Gitflow vs GitHub Flow vs GitLab Flow: What's right for you?

Navigating the complex landscape of software development can be challenging, especially when it comes to managing code branches effectively. With the multitude of branching strategies available, it's crucial to choose the right one that aligns with your team's needs and project requirements.

In this blog, we'll delve into the intricacies of branching strategies, focusing on three popular methodologies: Gitflow, GitHub Flow, and GitLab Flow. By comparing and exploring these approaches, we aim to provide you with insights and guidance to streamline your coding organisation and enhance your development workflow.

Whether you're a seasoned developer or just starting, understanding the nuances of branching strategies can significantly impact your team's productivity and code quality. Let's dive in and demystify the world of branching strategies to help you make informed decisions for your next project.

Why Have a Branching Strategy?

Branching strategies offer a framework for teams to approach code development. It serves several crucial purposes within a development workflow:

Facilitating collaboration: By providing a structured approach to code development, it enables multiple team members to work on different features or fixes simultaneously without interfering with each other's work.
Ensuring stability: It helps maintain a stable main codebase by segregating experimental or incomplete work into separate branches, ensuring that the main branch (often called master or main) always remains deployable.
Enabling parallel development: Teams can work on new features, bug fixes, and other tasks concurrently by creating separate branches for each task. This parallel development reduces bottlenecks and accelerates the overall development process.
Facilitating release management: Branching strategies provide a structured approach to managing releases, allowing teams to create release branches for specific versions of the software. This makes it easier to track changes and manage the release process effectively.
Supporting continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD): Branching strategies are essential for implementing CI/CD pipelines, where changes are automatically built, tested, and deployed. Different branches can trigger different stages of the CI/CD pipeline, ensuring that only stable and tested code is deployed to production.

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Types of Branching Patterns:

Branching patterns can vary based on the specific needs of a project and team. However, two primary patterns typically dominate:

Long-lived branching: Ideal for large projects with distributed teams. It involves creating branches that exist for extended periods (e.g., 'develop') to isolate major features. This promotes stability but can slow down the release cycle.
Short-lived branching: Favoured for continuous integration and rapid releases. Developers create short-lived feature branches that integrate back into the main codebase within days. This promotes agility but requires strong coordination.

Popular Branching Models:

GitFlow: A complex but structured model using multiple long-lived branches for development, releases, and hotfixes.
GitHub Flow: Simpler, with a focus on continuous deployment. Features are developed on short-lived branches and merged back into the main branch.
GitLab Flow: Offers flexibility, combining long-lived branches for ongoing development with potential 'release' or 'production' branches for versioning.

GitFlow explained: A simple approach to complex projects

GitFlow is a structured Git branching strategy designed to streamline release management. Introduced in 2010, it relies on long-lived primary branches and feature branches for organised development. GitFlow's structure promotes stability and predictability, making it well-suited for projects with scheduled releases.

GitFlow Features:

Main branch: In GitFlow, the main branch holds production-ready code, representing the gold standard for releases. It's created at the project's outset and maintained throughout its lifespan. Tags on specific commits within the main branch mark different versions or releases. Only thoroughly tested and approved code from other branches gets merged into the main branch.
Develop branch: The develop branch is created at the start of a project and is maintained throughout the development process, and contains pre-production code with newly developed features that are in the process of being tested. Newly created features should be based off the develop branch, and then merged back in when ready for testing.
Feature branch: The develop branch in GitFlow is where active development happens. It's created at the project's start and holds pre-production code with new features under testing. Developers start feature branches from the develop branch and merge their completed features back into it for further testing before they reach the main branch.
Release branch: The release branch serves as the staging area for an upcoming production release. It focuses on final polishing and fixing minor bugs specific to that release, ensuring a stable deployment. Work done on the release branch avoids major changes that should instead be handled in the main develop branch.
Hotfix branch: Hotfix branches provide rapid fixes for critical issues found in your production (main) branch. They are created directly from the main branch and, once the fix is complete, changes are merged back into both main and develop branches. Merging into develop ensures the fix will be included in future releases, preventing the issue from reappearing.

GitHub Flow Explained: A production-ready code strategy

GitHub Flow uses a simple approach: the main branch always holds production-ready code. For new features or bug fixes, developers create feature branches directly off the main branch. Once the work within a feature branch is complete and reviewed, it's merged back into the main branch when the work is finished and properly reviewed.

GitHub Flow Features:

Single main branch: GitLab Flow typically revolves around a single main branch (often named "main" or "master") where production-ready code resides.
Feature branches: Developers create feature branches from the main branch to work on new features or fixes. Each feature branch represents a single unit of work and is merged back into the main branch upon completion.
Merge requests: Developers use merge requests (MRs) to propose changes from their feature branches to the main branch. MRs provide a mechanism for code review, discussion, and approval before merging.
Continuous integration (CI): GitLab Flow integrates with GitLab's built-in CI/CD pipelines to automate testing and deployment processes. CI pipelines are triggered automatically upon opening an MR, ensuring that changes pass tests before being merged.
Environment branches: GitLab Flow may incorporate environment-specific branches (e.g., "staging" or "production") where code is deployed for testing or production use. These branches help maintain separation between development, testing, and production environments.
Release branches (optional): While GitLab Flow primarily focuses on continuous delivery rather than traditional release cycles, teams may choose to create release branches for managing versioned releases. This is optional and depends on the project's requirements.

GitHub Flow is a simpler alternative to Git Flow ideal for smaller teams as they don’t need to manage multiple versions. Unlike Git Flow, this model doesn’t have release branches. You start off with the main branch then developers create branches, feature branches that stem directly from the master, to isolate their work which are then merged back into main. The feature branch is then deleted.

The main idea behind this model is keeping the master code in a constant deployable state and hence can support continuous integration and continuous delivery processes.

GitLab Flow explained: A feature-driven development strategy

GitLab Flow is a simpler alternative to GitFlow and combines feature-driven development and feature branches with issue tracking. With GitLab Flow, all features and fixes go to the main branch while enabling production and stable branches. In GitLab flow, the feature branch contains work for new features and bug fixes which will be merged back into the main branch when they’re finished, reviewed, and approved.

The GitLab flow branching strategy works with two different types of release cycles:

Versioned release: Each release has an associated release branch that is based off the main branch. Bug fixes should be merged into the main branch first, before being cherry-picked into the release branch.
Continuous release: Production branches are utilised to contain deployment-ready code, so code is merged into the production branch when it’s ready to be released.

GitLab Flow Features:

Single main branch: GitLab Flow typically revolves around a single main branch (often named "main" or "master") where production-ready code resides.
Feature branches: Developers create feature branches from the main branch to work on new features or fixes. Each feature branch represents a single unit of work and is merged back into the main branch upon completion.
Merge requests: Developers use merge requests (MRs) to propose changes from their feature branches to the main branch. MRs provide a mechanism for code review, discussion, and approval before merging.
Continuous integration (CI): GitLab Flow integrates with GitLab's built-in CI/CD pipelines to automate testing and deployment processes. CI pipelines are triggered automatically upon opening an MR, ensuring that changes pass tests before being merged.
Environment branches: GitLab Flow may incorporate environment-specific branches (e.g., "staging" or "production") where code is deployed for testing or production use. These branches help maintain separation between development, testing, and production environments.
Release branches (optional): While GitLab Flow primarily focuses on continuous delivery rather than traditional release cycles, teams may choose to create release branches for managing versioned releases. This is optional and depends on the project's requirements.

Choosing the Right Strategy:

Choosing the right branching strategy for your project depends on various factors, including team size, project complexity, release cadence, and development workflow. Here's a step-by-step guide to help you choose the right strategy:

Assess your project needs: Understand the specific requirements and constraints of your project. Consider factors such as team size, collaboration requirements, release frequency, and the nature of your software.
Evaluate branching models: Familiarise yourself with different branching models such as Gitflow, GitHub Flow, Feature Branching, Trunk-Based Development, and others. Understand their principles, advantages, and limitations.
Consider team dynamics: Take into account the dynamics and preferences of your development team. Some teams may prefer a more structured approach with feature branches and release branches, while others may favour a simpler, trunk-based development model.
Review development workflow: Analyse your team's existing development workflow and identify pain points or areas for improvement. Consider how different branching strategies align with your current workflow and whether they address your team's needs.
Evaluate tooling and infrastructure: Consider the tooling and infrastructure available to support your chosen branching strategy. Ensure that your version control system, CI/CD pipelines, and other development tools are compatible and can accommodate your chosen approach.
Experiment and iterate: Don't be afraid to experiment with different branching strategies to find what works best for your team and project. Start with a small pilot project or experiment with feature branches in a low-risk environment. Gather feedback from your team and iterate as needed.
Document and communicate: Once you've chosen a branching strategy, document it clearly and communicate it to your team. Ensure that everyone understands the rationale behind the chosen approach and knows how to follow the established workflow.
Monitor and adapt: Continuously monitor your branching strategy and development workflow for effectiveness and efficiency. Be open to feedback and adapt your approach as needed to address changing project requirements or team

What parameters do you prioritise when choosing a branching strategy? Share your tips and insights in the comments below!

Code Organisation made easy: How to choose your branching strategy?