Comparing Merge, Rebase, and Squash Methods for Pull Requests

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Most Git hosting platforms provide three pull‑request merge options—Merge, Rebase, and Squash. This article compares these methods to help developers understand their differences and choose the right one.

Different PR merge methods and their pros/cons

Merge (No Fast‑forward): creates a separate merge commit and retains all commits from the source branch.

Rebase: rewrites the source branch commits onto the target branch without creating a separate merge commit.

Squash: compresses all source branch commits into a single commit before merging.

Merge

Rebase

Squash

Preserve original branch history

Yes

Yes

No

Create independent commit record

Yes

No

Yes

Remove sensitive information

No

No

Yes

Rewrite target branch history

No

Yes

No

Linearity of history

Low

High

High

Number of history entries

Many

Medium

Few

Three illustrative images show the visual differences: Image 1 demonstrates that Merge retains both the original branch commits and the merge commit; Image 2 shows Rebase exposing only the original branch history; Image 3 shows Squash keeping only a single merged commit while discarding the original branch history.

General recommendations:

When the purpose of a PR is to keep a complete, auditable record, Merge or Squash (both create a distinct merge commit) are preferable to Rebase.

If sensitive information was accidentally committed, Squash can remove that history at the cost of losing the original branch’s detailed commit log.

Based on these points, the article suggests using Merge by default to preserve history, but switching to Squash when the source branch contains sensitive data that must be eliminated.

References:

Why I’m against merging pull requests in squash mode or rebase mode?

What’s the Difference Between the 3 Github Merge Methods?

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