Subversion Server to use on Windows

Question

What Subversion (SVN) Server would recommend a newbie get started on the Windows Server OS?

I think I'll be using TortoiseSVN on the client and will be doing .NET development mostly.

UPDATE:
Great advice. I'm picking my answer based on votes. I will try VisualSVN and CollabNet. Please read chyne's answer which I thought was really good too (+1). I'll try that method out too.

I'll come back to this question in a week or two an update with my thoughts in the comments.

Answer 1

I use VisualSVN server and find it really easy to setup and use.

Also if you're doing .NET development, look into AnkhSVN for Visual Studio integration. I have both that and tortoise SVN installed as clients.

Answer 2

Just use the standard windows distribution of the SVN server, running as a service. It works perfectly fine for me. I use TortoiseSVN for the client, as well.

Answer 3

If you're talking one person, just getting started, working on your own personal projects on a single PC, then I would recommend starting with a file system based repository and skip the server altogether. Keep it simple.

TortoiseSVN can create a local repository (on a network drive, or external drive if you need the safety of having your working copy and repository in different places).

Just create a folder somewhere for your repository, right-click it and use Tortoise's "Create Repository Here" command.

The URL of your repository will then be something like: file:///X:/path/to/repository.

You can always move your repository to a server later if necessary.

Answer 4

sliksvn simple, free and just works - runs as a service, no need for a web server.

Answer 5

Visual SVN is great, but I found it a little too magical.

I set mine up following the directions from Code Magazine.

http://www.code-magazine.com/Article.aspx?quickid=0807081

Answer 6

I had trouble with SlickSVN as you can read about here. In the end I went with the CollabNet binaries.

Answer 7

I'd just go for the basic run of the mill SVN server package, especially since you'll be using Tortoise. It's lean :)

Answer 8

I often use TortoiseSVN in combination with the offical simple Subversion server that's included with the official Subversion Windows binaries. I've created a simple batch script file that starts the server when I need it. Here it is:

@echo Starting SVNServe in daemon mode...
C:\Utils\SVN\bin\svnserve.exe -d -r C:\Repositories

As you can see I keep my repositories in C:\Repositories.

Ofcourse this is a very simple approach. If you want more security, you'd probably host the repositories on a different server etc. But on the other hand this is very easy to manage.