Jul 19 2009
SourceAnywhere for VSS 5.4 and SourceOffSite 4.2 Comparison
As the architect of SourceAnywhere for VSS, I was asked by many users about the performance of SourceAnywhere for VSS compared with other products.
Recently, I did the test. Now I am posting the result here with the hope that it can save your time evaluating different SourceSafe remote access tools. I mainly focus on the features and remote-access performance comparison.
Below is the result:
Feature Comparison
| Features |  |
SourceOffSite |
| Performance Features | ||
| Data compression |  |
|
| Client/Server architecture | |
|
| Cache Server | |
 |
| Delta Transfer | |
|
| Multithread file transfer | |
|
| Security Features | ||
| Client/Server Architecture | |
|
| Blowfish encryption | |
|
| 128 SSL | |
|
| Password policy | |
|
| Independent VSS database access control | |
|
| IDE Integration | ||
| Visual Studio 6/2003/2005/2008 | |
|
| SQL Server 2005 | |
|
| Eclipse Plug-in | |
|
| Dreamweaver | |
|
| Cross Platform | ||
| Windows | |
|
| Linux | |
|
| Mac | |
|
| Solaris | |
|
| AIX | |
|
| SCO | |
|
| Any Java compatible platform | |
|
Performance Test
Result: (Unit: second)
| SourceAnywhere for VSS with cache server | SourceAnywhere for VSS without cache server | SourceOffSite (no cache server is available) | |
| Add | 195 | 193 | 408 |
| Get (no local file exists) | 175 | 213 | 1256 |
| Check out (no local file exists) | 189 | 232 | 1409 |
| Check out (all local files exist) | 79 | 90 | 160 |
| Check in (no file is changed) | 177 | 189 | 723 |
| Check in (All files are changed) | 259 | 273 | 842 |
Test Environment:
There are 3 machines used in the test:
Server : CPU Intel P4 2.66G, 256M RAM, Win 2003 Std sp1; SourceAnywhere for VSS Server 5.3.1; SourceOffSite Server 4.2
Client: CPU Intel P4 3.0G, 512M RAM, 160GB 5400RPM HD, Win XP sp2; SourceAnywhere for VSS Server 5.3.1; SourceOffSite Client 4.2
Cache server: CPU Intel Celeron 2.66G, 512M RAM, 160GB 5400RPM HD, Win2003 Std SP1; SourceAnywhere for VSS Cache Server 5.3.1
Broadband connection is used between the client and server machine.
The cache server and client are on the same LAN, which connects to the server through office ADSL.
Test Software:
SourceAnywhere for VSS 5.4, SourceAnywhere for VSS 5.4 Cache Server 5.4, SourceAnywhere for VSS Client 5.4.
SourceOffSite Server 4.2, SourceOffSite Client 4.2.
Test Data:
1. A project with 1,500 files; Total size is 17.1 MB.
2. 1,000 changed files (used for check-in).
3. Server and Client machines are restarted before each test.
I attached the test data I used here. You can download it and do the test in your own environment if you like.
Test method:
Every operation is carried out 5 times. The highest and lowest results are eliminated. The average value is calculated.
