How much does Mercurial cost?

Mercurial is free to use. We verified this against the vendor's own page; see "What we checked" below for the date.

Does Mercurial have a free plan?

Yes. Mercurial is free to use at its base level.

What are the main drawbacks of Mercurial?

The trade-offs we noted: Hosting not included: Access control, code review, issues and remote availability require hgweb or a compatible external service.; Integration validation: Teams must confirm that chosen IDE, CI, deployment and hosting tools support Mercurial.; Extension compatibility: Archived installation guidance warns that internal API changes can break extensions or dependent tools..

When should you not use Mercurial?

Skip Mercurial if: A required hosting or delivery service supports only another version-control system; Critical extensions are unmaintained or depend on unstable Mercurial internals; You expect the core tool to include hosted reviews, identity management and backups.

Developer Tools

Mercurial

Free distributed source control with local history and Python extensions.

What it is

Mercurial is GPL-licensed distributed source-control software in which each normal repository copy contains local project history for offline commits, branches and merges. The Python-based core can be extended with bundled or external extensions, but hosting, review workflows, identity, backups and CI are separate choices that must explicitly support Mercurial repositories.

Mercurial pricing

Mercurial does not publish a plan ladder we could verify. Free.

Prices read from the vendor's own pricing page on 2026-08-24. Vendors change plans without notice — check the source before you budget. Price verification log.

Key features

Local repositories
Keeps project history locally for offline commit, diff, branch and merge operations.
Clone, pull and push
Exchanges changesets between independently administered repositories.
Named branches and bookmarks
Provides multiple mechanisms for organizing lines and heads of development.
Extensions
Adds or changes commands through bundled, third-party or custom Python modules.

Strengths and trade-offs

What works well

Distributed operation: Developers can commit and inspect full local history without a central server connection.
Consistent core interface: The project documents a compact command model with hazardous behavior moved behind opt-in extensions.
Extension system: Bundled and external Python extensions can add commands or alter workflows.
Active releases: The official project page lists maintained release notes through the current release line.

Where it falls short

Hosting not included: Access control, code review, issues and remote availability require hgweb or a compatible external service.
Integration validation: Teams must confirm that chosen IDE, CI, deployment and hosting tools support Mercurial.
Extension compatibility: Archived installation guidance warns that internal API changes can break extensions or dependent tools.
Archived wiki risk: The former project wiki is explicitly marked discontinued and potentially outdated, so current docs take precedence.

Who it is for

Teams maintaining Mercurial repositories or selecting a distributed VCS after confirming compatible hosting and delivery integrations.

Pick it or skip it

Pick Mercurial if

Existing Mercurial codebases that need continued distributed version control
Teams whose required host, CI and editor integrations explicitly support Mercurial
Workflows that benefit from Mercurial's core command model and selected extensions

Skip it if

A required hosting or delivery service supports only another version-control system
Critical extensions are unmaintained or depend on unstable Mercurial internals
You expect the core tool to include hosted reviews, identity management and backups

Our verdict

Choose Mercurial on verified workflow fit, not broad ecosystem assumptions; inventory every host, extension and CI integration, then test upgrades against that exact toolchain.

Frequently asked questions

How much does Mercurial cost?: Mercurial is free to use. We verified this against the vendor's own page; see "What we checked" below for the date.
Does Mercurial have a free plan?: Yes. Mercurial is free to use at its base level.
Who is Mercurial best for?: Teams maintaining Mercurial repositories or selecting a distributed VCS after confirming compatible hosting and delivery integrations.
What are the main drawbacks of Mercurial?: The trade-offs we noted: Hosting not included: Access control, code review, issues and remote availability require hgweb or a compatible external service.; Integration validation: Teams must confirm that chosen IDE, CI, deployment and hosting tools support Mercurial.; Extension compatibility: Archived installation guidance warns that internal API changes can break extensions or dependent tools..
When should you not use Mercurial?: Skip Mercurial if: A required hosting or delivery service supports only another version-control system; Critical extensions are unmaintained or depend on unstable Mercurial internals; You expect the core tool to include hosted reviews, identity management and backups.

What we checked

Public APIOffers a documented API you can build against.No
Mobile appHas a native app for iOS or Android, not just a mobile website.No
Open source / self-hostableSource is open and the tool can be run on your own infrastructure.Yes
SSO (SAML)Supports SAML single sign-on on at least one plan.No

“Not checked” means exactly that — we have not verified it, and we do not guess.

Evidence and freshness

Status: Official sources reviewedReviewed: 2026-08-24

Mercurial — About ↗
Checked 2026-08-24 · Supports: distributed architecture, local full history, branching and merging, platform implementation, extension model, GPLv2-or-later license, current release notes
Mercurial Help — Commands ↗
Checked 2026-08-24 · Supports: core commands, clone pull and push, commit and merge, branches and bookmarks, repository operations
Mercurial Help — Extensions ↗
Checked 2026-08-24 · Supports: extension activation, bundled extensions, third-party extensions, configuration, compatibility responsibility
Mercurial — 7.2 release notes ↗
Checked 2026-08-24 · Supports: 2026 maintenance releases, behavior changes, bug and corruption fixes, Python support, experimental feature boundaries, upgrade evidence
Mercurial Wiki archive — Publishing repositories ↗
Checked 2026-08-24 · Supports: archived-document warning, hgweb publishing, temporary hg serve boundary, authentication requirement, external hosting choices
Mercurial Wiki archive — Download ↗
Checked 2026-08-24 · Supports: archived-document warning, source packages, binary package paths, internal API stability warning, extension breakage risk

Limit: Official current pages and explicitly marked archived project documentation were reviewed; ToolCompare did not benchmark Mercurial, migrate a repository, test hosting or CI integrations, audit extensions, exercise recovery or compare team adoption with another VCS.

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