@ag I also use diff-hl but I seem to remember this is only because I prefer the style of markings in the margin that diff-hl makes. I will try git-gutter again, as I notice that it will show changes to the unsaved parts of the file too. This is the relevant parts of my .spacemacs layer configuration

(git :variables
          git-magit-status-fullscreen t
          git-enable-github-support t
          git-gutter-use-fringe t)

     (version-control :variables
                      version-control-diff-tool 'diff-hl
                      version-control-global-margin t) 

Hm, I really like the way diff-hl highlights things but staging hunks is also something that I'd use a lot — from what I gather that only works with git-gutter?