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Web Development · head to head

.NET vs GitHub Desktop

.NET logo

.NET

Web Development

Free, cross-platform, open source developer platform

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Visit .NETFull review
GitHub Desktop logo

GitHub Desktop

Developer Tools

A free, open source Git client from GitHub for Windows and macOS that covers common workflows rather than all of Git.

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Visit GitHub DesktopFull review

The short version

  • Both are free.
  • Prices and features on this page were last checked on 13 November 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which .NET and GitHub Desktop actually diverge.

Attributes where .NET and GitHub Desktop differ
Attribute.NETGitHub Desktop
Pricing modelOpen-sourceFree
PlatformsWebWindows, macOS
CategoryWeb DevelopmentDeveloper Tools

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes).

Not yet recorded: founded for .NET.

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in .NET

Nothing recorded that GitHub Desktop does not also cover.

Only in GitHub Desktop

  • Line-level staging
  • Branch and merge UI
  • Pull request integration
  • Enterprise authentication
  • Squash and reorder
  • Drag cherry-pick
  • Co-author attribution
  • Editor and shell handoff

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

.NET

  • Web development with ASP.NET Core and Entity Frameworknot GitHub Desktop
  • Cloud-native application development for Azurenot GitHub Desktop
  • Mobile and desktop apps with .NET MAUI cross-platform frameworknot GitHub Desktop
  • AI and machine learning applications using C#not GitHub Desktop

GitHub Desktop

  • Onboarding designers or technical writers who need to commit to a docs or assets repository without learning the command linenot .NET
  • A new engineer's first weeks, where seeing the diff and the branch state visually prevents the common early mistakesnot .NET
  • Reviewing a colleague's pull request branch locally with a readable diff before approving itnot .NET
  • Small teams standardised entirely on GitHub who want SSO-backed authentication to work without managing personal access tokens by handnot .NET

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

.NET

  • .NET 8 and .NET 9 both reach end of support on 10 November 2026, per dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/platform/support/policy (Aug 2026), forcing an upgrade to .NET 10 by that date
  • Standard Term Support releases get only 2 years of patches versus 3 years for Long Term Support releases, per Microsoft's own support policy page, so teams on an STS release face a shorter upgrade cycle

GitHub Desktop

  • There is no official Linux build; the application ships for Windows and macOS only, and the community fork at shiftkey/desktop that packages it for Linux is maintained separately and lags official releases, so a mixed-OS team cannot standardise on one client
  • Submodules are effectively unsupported: the app shows a submodule change as an opaque single line and gives you no way to initialise, update or navigate into it, so any repository using them needs the terminal anyway
  • History rewriting is limited to squashing and reordering local commits by drag and drop; interactive rebase, fixup chains, editing an old commit's contents and bisect are all absent, which is exactly the set of operations a beginner needs help with most
  • Pull request features only exist for GitHub remotes, so a team on GitLab or Bitbucket gets a plain Git client with an empty pull request pane and no review or checks view at all
  • Commit signing with a key that requires a passphrase generally fails, because the app cannot surface the pinentry prompt, and the resulting error message does not say that is the cause
  • GitHub staffs it lightly compared with its web and CI products, so long-standing feature requests and bugs sit open for years; if you file an issue you should plan around it rather than expect a fix

Pricing, plan by plan

.NET

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the .NET review.

GitHub Desktop

Free
  • FreeFree
    • Git repository management
    • GitHub integration
    • Visual diff tools

Which should you pick?

Choose .NET if

  • You want to start without paying.
.NET review

Choose GitHub Desktop if

  • You need line-level staging.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Windows, macOS.
  • You also want branch and merge ui.
GitHub Desktop review

Questions people ask

Is .NET or GitHub Desktop better?
Neither clearly leads. .NET starts at Free and GitHub Desktop at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, .NET or GitHub Desktop?
.NET starts at Free and GitHub Desktop at Free.
Does .NET or GitHub Desktop run on more platforms?
.NET runs on Web. GitHub Desktop runs on Windows, macOS.
Can I use .NET for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is .NET best used for?
.NET is most often used for web development with asp.net core and entity framework, cloud-native application development for azure, mobile and desktop apps with .net maui cross-platform framework, ai and machine learning applications using c#. Of those, web development with asp.net core and entity framework and cloud-native application development for azure are not what GitHub Desktop is typically brought in for.
What can .NET do that GitHub Desktop cannot?
GitHub Desktop covers Line-level staging, Branch and merge UI, Pull request integration, Enterprise authentication.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

.NET: Is .NET free to use?

Yes. .NET is completely free and open-source, available on GitHub.

Source
GitHub Desktop: Is there a Linux version?

Not an official one. GitHub ships Windows and macOS builds only. A community fork, shiftkey/desktop, produces Linux packages, but it is maintained by volunteers and trails the official releases.

.NET: What platforms does .NET support?

.NET supports Windows, Linux, macOS, and Docker. A single C# codebase can run across multiple platforms including iOS, Android, and cloud environments.

Source
GitHub Desktop: Does it work with GitLab or Bitbucket?

For plain Git operations, yes: you can clone, commit, push and pull against any remote. The pull request, review and checks features only work against GitHub.com and GitHub Enterprise.

.NET: How large is the .NET ecosystem?

NuGet provides 390,000+ unique packages with 50,000+ new packages added annually. .NET has 474K+ GitHub stars and active community support across multiple platforms.

Source
GitHub Desktop: What does it cost?

Nothing. It is free and the source is published under the MIT licence, and it is separate from any GitHub plan you may or may not pay for.

GitHub Desktop: Will it handle submodules?

No. Submodule changes appear as an unreadable single-line diff and there are no controls for initialising or updating them. Repositories that use submodules need the command line.

GitHub Desktop: Do I still need to learn Git?

For everyday work, no. For recovery, yes. Anything beyond the curated set of operations, including interactive rebase and reflog recovery, happens in the terminal, so a team using it should have at least one person who knows Git properly.

GitHub Desktop: Does it work with GitHub Enterprise Server?

Yes. It signs in to GitHub Enterprise Server and GitHub Enterprise Cloud as well as GitHub.com, and it honours organisations that enforce SAML single sign-on.

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