What is Bitbucket?
Introduction:
Bitbucket is a web-based hosting service for software development projects that use either the Mercurial or Git revision control systems. Bitbucket offers both commercial plans and free accounts. It is developed by Atlassian, and takes its name from the popular stuffed toy version of a dugong, because a Dugong is “a beloved cigar-sucking marine mammal.”
Bitbucket provides revision control as well as project management functions to help teams work together on code. It offers both public repositories (free) and private repositories (paid accounts only). Public repositories are readable by anyone with an internet connection while private repositories require a paid account but can be kept completely internal to your team if needed. Learn more about Bitbucket’s features in this article.
Bitbucket is an excellent choice for teams who want the ability to create private repositories, but don’t need or can’t afford a full-fledged software development platform with built-in project management and bug tracking capabilities. Bitbucket’s revision control system is similar enough to GitHub that you won’t have any trouble transitioning from one platform to the other if you decide later on that you’d like more comprehensive project management tools.
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Other features of Bitbucket include:
Flexible permissions settings for your projects, allowing each member of your team access only to the repos where they’ve been granted permission. This helps keep information secure and prevents unwanted changes when multiple members are collaborating on a project.
User “hooks” that let you embed Bitbucket into your existing workflows or create new integrations with Bitbucket using third-party add-ons.
Email notifications and RSS feeds for changes to your repositories, so you can easily keep track of what’s going on even when you’re off the clock.
Functionality that makes it easy to view repository histories and merge changes before they go live to your users. This feature is especially useful if you are testing a major site update or if several people are working on the same project at once and need to coordinate their efforts through version control. Learn more about how Bitbucket works in this video tutorial.
Bitbucket is an excellent choice for teams who want to take advantage of powerful revision control and project management tools without having to pay for an expensive software development platform. With features like flexible permissions settings and user hooks, you can easily integrate Bitbucket with your existing workflows and build new integrations using third-party add-ons.
