Compare Git branching strategies visually. Understand GitFlow, GitHub Flow, and trunk-based development with diagrams and commands.
Choosing how a team branches and merges has a real effect on release cadence, code review, and how often you fight merge conflicts. This visualizer lays out the major Git branching strategies with diagrams and the commands behind them, so you can see how commits, branches, and releases flow under each model.
main and develop branches plus dedicated feature, release, and hotfix branches. Structured and predictable, well suited to versioned software with scheduled releases, but heavier in ceremony.main branch with short-lived feature branches merged via pull request. Simple and continuous-deployment friendly.main (the trunk) in small, frequent increments, often behind feature flags. Optimizes for continuous integration and minimizes long-running divergence.Think about your release model and team size:
The visual layout makes the trade-offs concrete: where branches split off, how long they live, and where they merge back. Seeing GitFlow's parallel develop and release lines next to trunk-based's single line of commits often clarifies the decision faster than prose.
New team members ramp faster when they can see the workflow rather than memorize rules, and teams debating a switch can compare options concretely. Once you settle on a model, the .gitignore Generator helps you start the repository clean.
GitHub Flow is ideal for small teams. It uses just main plus short-lived feature branches, with deployments happening from main after each merge. Teams of 2-10 developers typically find this provides enough structure.
GitFlow uses multiple long-lived branches (main, develop, release, hotfix) for scheduled releases. GitHub Flow uses only main plus feature branches for continuous deployment. GitHub Flow is simpler but GitFlow provides more release control.
Trunk-based development means all developers commit directly to main or use very short-lived feature branches (less than 1 day). It requires excellent CI/CD, feature flags, and automated testing.
Short-lived feature branches (1-3 days maximum) are strongly preferred. Long-lived branches lead to painful merges and integration issues. Use feature flags to merge incomplete work safely.
Consider release cadence, team size, and deployment practices. For continuous deployment with a small team, use GitHub Flow. For scheduled releases, use GitFlow. For high-velocity teams, consider trunk-based.
Feature flags are runtime toggles that hide incomplete features in production code. They're essential for trunk-based development and useful for A/B testing and gradual rollouts.