As each of the top three Git hosting providers seeks to carve out market share and offer additional customer value, they’ve expanded their services.

A little BitBucket history

BitBucket is written in Python with the Django framework. BitBucket has been around since 2008, just three years after Git was created. Initially, it supported both Git and Mercurial source control, but it has only supported Git since June 2020.

BitBucket is owned by Atlassian. That makes it a solid choice for customers seeking tight, native integrations with Jira and Confluence. For developers looking to distance themselves from Microsoft’s ownership of GitHub and their AI-based GitHub Copilot, BitBucket may provide a neutral repository hosting choice even as DevOps toolchains continue to consolidate.

Integrated CI/CD

BitBucket Cloud has integrated CI/CD through Pipelines. BitBucket Pipelines automates workflows from code through deployment, all without leaving BitBucket. Atlassian promises simplicity due to no CI servers to configure or manage, and no repository synchronization required. For on-premises BitBucket environments, continuous delivery is supported through integration with Bamboo.

Code Review

BitBucket Code Review provides effective reviews that reduce the time needed to approve pull requests. Developers can easily compare large diffs with contextual commenting.

Code Insights

Integrated test results and security scan results reduce the effort needed to fix potential bugs, leading to improved app quality. Atlassian has partnered with Mabl for test automation, Sentry for automated monitoring, and Snyk for security and vulnerability scanning.

BitBucket Hosting Options

Regardless of which hosting option you choose, BitBucket comes with the following features: Git Repository hosting, Branch permissions, Jira and third-party integrations, merge checks, APIs, Projects, Git Large File Storage (LFS), and Code Search.

Cloud

• The Cloud hosting option includes Snippets, Issue Tracking, and a Wiki.
• The premium plan adds built-in CI/CD, enforced merge checks, deployment permissions, IP whitelisting, and required two-step verification.
• SAML-based SSO and Priority Support are available with Atlassian Access.

Pricing for the cloud-hosted option starts at $3/user/month. The Premium plan is $6/user/month.

Server (On-Premises)

BitBucket Server is hosted in the customer’s environment.

• BitBucket Server supports File Locking on Git Large File Storage.
• CI/CD is supported via the Bamboo integration.
• Issue Tracking is supported via the Jira integration.
• Wiki is supported via the Confluence integration.
• Snippets and two-step verification are available through Atlassian Marketplace integrations.

Data Center (On-Premises)

• BitBucket Server supports File Locking on Git Large File Storage.
• CI/CD is supported via the Bamboo integration.
• Issue Tracking is supported via the Jira integration.
• Wiki is supported via the Confluence integration.
• Snippets and two-step verification are available through Atlassian Marketplace integrations.

Pricing: BitBucket Data Center is an annual subscription. For smaller numbers of users, it’s much more expensive than the cloud-hosted option (i.e. 25 users is $2300/year or $7.67/user/month). Large organizations won’t see a price break compared with the cloud-hosted option until somewhere between 500 and 1000 users.

Learn how to use Git with BitBucket in this tutorial