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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
    Pricing
    Perforce P4
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Perforce P4
    Free Trial
    No
    Free/Freemium Version
    No
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    No
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup fee
    Additional Details—
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Perforce P4
    Considered Both Products
    Perforce Software
    Chose Perforce P4
    In my opinion, Perforce Helix Core is on a top level of irritation and anti-user experience. In my experience, I can't do simple things like 1 word file edits, while I have never been confused when using something based on Git.
    Incentivized
    Chose Perforce P4
    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
    Chose Perforce P4
    I am only starting with BiBucket and do not yet have sufficient experience to draw upon for comparison.
    Incentivized
    Chose Perforce P4
    New users of Perforce Helix can be up and running in less than thirty minutes. It is easy to use, but also very powerful. Bitbucket is slow, prone to outages, and (for large teams) requires a team of dedicated administrators. I've had request for information from Bitbucket that …
    Incentivized
    Chose Perforce P4
    My last two jobs used SmartSVN but it required a paid license to use regardless of the number of users. The initial setup for Perforce was much more difficult than SmartSVN. There is a lot of parity between the two software packages even though the terminology can be different. …
    Incentivized
    Chose Perforce P4
    Perforce has a better built native visual client that is much simpler to use than Git's. It has a lot of optimizations in the workflow that can execute common patterns during a usual workday. Perforce also has an easier to understand method of presenting merge conflicts and …
    Incentivized
    Chose Perforce P4
    Perforce is internally hosted, which makes it quite a bit faster. I found it easier to use that GitHub and Bitbucket, at least in terms of checking out files and creating changelists. GitHub and Bitbucket are much better for smaller teams, as they are cloud hosted, making …
    Incentivized
    Chose Perforce P4
    Perforce is superior in every way to Subversion. I'm never going back.
    Incentivized
    Chose Perforce P4
    Today's web based software makes them easier to integrate into a development process. JIRA with integrated Bitbucket as the versioning tool, is ahead of the competition. However for large organizations, Perforce is still a very good choice. GitHub can be used as free tool, but …
    Incentivized
    Chose Perforce P4
    Subversion
    • missing many of the features that Perforce provides, but
    • a much more lightweight versioning system
    Incentivized
    Chose Perforce P4
    Perforce is similar to SVN but the SVN has better command line support. Git surpasses both SVN and Perforce because of its flexibility with multiple branches and code review.
    Incentivized
    Chose Perforce P4
    Perforce has more features than SVN. However even the simpler tasks in SVN require a degree more technical aptitude with Perforce. Git offers most of the same features, however most of these are only really supported via the command-line in Git, where as most tasks can be …
    Incentivized
    Chose Perforce P4
    I've worked with Alienbrain and I like Perforce much better with the streamlined interface. Alienbrain seems a little bloated.
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    86%
    Would buy again
    6 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    83%
    Delivers good value for the price
    5 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    86%
    Happy with the feature set
    6 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    Perforce P4
    Version Control Software Features
    Comparison of Version Control Software Features features of Perforce P4
    Feature
    Perforce P4
    7.9
    1 Ratings
    11% below category average
    Branching and Merging8.01 Ratings
    Version History8.01 Ratings
    Version Control Collaboration Tools8.01 Ratings
    Pull Requests8.01 Ratings
    Code Review Tools8.01 Ratings
    Project Access Control8.01 Ratings
    Automated Testing Integration8.01 Ratings
    Issue Tracking Integration7.01 Ratings
    Branch Protection8.01 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Perforce P4
    Small Businesses
    GitHub
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Git
    Score10 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Git
    Score10 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Perforce P4
    Likelihood to Recommend
    6.5
    (15 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    6.6
    (5 ratings)
    Usability
    7.0
    (3 ratings)
    Availability
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    6.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.6
    (3 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Perforce P4
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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
    ScreenShots