What is the best Git branch strategy?

Git Flow Branch Strategy

Git flow separates work into five branch types: main, develop, feature, release, and hotfix. It suits products that maintain several versions in production, but its long-lived branches slow down continuous delivery. Learn how Git flow works.

GitHub Flow Branch Strategy

The GitHub flow branching strategy is a relatively simple workflow that allows smaller teams, or web applications/products that don’t require supporting multiple versions, to expedite their work.

In GitHub flow, the main branch contains your production-ready code.

The other branches, feature branches, should contain work on new features and bug fixes and will be merged back into the main branch when the work is finished and properly reviewed.

GitHub Flow Considerations

While working with the GitHub flow branching strategy, there are six principles you should adhere to to ensure you maintain good code.

1. Any code in the main branch should be deployable.
2. Create new descriptively-named branches off the main branch for new work, such as feature/add-new-payment-types.
3. Commit new work to your local branches and regularly push work to the remote.
4. To request feedback or help, or when you think your work is ready to merge into the main branch, open a pull request.
5. After your work or feature has been reviewed and approved, it can be merged into the main branch.
6. Once your work has been merged into the main branch, it should be deployed immediately.

GitHub Flow: Pros & Cons

As with other Git branch strategies, GitHub flow has some highlights and downfalls.

Custom image inspired by the GitHub Flow Guide.

The Benefits of GitHub Flow

1. Of the three Git branch strategies we cover in this post, GitHub flow is the most simple.
2. Because of the simplicity of the workflow, this Git branching strategy allows for Continuous Delivery and Continuous Integration.
3. This Git branch strategy works great for small teams and web applications.

The Challenges of GitHub Flow

1. This Git branch strategy is unable to support multiple versions of code in production at the same time.
2. The lack of dedicated development branches makes GitHub flow more susceptible to bugs in production.

GitLab Flow Branch Strategy

At its core, the GitLab flow branching strategy is a clearly-defined workflow. While similar to the GitHub flow branch strategy, the main differentiator is the addition of environment branches—ie production and pre-production—or release branches, depending on the situation.

Just as in the other two Git branch strategies, GitLab flow has a main branch that contains code that is ready to be deployed. However, this code is not the source of truth for releases.

In GitLab flow, the feature branch contains work for new features and bug fixes which will be merged back into the main branch when they’re finished, reviewed, and approved.

Using GitLab flow in your release cycle

The GitLab flow branching strategy works with two different types of release cycles:

1. Versioned Release: each release has an associated release branch that is based off the main branch. Bug fixes should be merged into the main branch first, before being cherry-picked into the release branch.

Custom image inspired by image in GitLab Flow.

2. Continuous Release: production branches are utilized to contain deployment-ready code, so code is merged into the production branch when it’s ready to be released.

Benefits of GitLab Flow

1. When compared to the Git flow branch strategy, GitLab flow is more simple.
2. GitLab flow is more organized and structured than the GitHub flow branch strategy.
3. After slight modification, GitLab flow can allow for Continuous Delivery and versioned releases.

Challenges of GitLab Flow

1. GitLab flow is not the simplest Git branch strategy.
2. GitLab flow is not the most structured Git branching strategy which can lead to messy collaboration.

So, which is the best Git branching strategy?

• If you deploy several times a day: Trunk-based development or GitHub flow
• If you release on a schedule or support older versions: Git flow
• If you need staging and production environments: GitLab flow

Most teams start with GitHub flow and add structure only when their release process requires it. Whichever you pick, GitKraken Desktop shows your team’s branches in one graph, so everyone can see what’s in progress and what’s ready to merge