# ProjectLocker.com — SVN Hosting Market Analysis

**Date:** February 28, 2026  
**Prepared for:** Brian  
**Classification:** Brutally honest

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## 1. SVN Market Status (2025–2026)

### Is SVN Still Used?

Yes, but it's a shrinking niche. SVN was the second most popular VCS in the 2022 Stack Overflow Developer Survey, but that's a distant second — Git dominates with 90%+ adoption. The gap widens every year.

**Key inflection point:** GitHub officially removed SVN protocol support on January 8, 2024. This was a loud signal to the industry that SVN is legacy technology. SourceForge publicly pledged to "never end Subversion support" — which tells you everything about who's left in this market.

### Who Still Uses SVN?

Based on Assembla's market research and RhodeCode's enterprise analysis, SVN persists in:

| Industry | Why SVN Sticks |
|---|---|
| **Semiconductors / Chip Design** | Massive binary files (GDSII layouts), centralized locking is essential |
| **Government / Defense** | Compliance mandates, change-averse procurement, classified networks |
| **Aerospace / Automotive** | DO-178C, ISO 26262 compliance — auditors know SVN, not Git |
| **Film / Animation / VFX** | Large binary assets, centralized workflow fits artist pipelines |
| **Video Games** | Large asset repos (art, audio), though Perforce dominates here |
| **Manufacturing** | CAD files, hardware design, legacy toolchains |
| **Embedded Systems** | Legacy codebases, conservative engineering culture |
| **Legacy Enterprise** | "It works, don't touch it" — the most honest reason |

### Market Size & Trajectory

There are no reliable public numbers for "SVN hosting market size." It's too small for analyst firms to track separately. What we know:

- 6sense tracks ~3,800 companies using SVN (as of their latest data), but this includes self-hosted
- The hosted SVN market is a tiny fraction of that
- The market is **definitively shrinking**, not stable — every year, more teams migrate to Git
- The decline is slow, not catastrophic — regulated industries move slowly by design

**Verdict:** SVN is in managed decline. It's not dead, but it's on life support. The remaining users are sticky (compliance, legacy), but they're not growing.

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## 2. Competitor Landscape

### Active Competitors

| Provider | Pricing | SVN Support | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| **Assembla** | $16/user/month (Team plan, packs of 5) | SVN + Git + Perforce | **Thriving** — pivoted to Perforce hosting, enterprise focus. Actively marketing SVN-to-Perforce migration. The 800-lb gorilla in this space. |
| **Beanstalk** (Wildbit) | $15–$200/month (flat, not per-user) | SVN + Git | **Stable/coasting** — profitable, debt-free, privately owned. No visible growth push. Classic lifestyle business. |
| **Perforce TeamHub** | Enterprise pricing (free tier killed July 2025) | SVN + Git + Mercurial | **Alive but deprioritized** — Perforce cares about Helix Core, not SVN hosting. TeamHub is a side product. |
| **SourceForge** | Free (open-source projects) | SVN + Git + Mercurial | **Alive** — publicly committed to SVN forever. But only for open-source. Not a competitor for private repos. |
| **ProjectLocker** | $19–$99/month (flat) | SVN + Git | **You're here** |

### Dead / Dying Competitors

| Provider | Status |
|---|---|
| **CloudForge** | **Dead.** Shut down by Perforce. Redirected users to Helix TeamHub. |
| **RiouxSVN** | **Dead.** Domain expired October 2024. SSL cert expired September 2024. Gone. |
| **Unfuddle** | **Effectively dead.** No meaningful updates in years. |
| **GitHub (SVN bridge)** | **Dead.** Removed January 8, 2024. |

### What This Means

The competitive field is consolidating. Smaller players are dying off. Assembla is the clear market leader for hosted SVN and is actively investing in the space (they're smart — they're using SVN as a gateway drug to sell Perforce hosting at $39/user/month). Beanstalk is the other survivor, running a quiet lifestyle business.

**ProjectLocker's position:** You're in a shrinking field where the top competitor (Assembla) has more features, more marketing, and a clear upsell path. But you're also cheaper for small teams.

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## 3. ProjectLocker Specifically

### Current Offering

From projectlocker.com (fetched Feb 2026):

| Plan | Price | Users | Storage | Projects |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Venture | $19/mo | 5 | 5GB | 5 |
| Equity | $49/mo | 20 | 10GB | Unlimited |
| IPO | $99/mo | 50 | 25GB | Unlimited |
| Enterprise | Contact | 100+ | 25-100+GB | Unlimited |

**Features:** SVN + Git hosting, Trac (bug tracking, wiki, milestones), automatic deployment, IP-based access restrictions (SVN), fine-grained directory permissions, BuildLocker CI (Equity+), integrations (Basecamp, FogBugz, HipChat — note: some of these are themselves dead products).

### Strengths
- Simple, flat pricing (not per-user like Assembla)
- Trac integration is a differentiator for teams that use it
- Cheaper than Assembla for small teams (5 users = $19/mo vs Assembla's $80/mo minimum)
- Has been around for 15+ years — longevity signals reliability

### Weaknesses
- Website feels dated (mentions HipChat, Basecamp, FogBugz — products from another era)
- No visible marketing or content strategy
- No Perforce integration (Assembla's big upsell)
- Trac is itself aging technology
- No public API documentation visible
- Integration list is stale
- No SOC 2 or compliance certifications mentioned (critical for the regulated industries that still use SVN)

### Online Reputation

- **Reddit mentions:** Sparse and old. Most references are from 2010–2018. Users mentioned ProjectLocker as a budget option for private SVN/Git repos. No recent (2023+) mentions found.
- **G2/review sites:** Minimal review presence.
- **Hacker News:** No significant mentions found.
- **General sentiment:** Not negative — just invisible. Nobody's complaining, but nobody's recommending it either.

**The silence is the story.** ProjectLocker isn't generating word-of-mouth, positive or negative. It's a ghost in the market.

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## 4. Growth Paths — Is There ANY Way to Grow?

### Option A: SVN-to-Git Migration Services
- **Opportunity:** Real but limited. GitHub's SVN sunset (Jan 2024) created a one-time migration wave, but that's largely passed.
- **Problem:** Migration is a one-time revenue event, not recurring. And there are plenty of free tools (git-svn, svn2git) and consultancies that already do this.
- **Verdict:** Small opportunity. Not a business builder.

### Option B: Target Regulated Industries (Government, Aerospace, Defense)
- **Opportunity:** This is where the real SVN money is. These industries need:
  - SOC 2 Type II compliance
  - FedRAMP authorization (for US government)
  - ITAR compliance (defense)
  - Detailed audit trails
  - On-prem or GovCloud hosting options
- **Problem:** Getting these certifications costs $50K–$200K+ and takes 6–12 months. The sales cycle for government contracts is brutal. Assembla is already here.
- **Verdict:** The only real growth path, but requires significant investment that may not make sense for a small operation.

### Option C: Compliance-Focused SVN Hosting
- **Opportunity:** Position as "the SVN host for teams that need audit trails and compliance" without going full FedRAMP.
  - SOC 2 certification
  - Detailed commit audit logs
  - Data residency options (EU, US)
  - SSO/SAML integration
- **Problem:** Still requires investment. Assembla already does this.
- **Verdict:** More realistic than Option B, but still requires capital and effort.

### Option D: Niche Down — Game Dev / VFX / Design
- **Opportunity:** These industries deal with large binary files where SVN's centralized model and file locking actually make sense.
- **Problem:** Perforce owns this market. Game studios that care about version control use Perforce, not SVN.
- **Verdict:** Uphill battle against a dominant incumbent.

### Option E: Do Nothing, Ride the Long Tail
- **Opportunity:** SVN isn't dying tomorrow. Existing customers are sticky. Competitors are dying (CloudForge, RiouxSVN gone). As others exit, some of their customers may land on ProjectLocker.
- **Problem:** Revenue will slowly decline as customers eventually migrate to Git.
- **Verdict:** The most realistic option. See below.

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## 5. Honest Verdict

### The Math

ProjectLocker is a small SVN hosting business in a shrinking market. Let's be real about what that means:

**The good:**
- Competitors are dying off (CloudForge dead, RiouxSVN dead, Perforce TeamHub free tier killed). Every exit potentially sends a few customers your way.
- Existing SVN users in regulated industries are extremely sticky. They won't migrate to Git unless forced.
- Flat pricing is competitive for small teams vs. Assembla's per-user model.
- Infrastructure costs for SVN hosting are low and well-understood.

**The bad:**
- The market is shrinking. Every year, fewer new SVN projects start.
- Assembla is the clear leader and is actively investing in the space.
- ProjectLocker's web presence is dated and invisible.
- No compliance certifications = locked out of the most valuable remaining customers.

### Recommendation

**Let it ride as passive income.** Here's why:

1. **The investment required to grow doesn't justify the returns.** Getting SOC 2 certified, modernizing the platform, and building a sales pipeline for regulated industries would cost $100K+ and 12+ months of effort — for a market that's shrinking 5-10% per year.

2. **The passive income play is actually decent.** As competitors die, you may pick up stragglers. Keep the lights on, keep the service reliable, and let the long tail play out. SVN won't hit zero for another decade.

3. **If you want to invest anything, invest in SEO and a website refresh.** The cheapest growth lever is making sure that when someone Googles "SVN hosting" (and they still do), ProjectLocker shows up and looks credible. Update the integrations list (remove HipChat, add Slack/Teams). Add a "migrate from CloudForge" landing page. This is a weekend project, not a capital investment.

4. **Consider a "migrate to Git" offering as a graceful exit ramp.** Help your existing customers migrate when they're ready, charge a one-time fee, and earn goodwill. This is customer service, not a growth strategy.

5. **Don't pour money into a declining market.** Brian's time and capital are better spent on something with a growth trajectory. ProjectLocker can keep generating passive income for years with minimal maintenance.

### TL;DR

SVN hosting is a slowly melting ice cube. ProjectLocker is a solid ice cube in a warming room. Don't invest in a bigger freezer — just collect the water while it lasts.

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*Research conducted February 2026. Sources: projectlocker.com, assembla.com, beanstalkapp.com, GitHub Blog, SourceForge, 6sense, RhodeCode, G2, Reddit, Stack Overflow surveys, various industry analyses.*
