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Perforce P4 vs. Microsoft Visual SourceSafe (Discontinued)

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Perforce P4

    Score7.5 out of 10
    N/APerforce P4 (formerly Helix Core) is the company's version control and peer code review solution. Perforce offers add-on products for code review for free, and Git support products.N/A

    Microsoft Visual SourceSafe (Discontinued)

    Score8 out of 10
    N/AVisual SourceSafe is a discontinued source control software offering, from Microsoft.N/A
    Pricing
    Perforce P4Microsoft Visual SourceSafe (Discontinued)
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Perforce P4Microsoft Visual SourceSafe (Discontinued)
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Perforce P4Microsoft Visual SourceSafe (Discontinued)
    Considered Both Products
    Perforce Software
    No answer on this topic
    Discontinued Products
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    86%
    Would buy again
    6 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    83%
    Delivers good value for the price
    5 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    86%
    Happy with the feature set
    6 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    Perforce P4Microsoft Visual SourceSafe (Discontinued)
    Version Control Software Features
    Comparison of Version Control Software Features features of Perforce P4 and Microsoft Visual SourceSafe (Discontinued)
    Feature
    Perforce P4
    7.9
    1 Ratings
    10% below category average
    Microsoft Visual SourceSafe (Discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    Branching and Merging8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Version History8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Version Control Collaboration Tools8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Pull Requests8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Code Review Tools8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Project Access Control8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Automated Testing Integration8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Issue Tracking Integration7.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Branch Protection8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Perforce P4Microsoft Visual SourceSafe (Discontinued)
    Small Businesses
    GitHub
    Score9.2 out of 10
    GitHub
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Git
    Score10 out of 10
    Git
    Score10 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Git
    Score10 out of 10
    Perforce P4
    Score7.5 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Perforce P4Microsoft Visual SourceSafe (Discontinued)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    6.5
    (15 ratings)
    1.0
    (4 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    6.6
    (5 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    7.0
    (3 ratings)
    3.8
    (2 ratings)
    Availability
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    6.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.6
    (3 ratings)
    4.2
    (2 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Perforce P4Microsoft Visual SourceSafe (Discontinued)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Perforce Software
    While Perforce Helix is the best version control software out there, it can also be used to track your documentation, training videos and materials, and requirements. If you have strict compliance requirements, it can be used to ensure that those requirements are satisfied. Perforce Helix is incredibly flexible and can meet the needs of individual users as well as companies with thousands of users.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    I would not recommend Visual SourceSafe to anyone out there as there are so many better, more modern solutions that do what it does and much more. Visual SourceSafe should be retired in most cases.
    Read full review
    Pros
    Perforce Software
    • The branching mechanisms in Perforce allow for an enormous codebase to be duplicated into release versions weekly with little impact upon things such as the speed of queries against the version control.
    • Action triggers permit such things as automated builds of software versions, dynamic messaging when issues are identified either within or prior to a build process, and much more.
    • Locking provides the ability to prevent modifications of stable, tested versions in order to ensure validity when they are released.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • At this point in its lifecycle there are not many things VSS does well
    • Its main strength would be its ability to be self contained on a local drive
    • It is a basic Code repository
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Perforce Software
    • Perforce tends to feel backwards in how it approaches certain tasks, like branching and integrating - even once you figure out how it wants you to perform these tasks, you will likely forget when it comes around to the next time you need to do them again.
    • Perforce has a higher price tag, comparatively.
    • Perforce make some tasks very easy, and yet other tasks very difficult - it doesn't always seem to have found its target user's proficiency.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • The system stability could be improved. Often we get file corrupted errors.
    • The User Interface is not modern and not user-friendly.
    • Concurrent check-outs could be added, allowing more people to work on the same file at the same time.
    • Add conflict resolution, files comparison, blame file, features that any modern source control program should have.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Perforce Software
    We are fully committed to our use of Perforce. It works well within our organization and our desire to share our code base with our customers. Their support staff are responsive, inquisitive, and eager to improve their software. I feel like we have a direct line to their design/feature team as they often solicit our feedback.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    Perforce Software
    With Perforce Helix, you can use it via the command line, via P4V, or any of the other APIs included with the product. It is extremely easy for new users to get up and running. Users of Perforce Helix only have to pull in the files of interest to them. Also, Perforce is very easy to script and integrate into your CI/CD pipeline. Streams allows you to have pinpoint control of your workflow, and P4Search is the absolute best--I wish Perforce (the company) would talk more about this. It is absolutely fabulous!
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    The current status of Visual SourceSafe is not usable. There are many things that are just so out of the date that it should be retired and not looked at any longer. If you have an existing application that is stored in it, I'd consider migrating it to a modern tool.
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Perforce Software
    In our large environment, Perforce is rarely "down". We have regular maintenance windows and from time to time Perforce can feel a little slow, but its always available. Tech support has always worked with our engineers and IT department to make sure that any real performance or stability issues are addressed quickly.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Perforce Software
    I had two representatives from Perforce contact me after downloading it but never responded when I had questions. I also had a difficult time finding good training material for getting started. There is a lot of available support material when running into issues, though, because of how many large companies use it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    It's a Microsoft product so the customer support is great. The program has been around a long time so there are plenty of places on line to get assistance. Also almost any development shop you go to will have at least one developer who has used this product extensively in their career.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Perforce Software
    This rating is related to setting up an environment from an existing Perforce repository. Initial setup of Perforce as the repository for the company was done by a separate team long prior to my inception.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Perforce Software
    Git is great, I love Git. But it's not great for dealing with binary assets, even when using Git LFS. Locking is not as simple as on perforce. Git presents some problems on using for non-tech people it can get overwhelming and tech people have to come by and help.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Perforce Software
    • Decreased our implementation costs by allowing versioning and back out of customizations made in the field.
    • saves developers time through automation of changes between branches - they think less of the plumbing and have more time to write code.
    • Downside is training/managing expectations of new developers who come in assuming they will use Git.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • When we started using it, it allowed us to do source code versioning and store the code in a centralized location and not locally.
    • We are using it for very few projects with few developers that still maintain those applications and do not have time to merge the source code to Git.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots