I have a license for Tower v2 on the Mac and bought Tower v1 for Windows with the hope that their Windows app will mature more and close the gap to their already very nice Mac version.
The new subscription model is bad because it has no fallback if you don't subscribe anymore. With Jetbrains you get perpetual access to a version if you paid for 12 months after that version has been released and with 1Password the vault becomes read-only but you can still export it into CSV and import in some other app. With Tower 3 you just lose your access to the app.
🙁
To add insult to injury I would have to pay extra for their Pro subscription because I run my own GitLab CE instance on a little VPS.
I am also looking for alternatives and the Electron-based alternatives GitKraken and GitHub Deskop just don't cut it. I usually leave my Git GUI open in the background and I can't have it eating away my RAM and battery just because it is made by web technology.
Currently, the interesting alternatives are
Fork and
SmartGit.
Fork is a little younger and still might miss some features here and there but it is a native app and both Mac and Windows versions are currently heavy in feature development. Just check its changelogs!
SmartGit looks like a powerhouse and although it is a Java app it does feel lighter than the Electron alternatives and it looks more native than them.
Fork seems to be free during its still ongoing beta and I don't know what its business model will look like. SmartGit's price is very enterprisy (=expensive) but it allows both single payment purchases or subscriptions. AND it is free for non-commercial use.
🙂
Personally, I might pick SmartGit. It is already mature on both platforms and after Tower I
won't buy a pig in a poke again.