Every developer needs a development environment in order to get their work done. While on traditional desktop Operating Systems there are plenty of options like Visual Studio Code, Android Studios, X Code and many more, for places like your tablets or thin clients there aren’t a lot of options. We will take a look at some of the Best Browser IDEs and how you could use them.
Visual Studio Code Online
Visual Studio code online is exactly as it sounds! To access it go to https://vscode.dev and start coding! It is very simple to use and completely free. The only issue is it is not an environment that will remember your previous states and it does not have access to your local storage. So you will need to make sure you clone your code and push any changes to the origin every time before you end your session.
Codeanywhere
Codeanywhere is a great browser based IDE. It does cost money but it is a very complete solution with containers that are ready to go. These containers have been pre-configured to support common developer needs such as a WordPress container, .NET C# container and many more. You can even create custom containers for common set ups that you need.
Google Cloud Shell
The Google Cloud Shell is baked right into Google Cloud. If you are a fan of Google’s cloud service, the Cloud Shell is perfect for you. It integrates with Google Cloud’s Repositories and you can directly change and commit work from the browser. There is even a mobile app to do coding and small changes on the go. It is completely free and it is essentially a Visual Studio Code Clone so it works in the same way as you would expect VS Code to do.
GitHub Codespaces
GitHub which is now owned by Microsoft has its own solution which is a paid for solution apart from exceptions for public and private repositories. Check out their pricing plans for up to date information. However their offering is one of the best. You can request super powerful machines if you are testing complex applications or Machine Learning models. It is also great for creating environments for your development teams without needing to buy all your developers expensive machines. These development environments can be pre-configured for your team so that as soon as someone new joins they are ready to go!
These are the best browser IDEs in our opinion. However there are new ones coming out all the time so please let us know down in the comments if we missed your favourite one!