in TFS are available in VSTS in the cloud.
- Supports almost any programming language.
- Instinctive User Interface
- Upgrades get automatically installed.
- Git access
Cons
- Signed revisions are not allowed.
- The “work” section is not very well optimized for large teams.
Open Source: No, it is a proprietary software. But, free trial version is available.
Cost: Free for up to 5 users. $30/mo for 10 users. Also offers a lot of free and paid extensions.
Click here for official Website.
#9) Perforce Helix Core
Helix Core is a Client-server and distributed revision control tool developed by Perforce Software Inc. It supports Unix-like, Windows and OS X platforms. This tool is mainly for large-scale development environments.
Features:
- Maintains a central database and a master repository for the file versions.
- Supports all file types and sizes.
- File-level asset management.
- Maintains a single source of truth.
- Flexible branching
- DevOps ready
Pros
- Git accessible
- Lightning fast
- Massively scalable
- Easy to track the change list.
- Diff tools make it very easy to identify code changes.
- Works well with the visual studio through the plugin.
Cons
- Managing multiple workspaces is quite difficult.
- Perforce Streams makes managing multiple workspaces quite simple. Users are only seeing data that is relevant, and it adds traceability.
- Rollbacking changes are troublesome if its split across multiple change-lists.
- We do offer the ability to undo a submitted changelist (in P4V) where a user can just right-click a given changelist and perform that action.
Open Source: No, it’s proprietary software. But, a free trial version for 30 days is available.
Cost: Helix Core is now always free for up to 5 users and 20 workspaces.
Click here for official Website.
#10) IBM Rational ClearCase
ClearCase by IBM Rational is a client-server repository model based on software configuration management tool. It supports a lot of Operating systems including AIX, Windows, z/OS (limited client), HP-UX, Linux, Linux on z Systems, Solaris.
Features:
- Supports two models i.e UCM and base ClearCase.
- UCM stands for Unified Change Management and offers an out-of-the-box model.
- Base ClearCase offers basic infrastructure.
- Capable of handling huge binary files, a large number of files, and big repository sizes.
- Allows branching, labeling, and versioning of directories.
Pros
- Simple UI
- Integrates with Visual Studio.
- Handles parallel development.
- ClearCase Views are very convenient as they allow to switch between projects and configurations as opposed to local workstation model of the other version control tools.
Cons
- Slow recursive operations.
- Evil Twin problem – Here, two files with the same name get added to the location instead of versioning the same file.
- No advanced API
Open Source: No, it is a proprietary tool. But, free trial version is available.
Cost: $4600 for each floating license (detained automatically for a 30-minutes minimum for each user, can be surrendered manually)
Click here for official Website.
#11) Revision Control System
Revision Control system (RCS), developed by Thien-Thi Nguyen works on the local repository model and supports Unix-like platforms. RCS is a very old tool and was first released in 1982. It is an early version of VCS(Version Control System).
Features:
- Was originally intended for programs, but, is also helpful for text documents or config files that often get revised.
- RCS can be considered as a set of Unix Commands that permits various users to build and maintain program code or documents.
- Allows revision of documents, committing changes and merging docs together.
- Store revisions in a tree structure.
Pros
- Simple architecture
- Easy to work with
- It has local repository model, so the saving of revisions is independent of the central repository.
Cons
- Less security, version history is editable.
- At a time, only one user can work on the same file.
Open Source: Yes
Cost: Free
Click here for official Website.