Fork
Fast and friendly git client for Mac
Quick Take: Fork
Fork is the best Git client for Mac developers who want speed without giving up power. The native performance is noticeably faster than Electron alternatives. The interactive rebase is the best implementation in any Git GUI — it turns commit history cleanup from a dreaded task into a quick, visual operation. The three-pane merge conflict resolver, image diff modes, and custom actions round out a tool that handles everything from simple commits to complex repository management. The one-time $59.99 price is fair for a tool you'll use every working day. The main gaps: no in-app pull request reviews and no Linux support. For everything else, Fork is hard to beat.
Best For
- •Developers who want the fastest Git GUI on macOS
- •Anyone who does interactive rebase and wants it to be visual and safe
- •Teams working with Git LFS and binary assets
- •Developers who prefer a one-time purchase over subscriptions
What is Fork?
Fork is a native Git client for macOS built by Dan and Tanya Pristupov. It gives you a visual interface for Git operations — commits, branches, merges, rebases, conflict resolution — without the weight of Electron-based alternatives. Fork is written in Swift and Objective-C, launches instantly, and stays responsive on repositories with 100,000+ commits. The feature that defines Fork is its visual interactive rebase. Where `git rebase -i` opens a text file in vim and asks you to rearrange lines of commit hashes, Fork shows your commits as a visual timeline. Drag to reorder. Drop one commit onto another to squash. Right-click to edit a message. The result is previewed before you apply it. Interactive rebase goes from 'that scary thing I avoid' to 'something I do every day before pushing.' This single feature is why many developers switched to Fork and stayed. Fork's merge conflict resolver shows three panes: theirs, yours, and the combined result. Non-conflicting sections are pre-resolved, so you only need to decide on the actual conflicts. The diff view handles large changesets without lag, and the blame view shows line-by-line authorship with navigation to the original commit. For repositories with Git LFS (large binary assets), Fork supports locking and unlocking files and provides image diff modes (side-by-side, swipe, and onion skin). The Repository Manager organizes your projects into folders. Open multiple repos in tabs. Custom Actions let you add shell commands to the toolbar — run your test suite, lint, or deploy script without switching to a terminal. Fork reads your .gitconfig, supports SSH keys with passphrases, GPG commit signing, and integrates with GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, and Azure DevOps for authentication. Pricing: $59.99, one-time, per-user license. Use it on up to 3 machines. There's an unlimited evaluation period with full functionality (with occasional purchase prompts). No subscription. The honest take: Fork is the fastest Git GUI on Mac. The interactive rebase is genuinely better than any competitor's implementation. It doesn't have GitKraken's team dashboards or Tower's enterprise features, but for individual developers who want speed and power, Fork is the best $60 you'll spend on a dev tool.
Install with Homebrew
brew install --cask forkDeep Dive: Why Fork's Interactive Rebase Changes How You Use Git
How a visual rebase interface makes clean commit history practical instead of aspirational.
History & Background
Fork started as a side project by Dan Pristupov around 2017, released as a free beta. It gained a following among developers who wanted a fast, native Git client without the overhead of Electron. The paid 1.0 release in 2019 was widely supported by the community. Dan and Tanya now work on Fork full-time, with consistent development and regular feature updates. The interactive rebase was always a core differentiator — it's what most users cite as the reason they switched from other clients.
How It Works
Fork wraps the standard Git binary rather than reimplementing Git internals. This means every Git feature and configuration option works. The UI is native Cocoa/AppKit, using GPU-accelerated rendering for diffs and commit graphs. This architecture gives Fork the speed of the command line for operations plus visual clarity for complex tasks like rebase and merge resolution. Memory usage stays at 100-200 MB because there's no Chromium engine or JVM involved.
Ecosystem & Integrations
Fork integrates with the standard developer toolchain: .gitconfig for settings, macOS Keychain for credentials, SSH agent for key management, GPG for commit signing. Custom Actions extend Fork with arbitrary shell commands. It works with all major Git hosting platforms. The community shares custom themes and actions through Discord and GitHub, though there's no formal plugin marketplace.
Future Development
Fork's development focuses on macOS compatibility, performance optimization, and incremental feature additions. The team has hinted at deeper pull request integration (create and review PRs without opening a browser), which would address one of Fork's main gaps. Given the team's track record of quality over quantity, features ship polished.
Key Features
Visual Interactive Rebase
Fork's interactive rebase transforms `git rebase -i` from a text-editing exercise into a drag-and-drop interface. See your commits as a list. Drag to reorder. Drop one onto another to squash. Click to edit a message. Click to mark a commit for dropping. Fork previews the resulting history before applying, and if conflicts arise during the rebase, it pauses and opens the conflict resolver. This makes commit history cleanup safe and fast enough to do before every push.
Native macOS Performance
Fork is built with Swift/Objective-C and uses macOS native frameworks. It launches in under a second, renders diffs for hundreds of files instantly, and scrolls through massive commit histories at 120Hz on ProMotion displays. Memory usage is typically 100-200 MB vs. GitKraken's 500+ MB. On Apple Silicon, Fork is noticeably faster than any Electron-based Git client.
Three-Pane Merge Conflict Resolver
When conflicts occur during merge or rebase, Fork shows three panes: the incoming changes, your changes, and the merged result. Non-conflicting sections are automatically resolved. You focus only on the actual conflicts. Click to accept one side or manually edit the result. The resolver handles complex conflicts (both sides modified the same lines) clearly, showing exactly what changed where.
Git LFS and Image Diffs
Fork supports Git LFS natively: lock files before editing, unlock when done, track LFS-managed files in the sidebar. For image changes, Fork provides side-by-side comparison, swipe mode (drag a line across the image to compare), and onion skin mode (overlay with opacity control). This is valuable for teams working with design assets, game textures, or any binary files tracked in Git.
Repository Manager and Workspaces
The Repository Manager lets you organize repos into folders and groups. Open multiple repos in tabs. The Workspaces feature saves sets of related repos (backend + frontend + shared library) that you can open together. For developers working on microservices or multi-repo architectures, this reduces the friction of switching context between projects.
Custom Actions
Add shell commands to Fork's toolbar. Right-click a branch or commit to run scripts like `npm run lint`, `make test`, or `./deploy.sh`. Custom Actions turn Fork into a lightweight launch pad for your development workflow — you can run your CI checks locally before pushing without switching to a terminal window.
Blame View and Search
Blame view shows line-by-line authorship with the ability to navigate to the original commit for each line. Search works across commit messages, authors, and file content within diffs. Both features are fast even on large repositories because Fork uses the native Git binary for data and GPU-accelerated rendering for display.
Who Should Use Fork?
1The Senior Developer Cleaning Up History
Before pushing a feature branch, a developer uses Fork's interactive rebase to squash 12 'WIP' commits into 3 meaningful ones. They reorder commits so related changes are grouped, edit the commit messages to follow conventional commit format, and drop a commit that was just a debugging experiment. The whole process takes 2 minutes in Fork vs. the anxiety-inducing text editor workflow of `git rebase -i`.
2The Developer Resolving Merge Conflicts
After pulling main into a feature branch, 5 files have conflicts. Fork's three-pane resolver shows each conflict file with clear visual markers. The developer resolves each conflict by choosing the correct side or editing the result directly. Non-conflicting changes are pre-merged. After resolving all 5 files, they commit the merge and continue working. The whole resolution takes 5 minutes instead of the confusion of command-line merge markers.
3The Open Source Maintainer
A maintainer receives multiple pull requests per week. They use Fork to checkout each PR branch locally, review the diffs visually, and cherry-pick specific commits to apply. Fork's graph view shows how PRs relate to the main branch. Custom Actions run the test suite directly from the toolbar. The maintainer keeps the project history clean with interactive rebase before merging.
How to Install Fork on Mac
Fork installs via Homebrew or direct download from git-fork.com.
Install via Homebrew
Run: brew install --cask fork. This installs Fork to your Applications folder.
Install CLI Tools
Launch Fork, then go to Fork > Install Command Line Tools. This lets you open Fork from the terminal with `fork .` inside any directory.
Configure Your Identity
Fork reads your global .gitconfig. If you need different identities for work vs personal repos, set per-repo user.name and user.email in Fork's repository settings.
Pro Tips
- • Grant Fork 'Full Disk Access' in System Settings if you work with repos in protected directories.
- • The evaluation version is fully functional with no time limit. Buy a license ($59.99) when you're ready to support development.
- • Enable 'Fetch All Remotes' in Preferences to automatically pull updates on a schedule.
- • Set up SSH key authentication in your macOS Keychain — Fork uses it automatically.
Configuration Tips
Set Up Custom Actions for Your Workflow
Go to Preferences > Custom Commands. Add your most common terminal commands: `npm test`, `make build`, `docker-compose up`. These appear in Fork's toolbar and right-click menus, so you can run them without leaving the app.
Configure Fetch Schedule
In Preferences > Git, enable automatic fetch on a schedule (every 5-10 minutes). This keeps your repository graph current, so you always see the latest changes from teammates without manual fetches.
Use Stashes as Named Contexts
Fork's stash list shows full diffs for each stash. Use stashes as named work-in-progress snapshots: stash your current work before switching branches, give it a descriptive name, and pop it when you return. Multiple simultaneous stashes are easy to manage because Fork shows you exactly what's in each one.
Set Up GPG Commit Signing
If your team requires signed commits, configure your GPG key in Fork's preferences. Fork will sign every commit and tag automatically. The commit log shows verified/unverified badges for signed commits.
Alternatives to Fork
Fork competes with other Git GUIs that make different tradeoffs between features, price, and platform.
GitHub Desktop
GitHub Desktop is free and simple — great for beginners and basic Git operations. It doesn't have interactive rebase, merge conflict resolution is basic, and it's Electron-based (slower). Fork is significantly more capable for anything beyond simple commit-push workflows. If you're comfortable with basic Git and want to level up, Fork is the natural next step from GitHub Desktop.
GitKraken
GitKraken has better team features: Jira integration, Trello boards, team dashboards. It's Electron-based, uses more memory, and requires a subscription ($4.95+/month). Fork is faster, cheaper (one-time $59.99), and has a better interactive rebase. If your priority is team visualization and project management integration, GitKraken is better. For individual developer speed, Fork wins.
Sublime Merge
Sublime Merge ($99) is Fork's closest competitor in speed and philosophy. It's keyboard-centric where Fork is more mouse/drag-and-drop friendly. Sublime Merge has better text-based search and filtering. Fork has a better interactive rebase and image diff. Both are native and fast. Choose based on whether you prefer keyboard-driven or visual interaction.
Pricing
$59.99 per user, lifetime license. Includes all future updates. Use on up to 3 machines (Mac or Windows). Unlimited free evaluation with full functionality and occasional purchase prompts. No subscription, no tiers, no feature gating.
Pros
- ✓Fastest Git GUI on macOS — native Swift, instant launch, 120Hz rendering
- ✓Best interactive rebase implementation of any Git client
- ✓Three-pane merge conflict resolver with automatic non-conflict resolution
- ✓One-time $59.99 purchase — no subscription
- ✓Git LFS support with image diff modes (side-by-side, swipe, onion skin)
- ✓Custom Actions for running scripts directly from the toolbar
- ✓Repository Manager with tab-based multi-repo navigation
- ✓Generous evaluation period with full functionality
Cons
- ✗No built-in pull request creation or review — you need a browser for that
- ✗Focused two-person team delivering regular updates
- ✗Closed-source — can't audit or modify the code
- ✗No Linux version — macOS and Windows only
- ✗No plugin/extension marketplace like GitKraken or VS Code
- ✗Paid license required for professional use (though evaluation is unlimited)
Community & Support
Fork's community is small but passionate. Dan Pristupov responds to GitHub issues personally, often within hours. There's no 24/7 support team, but the response quality is high. The Fork Discord server is active with power users sharing themes, custom actions, and workflow tips. Reddit's r/git and r/macapps frequently recommend Fork. Documentation at git-fork.com is concise and covers the essentials with screenshots. Most users learn through the interface itself — Fork is designed so that advanced features (interactive rebase, cherry-pick, stash management) are discoverable through the UI without reading documentation.
Frequently Asked Questions about Fork
Our Verdict
Fork is the best Git client for Mac developers who want speed without giving up power. The native performance is noticeably faster than Electron alternatives. The interactive rebase is the best implementation in any Git GUI — it turns commit history cleanup from a dreaded task into a quick, visual operation. The three-pane merge conflict resolver, image diff modes, and custom actions round out a tool that handles everything from simple commits to complex repository management. The one-time $59.99 price is fair for a tool you'll use every working day. The main gaps: no in-app pull request reviews and no Linux support. For everything else, Fork is hard to beat.
About the Author
Related Technologies & Concepts
Related Topics
Git Clients for macOS
Visual Git clients for managing repositories on Mac.
Native macOS Developer Tools
Development tools built natively for macOS performance.
Sources & References
Fact-CheckedLast verified: May 6, 2026
Key Verified Facts
- Fork is created by Dan and Tanya Pristupov and costs $59.99 one-time.[cite-4]
- 1Fork - a fast and friendly git client for Mac and Windows
Accessed May 6, 2026
Research queries: Fork Git client Mac 2026 review interactive rebase