What is your opinion of the various online Hosted SVN providers? How do they all compare? I'm looking for thoughts on Assembla, Unfuddle, BeanStalk, CVSDude, ProjectLocker, and any others that I forgot to mention. Thanks for your insight and input.
+22
A:
I've used assembla.com for the past year or so and they've been brilliant. No downtime (that I've noticed), and when it's entirely free, what's not to like?
Update: As of 17th October, Assembla doesn't offer free private hosting. You can still get publicly visible spaces for free, but a private space will cost US$3 per GB per month + US$2 per User per month. This is pretty reasonable IMO.
nickf
2008-09-16 04:30:16
Seconding this. Best host I've ever used.
Cody Brocious
2008-09-16 04:31:38
As of Oct. 17, Assembla is no longer free for private spaces =(
Neil Williams
2008-10-20 01:38:54
I used to use Assembla, I now use xp-dev.com. Highly recommended.
Hooray Im Helping
2009-05-15 19:52:59
Now free private SVN/Git are back, but it's only a repository - Trac or any of their other services requires an upgrade.
Beni Cherniavsky-Paskin
2010-05-27 12:56:11
quick comparison of xp-dev, unfuddle (200 mb free) as of 8/27/10 shows assembla at 2 GB free and quick support works nice.
Gmu
2010-08-27 20:28:13
A:
My only concern about online providers is privacy. I am not saying that the hosting companies will take your code and run away with it (or sell it) but there is always the chance. Perhaps a disgruntled employee?
I am a control freak and runs my own subversion server on a DSL line. But of course, I don't have that many users.
If you're serious about the code you will be hosting I suggest invest on a decent server and put it online somewhere. That's just my opinion.
Ady Romantika
2008-09-16 04:32:23
I disagree with the "if you are serious about your code" mentality, and conditionally argue the opposite. Programmers do not necessarily make good administrators, and if one is "serious about their code", then they are going to ensure that a professionally run SCM tool is in place.
Stu Thompson
2008-09-16 05:48:47
Stu, I agree with you. I was seeing it from the point of System Administration and Privacy. Developers need to be sure that their SCM is professionally managed. VERY careful consideration is needed to make sure that the code is safe. As safe as a bank would do :-)
Ady Romantika
2009-02-19 06:14:33
+2
A:
I have been using Assembla for several months now and overall I am very satisfied. It is very simple to setup and get going with. I am using it on a small remote team and would definately recommend it for this type of environment. We have used the hosted svn, Trac-issue tracking, and wikis without any serious issues.
SaaS Developer
2008-09-16 04:34:26
+5
A:
I've used BeanStalk pretty much since they started. They had a rough moment or two at first, but have recently moved data centers and with that move I have had zero problems with them. They have an excellent UI for web browsing. Could not be happier and the price is great.
Security/privacy is always a concern I guess, but I don't worry about it much. I'm the only developer and just use Beanstalk as a single place to store my code as I work on it.
Joshua Hudson
2008-09-16 04:36:28
+4
A:
I have worked for control freaks who want all the family jewels kept in the house. A related question is: What would it take to persuade the boss to go with a hosted svn instead of in-house? There'd have to be a big advantage. For the case of svn, it's pretty easy to set up, even for a non-pro developer. Even being free (as in beer) won't cut it; the question arises of who pays their electric and internet bill?
Scientists and others with long-term archiving concerns will won't be impressed by a solution that looks good for the next year but no one knows where it'll go later on. How do we know the hosting company won't go belly up in six years?
One situation where hosted svn may make sense, is when a small working group with no permanent location, servers under their control, or cooperative institutional IT support, wants to establish a repository for a project.
Another situation: for students who want to get familiar with working with svn but don't want to monkey with setting it up, and have no long-term intentions with it.
DarenW
2008-09-16 04:48:09
I had to overcome that 'control freak' thinking from our CEO, too. (5-person company, 2 of which are coders) We were able to persuade him that there was a non-trivial efficiency (MONIE$!) to outsourcing tasks that were not in our core competence. SCM, email, network maintenance, etc.
Stu Thompson
2008-09-16 05:53:23
Stu is right. With management it comes down to money. Take into account the cost of maintaining your own server, patching, updating and upgrading not only the SVN server but the underlying hardware and OS. Add to that costs incurred if something very bad happens.
metanaito
2009-02-12 23:25:36
Maintaining your own backups of the Subversion server is the expensive item on my group's list, because doing backups well is Tough, Tedious, and Terribly Important.
Dean J
2009-12-05 18:59:10
+3
A:
+1 for Assembla.
A easy to use out of the box svn with trac and other tools.
Kind Regards
marcospereira
2008-09-16 04:49:16
A:
Is open-source an option? I've used Google code for a few small projects, and I've been very pleased. I also like all the other features that come along in addition to source control. Currently, they're still on Subversion 1.4.
Don Kirkby
2008-09-16 04:52:08
+1
A:
I'm with www.hosted-projects.com (Germany-based), and am pleased. Includes Trac, SSL and optional extra roll-your-own 3rd-party backup.
Stu Thompson
2008-09-16 05:42:04
+5
A:
Regardless of where you host your source control, if your code is valuable, remember to make an offsite, offline backup. Something that won't be lost to fire, theft, earthquake, lightning, or malicious deletion.
Jay Bazuzi
2008-09-16 05:46:36
A:
I've used both OpenSVN and DevjaVu for personal projects. Of the two, I prefer DevjaVu, as OpenSVN is often slow. Otherwise, both are fine.
George V. Reilly
2008-09-16 05:52:11
+2
A:
I am using assembla.com for student projects. Collaboration over assembla is great, though not using each and every feature of assembla.
I'd recommend it without a doubt, unless you need absolute privacy... then a self-hosted (SSL) solution would be my choice.
I use a self hosted SVN for personal projects, which do not need collaboration and 100% stability, because I tend to joyfully wreck my own server ;)
Josti
2008-09-16 06:25:51
+1
A:
We've also been evaluating various hosted SVN providers. I'll add CodeSpaces to the list which has a pretty slick web UI and offers the usual SVN goodness.
One of the issues which has prevented us from yet adopting a single provider is the network latency we are experiencing from some providers.
Macka
2008-09-16 11:39:02
+2
A:
I've used Assembla for a while now and it's great. Once very nice thing is that your repositories are available via http AND https which helps if you are sometimes firewalled.
Travis Laborde
2008-09-16 11:45:30
+1
A:
I've written a post on the topic:
http://www.slavoingilizov.com/blog/2008/01/30/comparison-of-project-hosting-solutions
Only comparing three, but you may find it useful. I think Assembla is actually very good.
Slavo
2008-09-16 11:51:55
+2
A:
I have used Assembla, which is the first free svn hosting site I found that didn't force me to disclose my source code to the public.
stephanea
2008-09-16 13:53:56
+14
A:
We are using unfuddle (the free plan) for about a year: very easy to setup and realiable.
Carlos Gil
2008-09-17 17:15:55
A:
Linode and DIY with your own linux if you run ISV. I use ssh+svn with an Ubuntu server there, stable and fast.
And of course you can just do a lot more there besides hosting SVN :)
goodwill
2008-09-19 17:43:22
+2
A:
+1 for Assembla too! I'm been using it for more than 1 year and it's great! There are new tools and features that are very usefull...
Cheers from Argentina!
pabloide86
2008-10-18 00:53:46
A:
+1 for Assembla, great tools, now with pre-configured spaces: http://www.assembla.com/preconfigured_spaces
A few clicks setup to start a real project, something like IDE project templates.
VitalieL
2008-10-19 08:25:15
+4
A:
We've been using CVSDude (Team-plan for 30 USD/month) for a year os so now. And while they never really screwed up, I also can't recommend them for numerous reasons.
- Their (old) webinterface was pretty slow and limited. You had to email them for every bit. Sometimes it just stopped working. While they moved us to beta, beta is really a beta and progress seems to be rather slow. Unfortunately.
- They are too slow to report system issues. Very often you (as the customer) notice a hickup, you email in and they will reply 8 hours later that the issue has been resolved. They also have a status blog, which is the same - post-mortem reports all over the place but nothing if the issue is going on. (We've had like ten or so incidents with them over the last year).
- Customer support seems to be run by people who don't read email. My boss signed up for the account so his address is on file and gets all the replies from them. Even if you request to be set CC they constantly ignore it. One of the people from CVSDude told us that setting someone CC is possible, but yet they fail to do it every single time. The CC issue is sometimes critical because we all sit in different timezones so by the time my boss gets to his email, it's like six or eight hours later.
- More a minor, but their usernames are "global", so for example if you migrate SVN from somewhere else and you have tom, joe and peter as usernames, you will need to rename those since some other CVSDude customer already has those. (Chances are pretty high at least.)
On the brighter side...
- We've never lost data since we've been with them.
- Once you get ahold of them, they do all kinds of stuff custom for you.
- All the hickups we noticed were mostly DNS/connectivity related from their upstream, never a real failure running the system. So they seem to be knowing their stuff well.
Personally, I just signed up with hosted-projects.com (2 week trial), primarily because they are in my timezone and I can pay them through wire and to evaluate some other options for us. Also, their interface is rather basic but it all works so well. I like that. :)
If wire transfer wouldn't be a concern, I'd recommend unfuddle. Assembla has too many bells and whistles for my taste. :)
Till
2008-10-19 15:04:17
+1
A:
+1 for Assembla, even with the new pricing. Student plans are still free though.
mchean
2008-10-28 00:42:15
+1
A:
+1 for Assembla.
I've been using assembla for the past few months and it works great. You've got your options with them too. If you're a student you can get them to give your class free hosting, or simply place your project on public. Otherwise its cheap and def worth small price.
+1
A:
I like Beanstalk. It's cheap, much faster than it was before, has private repos with SSL, and integrates with Basecamp, Lighthouse, and Twitter.
Jarin Udom
2009-02-13 00:20:04
A:
We've used DreamHost for the last couple of years and would highly recommend it - you get unlimited storage, can create unlimited number of repositories and get full shell access in case if you need to install WebSVN or add some hook scripts to integrate with bug tracking software like FogBugz.
Blend Master
2009-02-16 21:06:50
A:
I've used both Assembla and Unfuddle, and would give Assembla an edge there. Another new possibility, still in 'beta', is http://workspace.activestate.com/.
TheFoot
2009-05-15 19:49:14
A:
We use Unfuddle and it's been flawless. We use both Subversion and GIT repositories. The help it gives you setting up and connecting to the services is great.
I don't have experience of the other services to compare, but I can highly recommend Unfuddle on its own merits, at least.
The fact that it's now using Amazon S3 for backup too feels reassuring (to me, at least).
Phil Nash
2009-05-15 20:02:58
+5
A:
I've been using ProjectLocker for around 6 months now and it has worked very well. I would definitely recommend it.
Eric
2009-05-15 20:07:19
I've signed up there, used for a week or two, very happy, and was about to suggest it to a firm I'm contracting for. But I realized that the maximum user limit of 30 (for $30/month!) would be too limiting after a while. They need an unlimited plan, because the service seems good.
Jerph
2009-10-19 16:01:45
they have updated their plans, but currently max out at 100 users for $100/month
Nathan Koop
2010-09-15 14:41:41
+1
A:
I am also looking for a hosted SVN solution at the moment...
I found this link useful Subversion (SVN) Hosting Comparison:
www dot svnhostingcomparison dot com
Lucifer
2009-05-20 00:38:41
A:
Beanstalkapp is crappy, they have problems with large repos and - the most annoying thing - they have completely unresponsive support.
If my boss wasn't happy about the basecamp integration, I would never use it.
GDR
2009-11-25 12:58:24
+2
A:
I had an awful experience with Asphostcentral.com They were offering hosted TFS2010 services and published following advertisement:
"Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) uses Team Foundation Server (TFS) as the data storage and collaboration backend. TFS provides a source control repository, work item tracking and reporting services. [...] ASPHostCentral.com, as the leading ASP.NET and Windows Hosting Provider, proudly announces the availability of Team Foundation Server 2010 service on all our hosting plans. You can always start from as low as $4.99/month to get this service."
After reading this advertisement I was sure, this service will completely fulfill my need to host my personal blog source code in hosted TFS database. But after purchasing hosting plan to $80 and posting question to company help desk, I was surprised, that TFS "is not remotely accessible"! So it's installed, but there is no way to use it. Maybe I understand the technology wrong, but how can use use TFS it is not remotely accessible?
Their reply was: "Yes. I understand that we provide the TFS but it will not be accessible remotely. Is there any particular activity you like to do beside source controlling? You can always build your own TFS 2010 locally and deploy the working project on our server."
My suggestion, keep away from Asphostcentral.com, I have already read couple negative comments about this "company" but decided to try myself and burned.
Zygimantas
2010-05-12 07:19:46
+1
A:
Check out this great Subversion Hosting Comparison site:
http://subversionhosting.dbur.com/
It has (at time of writing) 62 Subversion Hosting products to compare.
Floyd Price
2010-09-03 14:16:50