Fork runs on Windows 7 and later, and is also available for macOS; there is no Linux version. The Windows installer can be evaluated without creating an account or entering card details. If you also plan to use Git from the command line, install Git for Windows separately.
After setup, connect GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket accounts in Preferences to clone repositories and receive notifications. Fork is a Git client built by Dan and Tanya Pristupov, with controls for the routine work of reviewing changes and managing repository history.
For more involved history edits, Fork provides a visual interactive rebase workflow for editing, reordering, and squashing commits before rewriting history. This lets you inspect the planned commit sequence and make changes through the interface rather than entering each operation as a command.
Working with changes and history
Fork covers commits, branches, tags, stashes, cherry-pick, and rebase. Line-level staging lets you stage or unstage individual lines and hunks, which is useful when a file contains unrelated edits that should be committed separately. These controls support selective review before changes are recorded.
When branches contain conflicting edits, the built-in merge conflict helper and editor provide a place to work through the conflict. For investigation, blame and history views can identify the commit associated with a file, folder, or line. Side-by-side diffs for common image formats also make visual asset changes easier to inspect than a text-only comparison.
Fork supports Git LFS and git-flow in addition to GitHub notifications. Together with the repository and history tools, these features make it possible to handle common development tasks in one desktop client, while still allowing command-line Git use when the separate command-line installation is present.
Evaluation and licensing
The evaluation is free and has no stated end date, but the license agreement requires a purchase for long-term use. A license costs $59.99 as a one-time payment and permits personal and commercial use. It covers one user on up to 3 machines across Windows and macOS.
That arrangement makes Fork suitable for developers who want a visual client and expect to use its history and conflict tools regularly. It is not a fit for users who require a completely free client for long-term use or need a Linux release. The license is a purchase rather than a recurring subscription, and commercial use is permitted under its stated terms.