Free hosted source control? | The Coffeehouse

Yggdrasil
Pour me a cab, 'cause I can't drink no more.

A couple of months ago I left my job in order to finish my degree, and have since walked the fine line between "freelance consultant" and "unemployed bum", much to my enjoyment. One thing this means is that I code at home, on my personal laptop, projects that are a bit more serious than just hobby-projects. This means I want a slightly more serious source control system other than "occasionally copy the code to an external drive".

Since this isn't big business (yet?) I'm looking for a company that offers hosted source control (SVN? TFS? I don't care), hopefully a free plan that could later be upgraded to a paid plan if I need more storage/features/etc.

Are there any recommendations for such a service? I found DevjaVu, which seems OK, but which requires an invite code for the free plan. Also SpringLoops, who seem ok but have a "only 3 active projects" policy which bothers me.

Anyone have any experience with this?

TommyCarlier
I want my scalps!

Why not use regular source control (SVN, …) locally, but where the repository is stored on an external drive? That way, you have serious source control but without it having to be hosted. Of course it's also a good idea to regularly back up the repository to a different machine (preferably on a remote location, in case your house burns down, or there's an earthquake).

Yggdrasil
Pour me a cab, 'cause I can't drink no more.

In reply to TommyCarlier

#Apr 20th @ 5:33 AM

That's exactly the hassle I want to avoid - having to carry the external drive with me (I usually work on my laptop at cafes and all around), having to back it up to a secondary backup, having it available everywhere... exactly the pluses that cloud hosting gives me.

TommyCarlier
I want my scalps!

In reply to Yggdrasil

#Apr 20th @ 5:47 AM

If you don't mind making your code open-source, you could use Codeplex. Of course, I understand that that's not always desireable.

Yggdrasil
Pour me a cab, 'cause I can't drink no more.

In reply to TommyCarlier

#Apr 20th @ 5:51 AM

Not an option, unfortunately. Right now I'm working on code for a client, so it's not really my choice to make.

W3bbo
The Master of Baiters

In reply to Yggdrasil

#Apr 20th @ 7:15 AM

I'm about to provide hosted SVN for a friend of mine, wanna piggy pack on it?

wkempf

I don't know about free hosting. If you already have a web site, any of the DVCS options (git, bzr, or hg for instance) would be trivial to piggy back of the site, since there's no central "server" component needed. This would be especially enticing to me, given your description of being "on the road" with a laptop a lot. Being able to continue using your source control while being disconnected is very liberating.

rhm

In reply to Yggdrasil

#Apr 20th @ 5:47 AM

I don't know about you, but I find my pen drive a lot more accessible from whereever I am than some random server in 'the cloud'. Often, infinitely so, like when I don't have net access. DVCSs work ok when disconnected, but traditional stuff like SVN is hopeless unless you're just using the source control system as a glorified backup program rather than a real version control system.

Talking of which, Github has a paid option for non-open-sourcers if you want to use git (which you should in this scenario, unless you're considering Hg instead).

Ray7

You could try Google if you trust them not to accidentally dish out your code to the world and its aunt.

Dodo
I'm your creativity creator™ :)

In reply to Yggdrasil

#Apr 20th @ 5:47 AM

How about getting a hostname and setting up a little server at home.

Bass
www.spreadfirefox.com/5years/

I don't think it's likely you will find a free AND private source control host. There are many free source control hosts like Sourceforge, Github, Launchpad, Google Code, Codeplex, Macforge, BerliOS, NonGNU, and more, but all require your code to be open source. If you don't want that Github offers an inexpensive private account ($7/month).

blowdart
Peek-a-boo

SilkSVN does a limited free hosting package.

littleguru
<3 Seattle

Does somebody know of any free TFS hostings out there? Also limited to a certain amount of projects... - and not Codeplex Big Smile

PeterMarshall
PeterMarshall

I use unfuddle and they offer exactly what you are looking for.

As a freelancer who requires code in different locations its perfect.

http://unfuddle.com/

stevo_
Human after all

In reply to PeterMarshall

#Apr 21st @ 5:07 AM

unfuddle isnt free and private? its either or.

Stebet
Buuuurrrritoooo!

In reply to littleguru

#Apr 21st @ 5:03 AM

I wish I knew. I could use one of those myself. I'd even be willing to pay a small monthly fee for an online TFS provider.

W3bbo
The Master of Baiters

In reply to Stebet

#Apr 21st @ 9:15 AM

It isn't cheap. $129.99 per user per month. Ouch.

If anyone's interested, I'm starting Windows SVN hosting later this month, for about £15 per month with no real limitations.

Sampy
This will be the sixth time we have destroyed it and we have become exceedingly efficient at it

I have an SVN repository that I put in Mesh so I have it on all my machines. You could probably achieve the same thing with other file syncing apps.

Here are the steps I followed: http://thevalerios.net/matt/2009/02/hosting-subversion-in-the-cloud-with-live-mesh/

CatherineSea

You may try SourceAnywhere Hosted, which provides a free hosting plan. You can sign up here:
http://www.dynamsoft.com/Products/SAWHosted_Plan.aspx

Free hosting plan is also available for SCM Anywhere Hosted, which is a software configuration management tool:
http://www.scmsoftwareconfigurationmanagement.com/Products/Software-Configuration-Management-SCM-Hosting.aspx

Gregg G

I've been using hosted-projects.com. It doesn't meet your "free" criteria, but it was <$10/month. And:

- Customer Support is outstanding. First-response time is usually less than 1 hour. Recently I asked for a one-time export of my repository, and the request-to-delivery time was less than 2 hours!

- It includes Bugzilla or Trac so you can track and prioritize your development issues. I haven't played around with security controls, but you might even be able to give your clients logins so they can log and view issues themselves.