Tower is a dedicated Git client with a deep feature set. Hydra includes a Git client as one part of a workspace that also holds your servers and databases.
If Git is the center of your day, with interactive rebases, submodules, stacked branches and pull request review, Tower does more. If you mainly stage, commit, branch, pull and push, and the rest of your day is spent on servers and databases, Hydra covers the Git you use in the same window as everything else.
Tower is a subscription; Hydra is bought once.
From each product's own website, checked October 6, 2026. Prices in US dollars.
| Hydra Dev Studio | Tower | |
|---|---|---|
| Everyday Git | Stage by file or by hunk, commit, history with per-commit diffs, branches, pull and push | Yes |
| Conflicts | Three-way merge window, and Hydra can be your git difftool and git mergetool | Yes |
| Interactive rebase, submodules | Not yet | Yes |
| Pull requests | No | Yes, with stacked branches and Graphite integration on Pro |
| Remotes | Push and pull over HTTPS | Yes, with hosting service accounts |
| Databases, files, SSH | Nine SQL engines and DynamoDB; SFTP, FTP, WebDAV, SMB, S3 and Azure; terminals and tunnels | No |
| AI agents and scripts | Agents can read status and diffs, stage and commit through Hydra, and every action is logged | Not listed |
| Runs on | macOS 26 or later, Apple silicon | macOS and Windows |
| Price | $99 once, with twelve months of updates; the version you have keeps working after that. Fourteen-day trial with everything unlocked. | Subscription: Basic $69 a year, Pro $129 a year. Thirty-day trial. |
You rely on interactive rebase, submodules, stacked branches or pull request review inside your Git client.
You work on Windows as well as a Mac.
Your team standardises on one Git client with team licensing and single sign-on.
Git is one of several tools you use on a project, and the others are a database client, an FTP app and a terminal. Hydra replaces all of them with one window.
You want to see whether the server matches the repository: compare the deployed folder with your working copy and read it as a patch.
You prefer a license you buy once.
You want agents to work with your repository and your servers through the same audited connection library.
Hydra works on your existing local clones; add a repository under New › Git Repository, or point Hydra at a project folder. Nothing about the repository changes, so you can keep Tower installed and use both.
The trial is fourteen days with everything unlocked.
Fourteen days, everything unlocked, no account required.
Download for macOS