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Tower 3.0 — The most powerful Git client for Mac and Windows
Tower gives you access to Git’s powerful feature set.
Tower comes with an extensive set of new features & reinvents existing ones from scratch. From Pull Requests to Interactive Rebase, it enables you to use Git with confidence & takes your productivity to a whole new level - no matter if you are a developer, a designer or a non-technical user.
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Only subscription model I'm in love with is Setapp. Sorry Tower, you're the best Git client, but I don't need another subscription in my life.
@leech I think the Tower team is missing one very important question on their pricing page: can I still use Tower after my subscription ends but won't receive any more updates? Or is this a full blown subscription that will render the app useless once I cancel the payments after one year?
Can someone elaborate on this?
@kovah_kvh See their response below https://www.producthunt.com/post...
In their own words: "We switched to an annual license. However, unlike Sketch, we’re offering Tower as a standard subscription: you’ll have access to Tower as long as your subscription is active. Access to Tower ends when a subscription expires."
Hello Product Hunt!
We started Tower with the goal to make Git’s powerful feature set accessible to developers, designers, and also non-technical people. Today, we’re super excited to announce a new major version of Tower for Mac and Windows. The new release comes with an extensive set of new features and reinvents many existing features from scratch.
To highlight a few:
- Pull Requests for GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket
- Interactive Rebase, a powerful way to rewrite the history of a repository
- Quick Actions, a unique feature that makes using the app much more productive
The new version also introduces a completely new UI concept that makes navigating through your Git repository as easy as browsing the web. In addition, you can look forward to substantial improvements to Tower’s performance and its existing features.
The Mac and Windows version are both native apps and can be used on both platforms with one license.
For a limited time only you can benefit from our special launch pricing and get a 20% discount on the new Tower! If you’ve been part of our beta or own a license of Tower 1 or Tower 2, you will even receive a 50% discount on the new Tower!
We’d love to hear your feedback. Download the free trial and let us know what you think!
@pointnova Am I correct in seeing you've switched the payment model to yearly rather than one-time? Is this similar to the Sketch model where you can keep using it but stop getting updates if you cease paying?
@ryan_roberts1 Hi Ryan, yes, you are correct. We switched to an annual license. However, unlike Sketch, we’re offering Tower as a standard subscription: you’ll have access to Tower as long as your subscription is active. Access to Tower ends when a subscription expires.
Sketch’s model works for them because it’s connected to their own file format; with older Sketch versions, the newer file formats can’t be opened anymore. This (obviously) doesn’t work for us, which is why we decided to go with a standard subscription.
@ryan_roberts1 @pointnova the Agenda cash cow model should offer the benefits that your launch email proclaims, without antogonising your users: https://medium.com/@drewmccormac...
@pointnova i feel disappointed by tower creators.
They never say during the beta period it's going to be a rent-software-model; it was undercover until was too late.
Also, you need to pay for the promise of frequents updates. If they don't deliver, nothing can be done.
Probably they think "i prefer 100 customers at $70, than 500 at $29".
I saw a few tweets from tower saying "try us for 1 year and you will see...". There is promises everywhere, all it's about believe in a company who "betrayed" you 5 minutes ago.
I'm still going to be use the software because is excellent quality, but i wish i will be treated with more respect as an actual customer.
Of course is not about money, if you read my words again, it's about trust and deception, on todays world when everyone is trying to go over you and take advantage, we have another demonstration here (yeah, you can call me liberal, naive or whatever you want).
@martinm5 Hi Martin, I'm sorry you feel this way and thank you for sharing your thoughts! I appreciate your feedback on this!
I had to chime in after reading all the negativity about the new subscription model.
It comes out to $6-8 a month, that is nothing compared to all the time and trouble Tower saves most of us that use git on a daily basis.
On one hand I understand the reluctance to use a product that has many competitors (some free) but on the other, I think this new model will allow the folks at Tower to really focus on making their product the most sophisticated in the market which, from what we've had a taste of so far, is very possible.
As someone who uses Tower 30% of his work day, thank you Tower Team for putting so much thought and effort into the latest update, and keep the new features coming!
@sdrzn I feel the same way. I can't believe that software developers who generally make a decent living from their profession complain about a couple of dollars per month in exchange for a sustainable sophisticated piece of software. I am more than happy to pay this amount for a software that I am using heavily on a daily basis and which saves me so much time and hassle. This is a matter of value, not money. Sure, I would have not said the same thing if they charged $60 a month. I had said goodbye just like I did to Adobe. But paying a fragment of my hourly rate per month for a software I am using intensely is just fair and helps the folks who make it continue to do so. Anyone who disagrees can use something else I guess, but should also think about how they would feel if the software they build themselves is not being rewarded and cannot provide them with a sustainable living. I feel it's absolutely reasonable what they ask and I am happy to support them.
@sdrzn @heyfrankyboy Even though I partly agree with both of you there's something to be said about subscriptions. As many have pointed out already, the problem is not really the subscription nature but rather the combination of multiple factors mainly the price (same as the old license but annually) and the rental nature of the license (once you stop paying the software stops working). The two together are not exactly the best combination.
In addition to that, there's the weirdness of having different plans which, imo, doesn't make any sense for an app like Tower.
Another consideration about money is the following: @heyfrankyboy you rightly said that it's unreasonable for software developer to complain about the price when they make a decent living. And you're right. But not all developers live and work in places where that decent living means > 5 or 10k a month. For some people a decent living is 1k in their country. Plus, since this subscription thing is a trend you can find yourself having to pay for a bunch of subscriptions at once.
I, for example, already pay subscriptions for web fonts, storage, hosting, design tools, email and music. Those 5, 10 or 15$ adds up quickly.
So yeah, you both have a fair point but the world is a weird place.
✌️
@manuelmoreale I guess pricing inequality in a globalized world is a whole other issue, that not only applies to software, but hardware, etc.
So what about your web fonts, storage, hosting, music and design tools? Will they continue to work when you stop paying?
@heyfrankyboy Agree, a completely separate issue but always good to keep it in mind when we see people complaining about pricing online.
As for the rest of services, most of them have free plans I can fallback to, some will stop working altogether, some will keep working and that's fine. I knew it going in so it wasn't a surprise. Most of them didn't switch from one business model to the other. Except for Sketch but they have a better subscription model imo.
Anyway, thankfully there are plenty of other options. I own a license of Tower 2 and I personally won't get a subscription for Tower 3 but that's just me 😊
What took me minutes in the command line now takes seconds with Tower and that's why I'm never looking back.
Pros:easy to setup, get shit done, great UI
Cons:could interface with GitHub more
I’m just upset about the new icon more than anything else 😕.
The old one (https://dribbble.com/shots/29308...) was amazing. The new one’s kinda meh.
@neilsardesai Yes. That was my first and only complaint. It looked so good next to Transmit, Kaleidoscope and other good mac apps. I'm really hoping the will bring it back.
I've used Tower for years, and have been using the beta for a while, and love it! Tower 3 is definitely the best git client I've used. Great work, team :)
However... I'm really in two minds about the way you've chosen to implement the new pricing model. On the one hand, I'm a proponent of subscription pricing. It keeps the company in business and gives a more consistent and dependable revenue stream, all of which are positive things. On the other hand, the pricing for this seems really high -- it's close to what the perpetual license used to cost, but now on a yearly basis (it used to be $79, while the new Basic yearly license is $69).
I'm happy to pay for a product I use and enjoy, either once or in perpetuity, but I don't think you can have it both ways... either you significantly reduce the cost but charge yearly, or you keep the cost high and charge it once. I feel like Adobe understood this really well -- their products used to be too expensive to buy for many people, and they introduced a subscription model that isn't exactly cheap but is definitely within the realm of reason, which allowed people to actually afford their products.
I have to think about whether I'd be willing to basically buy Tower again every year.
@lagvin well said. I’m not incentivized to upgrade w/ this new pricing. Might as well stick with Tower 2. “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.”
Edit: what follows is incorrect, see next replies.
@lagvin This is compounded by the fact that the new license is 1 seat 1 user, you have to pay 1 license per seat, that translates to 3 seats on the basic license just for myself, which makes 210€ per year on a non-perpetual license.
I like to setup complex dev envs on VMs so I don't have to reinvent the wheel on every machine I use, which won't work at all with seat based licensing.
It's the price of a full blown IDE subscription with user based licensing and perpetual ownership on cancellation. It's great software, very useful, but not that useful.
@lagvin @pointnova I confirmed this just now, the account manager does mention that all seats are in use after an activation which I associated with a device-locked license but each user in the list has a device count and a search of the license terms does say the license is user-based and seats aren't mentioned. It was my mistake.
The fact that there is no fallback version when the subscription ends is still a huge handicap in my opinion.
Tower continues to be my goto GUI tool for GIT on both Mac and Windows. I have yet to have any issues that cause me reason to change, I do still use the terminal as well but that's not because Tower fails to deliver.
Pros:Easy to use, Cross-Platform
Cons:None at this time
I'm a long time Tower user, and although I think it is still the best git client around I am very disappointed with this update. To me it doesn't seem like an upgrade when compared to Tower 2. The basic plan doesn't even have support for Github Enterprise which is a must for me and the pro plan is not worth the money for me as a freelance developer. Not to mention the new icon just doesn't look nearly as good as the old one. I'll be sticking with Tower 2 for now.
I switched to Tower about a year ago after experiencing CPU issues caused by my previous Git tool. I was a bit reluctant due to the pricing but it's been worth the money for my personal use. Great job!
Pros:- Fast - Reliable - Clean and simple UX
Cons:- Some actions are a bit confusing (merging, checking out remote branches)
I've been using tower for a long time, and Tower 3.0 is a great release.
One of the things I love about it is that it helped me to understand the underlying concepts of git and what it can do rather than hiding it. It manages to to this while simultaneously simplifying the UI and streamlining my workflows.
Pros:Easy, intuitive UI that makes git clearer, rather than hiding it
Cons:I'm still getting used to yearly pricing models
Git Tower User since Version 2. Now you have to pay every year and will loose all if you cancel the billing plan. Crazy!
Pros:Beloved git client.
Cons:Awful licensing model. Only for rent.
I loved this tool since day one. It is great. It mixes the semplicity of a nice Mac Gui with the power of its git capabilities. But since version 3 the developers switched to a annual subscription model with the same price at which they once sold the major version license. This is unacceptable and even if I'm willing to update, will stick to version 2 or switch to another product when it's not available anymore. Source tree as an example is free and it's a pretty valid alternative since it has way more features even if it's a bit less "cool".
Pros:As of now, one of the greates tools for git
Cons:Subscription price way exagerated and missing perpetual license.
I bought Tower2, but i'm sure as hell won't be purchasing a subscription for this version. I'd rather use the command line or just install other great git clients like GitKraken, Sourcetree or Sublime Merge. Stay away of subscriptions everyone...you're paying monthly for software that you don't get to own.
Tower is my indispensable companion when writing software. I love how you can seamlessly select the lines you want to stage, review your teammates' pull requests, and drag and drop a branch into another to merge your newly developed feature.
Pros:The easiest and most effective way to share, review and manage your code, both for individuals and teams.
Cons:None.
I'm a long time user of Tower, but I will NOT be paying the "annual license", especially since Tower 3 will completely stop working after your year is up unless you re-pay!
In my opinion, Git does not change THAT much to be worthy of a subscription model. I bought the original Tower in 2012, and upgraded to Tower 2 a little over two years later in 2014. I would've jumped on buying Tower 3 if it had a perpetual license. But a Git client is not a $70-per-year product.
There are plenty of other Mac Git clients out there... and I can always continue to use tried-and-true Tower 2, which has a much more sane perpetual license and still works fine after all these years (plus a better icon! :-) For now, I'm checking out https://www.producthunt.com/post...
I initially just saw the pro pricing which is way too much but to be honest the basic pricing is better but still high for what it is. I use several other feature rich subscription based apps that save me tons of time and none of them are that expensive. I would suggest a mild decrease in price OR some price incentive to retain customers for multi year periods like WebStorm/JetBrains. I'd pay a high "onboarding price" if I knew the retaining price would be reasonable after a few years.
The pull request feature has some benefits but I find I still have to go to Bitbucket to finish the process most of the time. The navigation feature is a painful UI implementation to handle the new features. Wish there was something less tedious to maneuver around the app. I think there is lots of potential here though. Everything else in Tower is top notch.
Looks like I'll recommend that my team get basic upgrade licenses for now until next year. Here's hoping the pricing model changes before then. Also, I'm hoping the team version becomes a bit more reasonable over the next year.
@joshua_dyck Not personally a fan of the new pricing but just want to point out that this -> "The entire Adobe suite is the same price as the basic plan!" is not actually true unless I'm missing something. Tower 3 starts at 59€ + VAT, per user, per year while the Adobe CC is 60€ (vat included) per month.
Still, 60+ euro each year to rent an app is unreasonable to me.
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