I've used BBDB for years, and have tried org-contact, but it didn't seem to scale to the now rather large size of my BBDB database.
I've looked at migrating to EBDB but as I have many custom functions I haven't yet made the move. BBDB can do amazing things. I've mentioned some of them before. Of course org links are supported, and in conjunction with the 'gnorb' package, Gnus email can be associated with BBDB entries in interesting ways. I use BBDB to easily maintain a slew of mailing lists. I also have custom functions to set the input language mode for those with whom I correspond in non-English languages. I even use BBDB to initiate phone calls when I'm on my desktop computer. I hadn't thought to put BBDB under version control but that would be very easy. However you don't need to get fancy right away. All the basics are there. Like many things Emacs, it does take time to get things set up the way you wish, but that time is well repaid down the road a little. -- Bob Newell Honolulu, Hawai`i - Via GNU/Linux/Emacs/Gnus/BBDB