2003-11-06 12:00:00

Comparing Vault to GotDotNet Workspaces

Robert McLaws asks me to compare SourceGear Vault to GotDotNet Workspaces.  Granted, he admits the question was a setup to give me a chance to preach my favorite sermon.  Still, the pulpit awaits, so I can't resist...

With our recent introduction of a Single User Edition of Vault, the price point for a solitary user is so low that it invites comparison to free solutions like Workspaces.  But substantial differences remain.  It helps to remember that Vault is still basically priced at $399/user.  At that price, it is one of the least expensive among the serious players in this market.  We're comfortable comparing Vault to systems which cost 2 and 3 times as much.

But the popularity of Vault has exceeded even our own expectations.  We keep hearing cries from people who want to use Vault but can't justify its price.  And we hate to say no, so we've tried to be very creative about pricing.  We want to make it possible for smaller teams to use Vault, even as we keep the basic price point at $399/user.  Our original solution to this problem was our Starter Pack, five licenses for $599.  But even then, we got a surprising number of people pining for a one-user license at a dirt-cheap price.

So earlier this week we responded by creating the Single User Edition at $49.  We've been very surprised how many of these things we've sold already.  The total revenue isn't going to change my life, but the number of units is strong evidence that people really did like this idea.

But like I said, $49 is close enough to zero that several new comparisons seem appropriate.  Still, I don't tend to think of Vault and Workspaces as comparables.  I should admit that I haven't used GotDotNet Workspaces any further than a mere demo of its features.  But a truly detailed comparison may not be necessary.  There are some pretty big differences that will serve as key decision factors for most people.

The most important advantage of Vault is rather obvious:  Our video is a lot cooler than theirs. 

Seriously, the biggest difference is that Workspaces is hosted on Microsoft's server farm, while Vault is software you download and install on your own server.  I'm not motivated to claim that either approach is better than the other.  This is a pretty clear choice.  With all due respect to Robert who asked the original question, anybody who can't choose between these two extremes probably had a hard time deciding between Bush and Clinton in the 1992 election. 

We obviously work hard to make Vault easy to install and maintain, but any effort is a lot more than no effort at all.  Workspaces is really simple.  There isn't really anything to install or maintain.  It takes a few minutes to get going, and it just works.

But of course, the simpler administration of Workspaces comes with a tradeoff:  Vault is a lot more powerful.  I'm not saying this to be critical of Workspaces or the obviously talented folks who designed it.  Workspaces is a system which seems to solve its intended problem very well.  But it wasn't designed to be a powerful shrinkwrap SCM tool.  Workspaces achieves simplicity by sacrificing flexibility.

Vault has everything you would expect to find in a top-notch source control package:

• There are no arbitrary limits to how much data you can put in. 
• Your data is safely tucked away in SQL Server 2000. 
• Vault has powerful capabilities for branching and merging parallel lines of development. 
• Vault can import your VSS database, including all history. 
• Vault comes with a .NET client API so you can build your own custom clients using the same API we use here at SourceGear.
• Vault has an IDE integration client, a regular GUI client, and a command-line client.
• Vault can be accessed from Unix (currently vapor, but coming in Vault 2.0)
• Vault leverages the underlying SQL engine to allow querying your repository history in lots of cool ways.

I could go on and on, but I'm sure you get the idea, and anyway, I tend to get dizzy if I consume too much of my own Kool-Aid.

We're comparing a compact car to a pickup truck.  The car serves its purpose very simply and very efficiently.  The pickup truck is a lot more powerful and a lot more flexibile and therefore a lot more expensive.  Both have their place, and the world seems happy allowing them both to be very successful. 

Obviously, I like Vault.  I prefer having my code repository close to me, right there on the LAN where I live.  And I place a high value on powerful features like 3-way merge.  Not surprisingly, I drive a really big pickup truck as well.