Best Google Code Alternatives for Your Software Projects
Google is shutting down Google Code , its hosting service for open source projects and coding initiatives. If you haven’t migrated your projects to another service yet, now is a good time. Here are some alternatives to help you get started quickly.
Google Code was never the most popular service, but it was good anyway. Originally launched in 2006, thousands of projects have considered it their home. Google Code offered developers a reliable and reliable hosting option for their projects, especially for their open source initiatives.
However, over time, according to Google, many developers have moved from Google Code to other services such as GitHub . As a result, they closed the door to new projects on Google Code last week and will make all projects posted there read-only on August 24, 2015. After that, you can still download, checkout and view the source code. , and look at the documentation, but you won’t be able to change or download anything. Then, on January 25, 2016, the service will be completely disabled and you can download an archive with your projects and data for the rest of the year.
If you have a project hosted on Google Code, now is a good time to go ahead and migrate before you run out of time to do so. Here are some options to check out.
Github
Obviously, GitHub is the giant in this arena and the most popular code repository on the Internet. It’s completely free for regular users. Whether you’re looking for professional features or the ability to build a portfolio of development projects, premium plans are available starting at a few dollars a month. Github has the ability to function as an independent development resource where individual developers create their projects, share with the community, who then all check out their work, customize it, update it, and then contribute their own finished projects back to the community for a large, or as a centralized tool. development in which a business or team manages a specific repository with check-in / check-out functionality, change history, registered changes, issue tracking, etc.
Google GitHub mentioned by name in its announcement on Google Code shutdown, and even has a handy tool exports and management of export, to facilitate the movement of your code. If you’re a budding developer, we have a how-to guide to help you get started and familiarize yourself with the best GitHub features. You can also learn many shortcuts and commands that will save you time in the long run.
CodePlex
CodePlex is an open source hosting site from Microsoft. It also hosts thousands of popular projects, and while many (or perhaps most) are related to the Windows ecosystem, that doesn’t mean your mobile app or cross-platform project is discouraged. Accounts are free and you can create them in any language for any platform of your choice. If you just want to get involved, CodePlex also makes it easy to find projects that might need help, or development teams that have problems to solve with the community, so you can easily find something to work with. on or a project to which you can contribute. Like any good code repository, CodePlex offers features like version control, a built-in Wiki for support and FAQs, issue tracking, project home pages, and more.
BitBucket
BitBucket is another huge code repository with thousands of projects and developers. BitBucket, created by Atlassian (the same company that developed the issue tracking software Jira and the HipChat chat service ), is another option so popular that Google has a migration guide and tool you can use to quickly move your projects without special trouble.
BitBucket accounts are free and you get unlimited private code repositories, so you have enough room to build your projects, fork them, update them, and let them branch out and evolve into other things – unless you plan on sharing them or letting other developers put your hand on them. When you are, the service is free for five users on the same team, and plans will grow from now on. In case you haven’t noticed, BitBucket is usually for people who want to work on their projects as part of a team – enterprises, startups, and other organizations. It’s not exactly an ideal tool for indie developers looking to join the open source community or coders and try to get involved, but it’s great for a small group of people looking to create a new website, web service or mobile app and want to be able to communicate and work together. It also has extensive integration with Jira, so your issue tracking functionality will take care of that in this regard.
Launchpad
Launchpad is Canonical’s ( Ubuntu Development Team) software collaboration platform. Launchpad is home to Unity , Docky, and some of the other popular Linux utilities you’ve probably heard of earlier. Most of the projects hosted on Launchpad are designed and built for the Linux community, but that doesn’t mean your project has to be exclusive to it – although that certainly helps, since Launchpad has built-in tools for folding your code. it is very easy to install on Ubuntu and other Linux systems. The platform supports code reviews, community translations and pull / push requests, issue tracking, and more, all for free and with a particular focus on open source community-created software. Best of all, it is completely free to use.
SourceForge
SourceForge is hard to recommend, but without it, no list of Google Code alternatives would be complete. It fell hard – the site was almost abandoned by its owners and administrative staff for years, run by a group of volunteers and administrators who worked on it out of love – but it ended up being home to the “projects” that were uploaded anyway. malware or worse . Users then discovered that Sourceforge started associating downloads with adware in all of its installers.
Despite this, SourceForge continues to be one of the most popular code repositories on the Internet and offers world-class tools for code management, issue tracking, version control, and collaboration. There are many very popular projects that still refer to the site as home (as you might think from one glance at the first page). Google has a guide on how to migrate to SourceForge, and SourceForge has its own guide and code importer to iron out the jumps.
Others to consider
These may be some of the big players in the arena, but they are definitely the only options if you are looking for an alternative to Google Code or just want an alternative to some of the above options. Here are a few more examples that we think you should try:
- GitLab : If you’re interested in starting your own code repository, GitLab lets you do just that. Licenses are expensive, though, so be prepared to open your wallet for a premium plan or license . They will host your own public and private repos on their servers, albeit for free (like the other web services here) if that’s all you’re looking for. However, they are serious about their claim that they are better than GitHub .
- CodeBase : Codebase is another business service. They have a free account that limits you to one project, but this one project also comes with great code management tools and robust project management tools. It’s designed to hook you up and bring you back to their paid plans for your future developer projects.
- Beanstalk : Simple and elegant Git and Subversion hosting that supports deployment to your own servers or other web environments like AWS, DreamObjects, Rackspace, Heroku, and more. Ideal for web developers and to a lesser extent software developers looking to join the community. Prices are reasonable too.
Losing Google’s code is tiring, but if there is anything you can look forward to from the global developer community, it is options and alternatives, many of which are tailored to a specific set of needs for a particular type of developer. These are some options, but they are not the only ones. Most people will probably just switch from Google Code to GitHub or SourceForge given their popularity, but you also don’t need to feel tied to just those services. There are many options, both free and paid, and there is sure to be one that is perfect for your project.