Developers write code in an integrated development environment (IDE), which is usually installed on their workstation. A WebIDE runs in the cloud, allowing one to work from any device that has a browser. In this article we only consider open source products.
I’ve used a WebIDE for more than a year now and love it. It has allowed me to use a chromebook now and do everything in the cloud.
Let’s start with my current IDE, ACE/Cloud9, which became part of AWS making it likely to be maintained.
| Editor | Backend | Stars | Last commit |
|---|---|---|---|
| ACE/Cloud9 | Node.js | 19148 | Feb 4, 2019 |
star count and dates added on 2019/02/10
My search continued. I needed a simple IDE to allow people (non-tech) to edit Markdown files and upload pictures for a static blog/website generator.
UPDATE 2021: at work I use VS code in browser.
Lightweight WebIDE
Options I found were:
| Editor | Backend | Stars | Last commit | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Codiad | PHP | 2504 | Oct 31, 2018 | unmaintained, reborn as Atheos |
| ICEcoder | PHP | 1038 | Dec 14, 2018 | |
| Eclipse orion.client | Node.js | 175 | Feb 7, 2019 |
About one we read: Codiad is a web-based IDE framework with a small footprint and minimal requirements. which I tried and gave a good first impression. Orion gave errors on my setup.
Heavyweight WebIDE
If you want a great WebIDE and system requirements aren’t and issue, I would try out Eclipse Che.
| Editor | Backend | Stars | Last commit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eclipse Che | Java | 5304 | Feb 9, 2019 |
Other WebIDEs
Others I found but were not for me:
| Editor | Stars | Last commit | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phosphorus Five | 163 | Jul 15, 2018 | C# |
| ShiftEdit | 81 | Sep 4, 2018 | not mature |
| Atom in Orbit | 1190 | Dec 1, 2016 | unmaintained |
| codebox | 3934 | Apr 23, 2015 | unmaintained |
| Codenvy | 221 | Feb 13, 2018 | Java |
| Coding WebIDE | 1081 | Aug 23, 2018 | Java, Chinese code |
| Filebrowser | 4326 | Feb 8, 2019 | unmaintained |
Filebrowser was suggested by Hugo but this should be ignored now. Got the setup working in the past but recent builds fail, the filebrowser code base was a mess.
NOTE: we do not consider Gitlab (self hosted Git) a WebIDE, but it can serve as a webportal to edit files. NextCloud and other Web File Managers can provide similar features.
NOTE: Now in 2020, there are more awesome editors such as VS in browser.