Why I stopped using cloud IDEs

May 5, 2023·3 min readDeveloper Tools

Cloud IDEs promise a lot: develop from any device, no local setup, consistent environments, instant onboarding. I tried GitHub Codespaces and Gitpod for several months. They work. But for my workflow, local development is better in every way that matters.

What cloud IDEs do well

Onboarding. A new contributor can start coding in minutes without installing anything. For open-source projects or teams with complex local setups, this is genuinely valuable.

Consistency. Everyone gets the same environment. No "works on my machine" problems. The dev container is the source of truth.

Device flexibility. You can code from a Chromebook, a tablet, or any machine with a browser. The heavy lifting happens on a cloud server.

Where they fell short for me

Latency. Every keystroke goes over the network. On a good connection, this is barely noticeable. On a mediocre connection (coffee shop, hotel, airplane Wi-Fi), the delay is maddening. Local development has zero latency. The responsiveness difference is constant and subtle but it adds up over a full day of work.

Offline. No internet means no coding. I work from places without reliable connectivity more often than I expected. A cabin, a train, a campsite. My local machine does not care about Wi-Fi.

Cost. Codespaces bills by the hour for compute. A 4-core instance runs about $0.36/hour. That does not sound like much until you leave a workspace running overnight a few times. My local machine has no ongoing cost.

Docker and services. Running Docker inside a cloud IDE works but adds complexity. Port forwarding, networking between containers, accessing local services. These are trivial on a local machine and awkward in a remote environment.

Terminal and tooling. My local setup (Alacritty, tmux, Zsh with custom plugins, Starship prompt) is exactly how I want it. Cloud IDEs give you VS Code in a browser with their terminal. It is functional but not mine.

When cloud IDEs make sense

For teams with complex local setup requirements (10+ services, specific OS dependencies, large monorepos), cloud IDEs solve real problems. For workshops, tutorials, and interviews where you need zero-friction environments, they are excellent.

For a solo developer or small team where everyone has a decent machine and a working local setup, the overhead and tradeoffs are not worth it. I keep my development environment in my dotfiles repo, and setting up a new machine takes under an hour. That eliminates the main advantage cloud IDEs offer.