Reasons To Love Gitpod
I just checked the logs, and it's almost my 2 years to the day since I started using and paying for Gitpod. So I thought I'd explain why I love it so much.
I've tried or used most products in the "Cloud IDE" space, which is getting hotter by the day. But I've stuck with Gitpod for longer than most for a few reasons:
- It's simple, and simple to use. Other products try to incorporate "community" into their products in various ways. Like snippet sharing, an ability to search sandbox environments publicly, etc. But these usually incur a simplicity cost.
- It's reliable, and fast. I've rarely run into issues with it. Bearing in mind it's used by 250,000 developers from companies like Amazon, Facebook, Uber, Google and GitLab, this is some feat. Workspace start up times are super fast.
- It's great value. I have no problem paying over and above "typical" market prices for products that I genuinely love and use. Gitpod isn't the cheapest option out there, but it's definitely the best value. Better value than most "free" options. It's a pleasure to pay for.
- The browser extension workflow is a game changer. This is what first attracted me to Gitpod. Getting from public or private repo (on GitHub, GitLab or Bitbucket) to fully working developer environment literally takes a click. Context URLs work well, too, if browser extensions aren't your thing.
- It's Open Source, and supports Open Source. If self hosting is your thing, or need to host on your own infrastructure, a variety of options for Enterprise customers, students, and open source projects are available. Because Gitpod is open sourced, you'll benefit from new features and fixes from the community.
Sven and the team at Gitpod have built something really special, and they've built it (and a mostly remote team) out of Kiel, Germany 🇩🇪 🇪🇺.