Their Pitch
Sandboxes built for scale.
Our Take
It's an online code editor that runs in your browser. No more "it works on my machine" — everyone gets the same setup.
Deep Dive & Reality Check
Used For
- +**Spent 30 minutes fixing local Node version conflicts before writing any code** → Fork a React template, start coding immediately
- +**Sharing code via email attachments that don't run on anyone else's machine** → Send a live link where people can edit and see changes instantly
- +**Your teammate's laptop died mid-collaboration** → Everyone codes in the same virtual environment through their browser
- +Live coding sessions where multiple people edit simultaneously - no more "screen share while one person types"
- +One-click deployments to Vercel or Netlify without leaving the editor
Best For
- >Your local dev environment broke again and you have a demo in 2 hours
- >Teaching someone React without them installing Node, npm, and 47 dependencies first
- >Need to prototype with your designer but they don't have a developer setup
Not For
- -Teams building complex backend services with multiple databases — the virtual machines have limits
- -Companies requiring on-premise hosting for security compliance — it's cloud-only
- -Complete coding beginners expecting drag-and-drop — you still need to know HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
Pairs With
- *GitHub (where your code actually lives — CodeSandbox syncs back and forth)
- *Vercel (for one-click deployments, though you'll pay their hosting costs separately)
- *Slack (where you'll share those live coding session links instead of scheduling more meetings)
- *VS Code (extensions sync so it feels familiar when you switch between local and cloud)
- *Figma (where designers hand off mockups that you can prototype immediately without setup)
The Catch
- !Free tier caps you at 100 private projects, which fills up fast if you're prototyping for multiple clients
- !Virtual machines slow down with large Node apps — cold starts take 10-20 seconds with heavy dependencies
- !You'll hit the $9/month Pro upgrade mid-project when you need persistent virtual machines that don't timeout
Bottom Line
Cuts "getting started" from 45 minutes of npm hell to 2 minutes of clicking a template.