Codeanywhere – the review

I clicked on “free account”, I wrote an email and password and boom, already registred!

Once logged in it asked me which preinstalled “stack” I want to use, from:

• PHP
• Node.js
• Ruby
• Python
• C++
• HTML5

Or, I can just connect to my own VM via SSH.

For example, PHP says:

PHP Development Box on Ubuntu 14.04 with Apache, PHP, MySQL, phpMyAdmin and Composer preinstalled. 

Starting up is very quick, the virtual machine is created in a few seconds, and Apache is already listening on port 80.

In less than a minute I can publish online a php file.

It’s well integrated with GIT.

The only drawback is that everything is organized like “every project gets its own virtual machine”, with GIT and Apache set to work in the main directory.

Of course, since it’s a virtual machine, I can live without native integration, I configure Apache and git in my way via command line, but that’s not as comfortable as doing with a few clicks.

It can automatically save files, but it’s disabled by default, because the free version doesn’t keep the edit history: if you pay you can get the history, and that’s a nice feature for who doesn’t want to use GIT and prefers to save on Dropbox.

Another great thing is that the SSH public key of the virtual machine can be generated and copied with just one click on the username, so it’s very fit for git. About git, when I have a commit, I can’t select a single file, but it’s “all or nothing”. I think this is still because of the logic “every project gets its own virtual machine”, and this makes sense: why should I sign up to the Freelance edition and pay $7 monthly if the free version can easily allow me to manage an unlimited amount of projects? If I don’t pay I have to set and use apache/git/other tool from the command line. If I was to use this webapp everyday for work, the Freelance subscription would be a no-brainer. It’s so handy to have a perfectly “clean” virtual machine with the right tools and always available for every project?

If you register to Codeanywhere using my link:
http://codeanywhere.com/referralsignup/?r=44733c37687e396531
you will receive $15 in free credit if you sign up for a paid subscription.