Used For

• +**Your junior dev is stuck on environment setup for 3 days** → They click a template link and start coding in 30 seconds
• +**You're debugging a colleague's issue but can't reproduce it locally** → They share a URL, you see the exact problem running live
• +**Client wants to see progress but Git repos are confusing** → Send them a link to play with the actual working app
• +Real-time multiplayer editing - see cursors move and changes appear instantly like Google Docs
• +Offline coding after initial load - works on planes or when WiFi dies

Best For

• >Your npm installs keep breaking and you're tired of fighting version conflicts
• >Remote team needs to collaborate on code without the usual Git dance
• >You want to prototype ideas fast without setting up yet another local project

Not For

• -Teams building mobile apps or heavy backend Python/Java projects — this is web development only
• -Companies needing on-premise security — everything runs in browser sandbox, not your servers
• -Developers on old laptops — running Node.js in the browser needs decent CPU and RAM

Pairs With

• *GitHub (for pushing your browser projects to real repos and handling pull requests)
• *Vercel (to deploy your prototypes to production URLs with zero config)
• *npm (auto-installs packages but you'll still need to understand the JavaScript ecosystem)
• *Chrome DevTools (built-in debugging for both frontend and backend Node.js code)
• *Slack (where you'll share those instant project URLs instead of explaining setup steps)

The Catch

• !Free tier limits you to 3 concurrent projects, which sounds fine until you need 4 tabs open
• !Heavy projects will make your browser sweat — it's emulating an entire server in a tab
• !You're locked into their ecosystem for collaboration features, can't just use any Git workflow

Bottom Line

Boots a full development environment in milliseconds instead of the usual 20-minute dependency hell.