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Add to SafariWhen comparing Codeanywhere vs Google Cloud Shell, the Slant community recommends Codeanywhere for most people. In the question“What are the best cloud IDEs?” Codeanywhere is ranked 1st while Google Cloud Shell is ranked 10th. The most important reason people chose Codeanywhere is:
CodeAnywhere gives users full terminal access.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Full terminal access
CodeAnywhere gives users full terminal access.
Pro BitBucket integration
Integrates with BitBucket and allows logging in with your BitBucket account. It's possible to launch Codeanywhere from within BitBucket's repo by adding Codeanywhere integration as an add-on.
Pro Dropbox and Google Drive support
Codeanywhere allows connecting and pulling development files from a Dropbox or a Google Drive account, making it easy to sync development files across devices.
Pro Unlimited revisions
Each action performed on any file from any resource will be saved forever.
Pro Github integration
Integrates with Github and allows logging in with your Github account.
Pro Has mobile apps for all major mobile OSs
Codeanywhere has apps for iOS, Android, Kindle Fire, Windows, and Blackberry.
Pro SFTP access
Allows connecting code via FTP, SFTP.
Pro Good editor
Supports multiple cursors. Has code completion for JavaScript, PHP, HTML, CSS and linting for JavaScript and CSS.
Pro Allows inviting collaborators with a link
Codeanywhere has a feature called Share Links, that allows users to collaborate with others on their projects in real-time by simply sharing a link to their work.
Pro Multiple devboxes
DevBoxes are saveable, fully customizable development environments that run on either Open VZ or Docker and each has a dedicated amount of memory and disk space. Multiple devboxes can be run at the same time.
Pro SSH Terminal
Even for 3rd party SSH connections.
Pro Integration with DigitalOcean
CodeAnywhere recently partnered up with DigitalOcean. Now users can manage, spin up and provision DigitalOcean droplets all from the CodeAnywhere IDE. This is a great addition for both products, combining the power of an affordable host with the portability and power of CodeAnywhere IDE.
Pro OneDrive integration
Similar to their Dropbox integration, it gives you full access.
Pro Inexpensive
Google Cloud Shell is free for Google Cloud Platform customers.
Pro Already has Google Cloud SDK and other tooling installed
Thus eliminating a setup step for interacting with Google Cloud.
Pro Already provisioned with Google Application Default Credentials
This makes it easier to run/test code that interacts with Google APIs.
Pro VM is always up-to-date, making it more secure
Because the VM image is managed by Google and either provided entirely by Google or configured by a Dockerfile (which is regularly rebuilt), packages are far more likely to be kept up-to-date with the last patches and security fixes compared with Cloud IDEs that give you your own VM and make you, yourself, in charge of applying updates.
Pro Supports multiple open files at the same time
One can split the screen and edit two files at once, making it easy to edit one file while consulting the contents of some other file.
Pro Supports editor and terminal in the same screen
This makes it easy to run commands while editing files at the same time.
Pro Built-in integration with tmux
Pro Supports "Boost Mode"
Allowing you to provision a more powerful instance when necessary.
Pro Supports custom software packages via a Dockerfile configuring the Cloud Shell image
With Cloud Shell custom environments (an early access feature), it is possible to specify a "Dockerfile" to specify a custom VM image to use for the Cloud Shell environment. This Dockerfile can be used to install packages with apt-get, npm, pip, etc. globally.
Pro Includes Eclipse Orion IDE already configured
Eclipse Orion can be difficult to setup/configure if creating a do-it-yourself VM running Eclipse. This makes it easier to have a working IDE.
Cons
Con No debugging options found (stepping through code)
Con Non free/libre (proprietary)
Con Web terminal window doesn't always run
In many instances, opening a terminal window in CodeEnvy would continue to load eternally.
Con Customer support is virtually non-existent
Con Custom domains do not work
The custom domain feature fails at the SSL cert, even if you are bringing your own via Cloudflare, etc. Running on port 80 appears to break the site. This is especially frustrating when you paid an extra $24 for 15 custom domains that you cannot use. Support is non-existent so they will not help resolve the issue.
Con Does not jump to definitions
Unable to navigate the class definition or declaration.
Con Very unstable
It's a nice IDE when it works, but suffers a lot from instability with things like being unable to save files, or not starting up, as well as crashes, etc.
Con iOS app hasn't been updated in almost 3 years
Update as of August 20 2017.
Con Web editor on iPad is severely lacking
Codeanywhere relies on right click for major actions but doesn't support this interaction on iPad. Selecting listed Dev box URLs to access site is also unworkable in practice. iPad app allows the actions but has very limited set of Dev box controls.
Using an external keyboard with the app can also be problematic as the arrow keys don't work.
Con SSH Port will be different each time you start your DevBox
Only for Always on DevBoxes will SSH ports remain static.
Con Does not have a function name list in side panel view
Con Can't use SFTP with GIT
Con UI is not optimized and zoom is applied to the entire screen, rather than just the editor
The buttons are way too small. The UI feels washed out and opaque. Zoom (Ctrl++) is applied on the entire screen and not just on the editor.
Con 2 Factor authentication is a joke
Con Confusing, not user friendly
It's so confusing versus other IDEs. Not recommended for newbies and programming students.
Con Ephemeral Disk
Software installed globally as root (such as via "sudo apt-get install..." ) can be lost when restarting Cloud Shell; any software that needs to be persistent has to be installed in the user directory (or made part of the Docker image for the custom Cloud Shell image).
Con Minimal UI
Cloud Shell's editor is not as featureful as some alternatives.
