No. 9 of 54 ·Version Control Software

Mercurial

Windows · Mac · Linux · Self-hosted

Freedom report

Three barsScore 6.5

Free tierA free tier is on its own pricing page
Open codeNo open-source code on record
Runs widely3 of 6 device platforms
DocumentedPlans, terms and facts published

Mercurial is ranked #9 of 54 in version control software on Freedom251. It runs on Linux, macOS, Self-hosted, Windows. There is a free plan.

Mercurial plans and pricing

All plans

Mercurial Free free software · GNU GPL version 2 or later mercurial-scm.org · 30 Sept 2026

Compared on version control software

Free plan: Yes

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The record

Product type: Mercurial is a free, distributed source control management tool.
Distributed architecture: Each developer has a local copy of the entire development history and can work independently of network access or a central server.
Performance: Mercurial is designed to handle projects of any size with fast diffs, commits, branching and merging.
Extensibility: Python extensions can add commands, change existing commands and access Mercurial core functionality.
Open source license: Mercurial is licensed under the GNU General Public License version 2 or any later version.
Supported systems: Binary releases are available for Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, macOS, Solaris 11 Express and other platforms.
Installation methods: Official installation instructions cover system packages, Windows winget, Homebrew, PyPI tools and source builds.
Integrations: Official extensions include Bugzilla hooks, Git command mapping, Git fast-export, email notifications and external diff tools.
Access control: The acl extension allows or denies write access to branches and paths when receiving incoming changesets.
Security reporting: The project provides a moderated mercurial-security mailing list for private security discussion and reporting.
Security limitation: Mercurial documentation warns that auditing is insufficient to prevent clone-time code execution through carefully constructed Git subrepositories, which are disabled by default.
Community support: Users can get help through the Matrix channel, IRC and the general Mercurial mailing list.
Project governance: The Mercurial project is run by its community and coordinated by committers and reviewers under a steering committee.
Origin: Work on Mercurial began in April 2005 with a goal of efficiently managing Linux-sized trees.
Price from: Free

Where it ranks on Freedom251

Best Version Control Software in 2026#9 of 54
Best Game Version Control Software in 2026#12 of 24

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Sources

mercurial-scm.org/about· checked 30 Sept 2026
mercurial-scm.org/install· checked 30 Sept 2026
mercurial-scm.org/help/extensions· checked 30 Sept 2026
mercurial-scm.org/help/extensions/acl· checked 30 Sept 2026
mercurial-scm.org/community· checked 30 Sept 2026
mercurial-scm.org/help/topics/config· checked 30 Sept 2026
mercurial-scm.org/steering-committee· checked 30 Sept 2026
mercurial-scm.org/wiki/Presentations· checked 30 Sept 2026