Update 2009-02-07: I am thanking Jason Fowler for pointing out that assemba does not offer free private svn hosting anymore. I tried logging in at my assembla account (yay, it’s been ages since) and my private spaces were marked readonly. For alternatives, check out Straw Dogs’ List

On one of my free days, I was on a lookout for a free subversion hosting, for a private project. There are several free SVN hosting for opensource projects (Sourceforge.net, Google, berlios.de among others) but I needed one for a private (read: closed) project. A quick google and forum reads led me to Assembla.com.

Assembla tags itself as “inspired by open-source”. Behind assembla seems to be a lean-mean global consulting firm. Assembla offers project hosting packed with features such us project management (via Trac), source code management (via Subversion), wikis, dicussion boards, releases. Registering to the services entitles you the privilege to manage and join projects, open-source or private. These features come free and standard.

I’m surprised to see that they’re offering all these “standard” features for free, considering the hosting support for private projects.
Well, the firm behind Assembla are focusing on what they call full service consulting and this is primarily where their revenue is. For me, I thankful for them to have opened such service. I couldn’t ask more; it’s free, private and for me, I just heavily use their SVN service. I have yet to take full advantage of the service. I will be soon inviting others to join my projects, with the intention to practice collaborative development; go agile!