GitHub Desktop alternative
GitHub Desktop got you started. This goes further.
GitHub Desktop is free and deliberately minimal. Meridian is a full, native Git client for the Mac: stage by file or hunk, stash, cherry-pick, resolve conflicts, read history as a graph, and render Markdown, CSV and JSON diffs as documents. It opens from the terminal (mrd) in under a second. macOS only.
Free 14-day trial | One licence, three Macs
Why people look
Minimal by design, and it stays that way
GitHub Desktop is built for the "never had a GUI" moment, and it's good at it. The friction arrives later: it is Electron-based, which shows on big repositories; it has no worktree support at all, just as agents started creating worktrees; and everything is a line diff, so a reworded README or an edited CSV reads as a wall of red and green.
If you've hit any of those, you've outgrown it. That's the moment Meridian is built for.
At a glance
Meridian vs GitHub Desktop
| Meridian | GitHub Desktop | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $49 $29, one-time | Free |
| Native | ✓ Tauri/Rust | ✕ Electron |
| Fast on big repos | ✓ 53k files, ~0.8s status | ✕ Electron; slows on monorepos |
| Worktrees | ✓ a titled window each | ✕ |
| Rendered preview (Markdown / SVG / CSV / JSON) | ✓ old vs new, synced scroll | ✕ line diff only |
| Terminal launch | ✓ mrd, under a second | ⚠︎ not the primary entry |
| Stash a single file | ✓ | ✕ |
| Command palette (⌘K) | ✓ | ✕ |
| Works with GitHub | ✓ and any git host | ✓ GitHub-first |
| Platform | macOS (Intel + Apple silicon) | macOS + Windows |
The difference in practice
Read the change, then commit it
The gap shows up the day an agent rewrites a README. In a line diff, a reworded paragraph is noise; in Meridian's rendered preview, it's two versions of a document, side by side, scrolling in sync. Then you're in a full client: stage the hunks you agree with, stash what you don't, commit, and open the PR. See a rendered Markdown diff
Where GitHub Desktop is the right answer
It's free, it's cross-platform, and its guided flow is genuinely good for a first repository. If that's the job, keep it. Meridian is for the day the job gets bigger: worktrees, stashes, a real history graph, and diffs you read instead of decode.
Migration
Nothing to import
Both apps read the same repositories on disk, so there is no migration. cd into a repo, type mrd, and Meridian opens it with your SSH keys, credential helpers, hooks and commit signing untouched, because it shells out to the same git your terminal uses.
Also compared: Fork alternative | GitKraken alternative | Best Git client for Mac
FAQ
Switching from GitHub Desktop, answered
Is Meridian free like GitHub Desktop?
No. GitHub Desktop is free. Meridian is $29 one-time (launch price, $49 standard), 1 user on 3 machines, 12 months of updates then keep what you have. There is a free trial: the download is the trial, 14 days, extendable to 30 with your email.
Does GitHub Desktop support git worktrees?
No. GitHub Desktop has no worktree support, and worktrees are exactly what AI coding agents create when they work in parallel. Meridian lists a repo's worktrees and opens each one in its own titled window. New to worktrees? Read the guide
Does Meridian work with GitHub?
Yes, and with any git host. Meridian shells out to your system git, so the SSH keys and credential helpers you already use for GitHub keep working. "Open PR" builds the GitHub compare URL for your branch and opens it in your browser.
Do I have to stop using GitHub Desktop?
No. Both apps read the same repositories on disk. Keep GitHub Desktop for what it does well and open the same repo in Meridian when you want the history graph, hunk staging, stashes, or a rendered Markdown, CSV or JSON diff.