When comparing Nitrous vs CodeTogether, the Slant community recommends CodeTogether for most people. In the question“What are the best editors for remote pair programming?” CodeTogether is ranked 2nd while Nitrous is ranked 3rd. The most important reason people chose CodeTogether is:
Even for remote participants, unlike screen sharing or other remote programming solutions, your code appears as you type, with no lag - as if you were using a local editor.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Desktop application
Nitrous Desktop syncs files so you can edit them with your preferred text editor and offers box management from the app.
Pro GitHub Integration
Integrates with GitHub and allows for SSH keys for secure transfer. Additionally, allows logging in with yout GitHub account.
Pro Customizable Development Environment
Pro Slick UI
The interface is well designed and powerful.
Pro World Accessible URLs - Preview Your Application
Since you are using a linux box on the internet you are able to expose your apps to the world out of the box.
No messing around with firewalls or NAT. It Just Works.
This is most useful when needing to demonstrate or work on a task with other people who are not on the same LAN as you.
Pro Framework setup is painless
Installing a new Framework for programming, setting up the dev env, could turn into a nightmare, With Nitrous just create an account and jump to the write code, no setup pain at all, specially if you are in windows.
Pro Upgradeability
There are ways of upgrading your box that don't involve spending money such as social outreach and referrals.
Pro Allows you to edit locally with provided Atom plugin
Nitrous.io recently developed (in open beta) a plugin for Atom called Nitrogen which allows you to work locally within Atom, utilizing all of the features and plugins you enjoy in Atom, as well as having the sync capabilities of their original desktop sync app.
In short, it's brought the power of Atom and it's extensive plugin community to Nitrous's ability to provision and maintain development/production environments all in one package.
Pro Heroku, Azure, Nodejitsu integration
Pro Collaboration features
Pro Live online support
You can get live support and fairly quickly. If they cannot get to you fast enough you can leave a message and they get back to you within 24 hours via email or chat.
Pro Erlang support
You can get erlang up and running easily.
Pro Typing is instantaneous
Even for remote participants, unlike screen sharing or other remote programming solutions, your code appears as you type, with no lag - as if you were using a local editor.
Pro Content assist, validation, navigation, and other dev capabilities available
Participants who join coding sessions have access to all coding capabilities, even in a browser.
Pro Participants join using any browser
Participants simply open a link to join a session in any modern browser. No downloads, installations or registrations required.
Pro Run tests & launches
Guests can remotely run tests, analyze the results and can even write tests, allowing test-driven development (TDD) in a remote environment. Guests can also execute run configurations from the host IDE, remotely launching applications with the ability to stop and monitor the invocations.
Pro Can join in a browser
Pro Heterogeneous IDE-IDE Support between Eclipse, IntelliJ & VS Code
You can start a session in any supported IDE, and participants can join from their own IDEs, even if different from the one the host is using.
Pro Low CPU Consumption
For hosts and participants, far more performant than screen sharing, very low CPU consumption.
Pro Supports multiple groups of developers
Groups of developers are independent from each other - they can code or browse without affecting other groups in the same session.
Pro On-premises version available
For maximum security, an on-premises version allows you to run your own private instance of CodeTogether behind the firewall.
Pro Simultaneous editing supported
Whether coding independently or in a group, multiple developers can code simultaneously in a session, even in the same file.
Pro Team Support
View other members of your team connected to the CodeTogether service, easily and securely invite them to sessions, or join already running sessions. https://www.codetogether.com/docs/codetogether-teams/
Pro SSO Integration
Access to CodeTogether can be gated through SSO providers like Okta, Microsoft AD FS, etc., which support the OpenID Connect protocol. https://www.codetogether.com/docs/sso/
Pro Shared terminal and console
Console output is visible to all participants. Participants can request write access to terminals on the host and execute commands in them.
Cons
Con Very pricey
Very pricey if you wish to use it for your regular cloud IDE and work on more than 5 projects.
Con Service shut down November 14, 2016
Con Old free account options available beyond 1st July 2015
The old free account will only available until 1st July 2015 and going to be replaced with new ones.
Con No shared debug capability
Cannot currently debug together in a session.