Sublime Merge

Sublime Merge is a git GUI that does not pretend git is something else. Every action you take shows the command it ran, which means you can use it for a year and come out knowing git better rather than worse. Staging by line or by hunk is a two-key operation, the three-pane diff uses the same rendering engine as Sublime Text, and it stays fast in a repository with a decade of history in it.

Blame, file history, interactive rebase and branch management are all present. The search is the feature you end up leaning on: it covers commit messages, diffs and file contents at once, which is exactly what you want when you are hunting for the commit where something broke.

It matters mostly because the obvious alternative went subscription. If you want a serious Mac git client with a one-time price, the shortlist is genuinely short.

The licence has the same shape as Sublime Text's: $99 personal, one key on every machine and operating system you use, three years of updates, then a paid upgrade for newer builds. At work you need the separate per-user annual business licence.

If your git use is commit, push and the occasional merge, do not buy this. The terminal, or the git panel in whatever editor you already have, will cover you. This earns its money on messy history — bisecting, untangling a bad rebase, reviewing a branch someone else left behind.