My experience with Gitpod Cloud IDE

#gitpod #cloudide

An important note: Gitpod.io is not a service from GitHub. They were two separate companies.

As of now, it's still in public BETA (so no prices) - according to their official representative. Gitpod, which is said to extend GitHub, is an online integrated development environment (IDE). So basically, it's a cloud IDE.

Gitpod promises to provide the user with a fully working development environment. What? Another cloud IDE? Gitpod says that it doesn't aim at replacing desktop development because admit it, nothing beats the old school user interface.

Don't worry, Gitpod heard you on that one. What it's looking forward to doing now is to make GitHub more accessible through Gitpod. You don't have to maintain your projects using the dashboards. The Gitpod IDE safely stores any work you've done on GitHub.

So how has it done in terms of its ease of use, performance, and everything else you're looking for in an IDE?

Here's a brief look.

It has a very reasonable pricing range. It's true when they said that it's not too overwhelming. The interface is clean enough. The experience is just what I needed Issues and pull requests are the stars of the show.

It supports web applications like your other third-party extensions.

1. It has a very reasonable pricing range.

This is probably one thing that you will encounter before proceeding to the service itself. After signing up, Gitpod will now offer you a choice of plans, depending on your needs. The price ranges from USD 7 to 21 per user per monthly usage. However, what's good is that you can start small by choosing the free plan first and upgrading once you've decided on committing on using the app for a long time. If you are also working within a team, there is also a plan suited for your organization.

2. It's true when they said that it's not too overwhelming.

What's good about Gitpod is that it goes straight to the point. Creating a repository is as blunt as it could be. There is also a quick setup guide that you could use (just in case you are one of those people who has just started coding) which will help you launch initially your file. GitHub didn't forget their desktop users. If you've been using the desktop version for quite some time, you have the option to set up your file using GitHub instead.

3. The interface is clean enough.

I am the user who wants a clean user interface. By clean, I mean white background, few colors involved, and easy-to-read fonts. The buttons are located conveniently where they are supposed to go and some of it even has supporting instructions just in case you are not familiar with what it is supposed to do. The coding field shall also receive a thumbs up from me. If you're new to coding, its interface is much like what you can see in any blog hosting sites out there.

You can code using one window under the edit new file tab and have a live preview of what you have written will look like. If you compare it to most of the desktop apps, it's here in the interface which will differ big time. Gitpod doesn't have all the annoying dashboards that you usually get in a desktop version. Overall, the interface is pretty clean.

4. The experience is just what I needed.

Okay, so what will first ask you to do is to create a workspace. In my experience, it was a lot easier to start a new project with Gitpod than with other any cloud IDEs I have tried out wherein other information is needed such as Git information. So basically, Gitpod will give you a workspace that is ready to use so you won't have to go through any steps for configuration.

Don't worry, though. I know that as coders, we all have our different setups for each project that we do. Gitpod fully supports this by having a process to determine how will your workspace be configured.

It's not uniform for everyone but it will adjust based on what type of setup you'll need.

5. Issues and pull requests are the stars of the show.

I can say that issues and pull requests are one of the most used features on GitHub. With what I have experienced, I tried to start by working with an issue that has been provided on the Gitpod dashboard page.

I wasn't expecting it to be a clean slate or a fresh workspace but it was. There is already a set up that I could immediately use to code and test. So that's how it went for the issues requests part.

6. It supports web applications like your other third-party extensions.

So, it's on the cloud which means that it is stored over the Internet. But being in the cloud is more than just storage but you can work on your code while you are in a browser. This is completely logical because as programmers, we spend so much time on the internet so what better way to bring in your work while surfing the Net, right?

Like any other web party apps out there, Gitpod also supports your site through extensions. Gitpod says that they added this function for users to create a workspace with just one click of a button.

They added this because if you don't install the extension, you would have to type out a prefix any GitHub URL with Gitpod.io#. Skip the hassle and just add it on. It worked with my Chrome browser and it supports Firefox as well. No news for Microsoft Edge, Safari, and the likes.

I truly hope that first impressions do last because, at first glance, Gitpod has met my expectations and lived up to its claims. So far, I haven't seen any bumps and I looked up if people are experiencing problems when it comes to using it over the net... and so far I have found very minimal issues.

Yes, of course, any app will have issues but what's good with Gitpod is that it has a provided solution so you can resolve it right away. People who use Gitpod says that they use the Cloud IDE for editing, compiling and running the code while they are reviewing and it's a factor that should be attributed to the reason why it's running on the cloud.

Overall, with all of these features, Gitpod is sure worth the try.

Here are some screenshots I take from Gitpod IDE, trying to play with Rails sample application. Just click the image to see the larger version in a new tab.