Are you looking for a cloud development environment that fits your team’s needs better than Gitpod? While Gitpod is a popular choice, users report several pain points: its usage can get expensive given VM-hour charges, its SaaS-only model may limit enterprise deployments, and it demands a reliable internet connection, making offline work difficult. There are also concerns around slower performance compared to local setups, and limited flexibility for GPU-dependent or production-symmetric workflows.
That’s why we’ve curated a list of tools that deliver lower cost, greater deployment flexibility, and more resilience in real-world development tasks. In this article, we’ll explore the top 10 Gitpod Alternatives for cloud development, helping you build faster, more flexible, and more productive development environments.
Zencoder is an AI-powered coding agent that enhances the software development lifecycle (SDLC) by improving productivity, accuracy, and creativity through advanced artificial intelligence solutions. Powered by its proprietary Repo Grokking™ technology, Zencoder thoroughly analyzes your entire codebase, uncovering structural patterns, architectural logic, and custom implementations.
Zencoder integrates seamlessly with your existing development tools and supports over 70 programming languages, working effortlessly with popular IDEs like Visual Studio Code and JetBrains. It also offers flexible deployment options, including cloud, on-premises, and hybrid setups, allowing teams to choose the environment that best suits their security, compliance, and performance needs.
1️⃣ Integrations – Zencoder seamlessly integrates with over 20 developer environments, simplifying your entire development lifecycle. This makes Zencoder the only AI coding agent offering this extensive level of integration.
2️⃣ Zen Agents – Zen Agents are fully customizable AI teammates that understand your code, integrate seamlessly with your existing tools, and can be deployed in seconds.
With Zen Agents, you can:
3️⃣ Security treble – Zencoder is the only AI coding agent with SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001 & ISO 42001 certification.
4️⃣ Zentester – Zentester uses AI to automate testing at every level, so your team can catch bugs early and ship high-quality code faster. Simply describe what you want to test in plain English, and Zentester takes care of the rest, adapting as your code evolves.
Watch Zentester in action:
Here is what it does:
5️⃣ All-in-One AI Coding Assistant – Speed up your development workflow with an integrated AI solution that provides intelligent code completion, automatic code generation, and real-time code reviews.
6️⃣ Multi-Repo Search – Index and search across multiple repositories so AI agents can understand and navigate complex multi-repo architectures. Easily add and manage repositories through the web admin panel, enabling agents to access and query all indexed code when needed.
7️⃣ Zen CLI – This Universal CLI Platform is the first developer-first platform that unifies CLIs and IDEs into one seamless workflow. With Zen CLI, you can:
Zencoder offers a Free Plan, a Starter Plan (free for 7 days) that starts at $19 per user/month, a Core Plan starting at $49 per user/month, an Advanced Plan starting at $119 per user/month, and a Max Plan starting at $250 per user/month.
DevZero is an AI-powered Kubernetes optimization platform that helps teams reduce cloud costs by dynamically right-sizing workloads, optimizing GPU usage, and intelligently selecting instances for maximum efficiency. With microVM-based isolation, zero-downtime live migration, and real-time workload optimization, it delivers secure, resilient, and cost-effective infrastructure without requiring changes to applications.
1️⃣ MicroVM isolation – Provides kernel-level, zero-trust security that reduces attack surfaces compared to container-based environments.
2️⃣ Live migration – Enables stateful, zero-downtime environment migration with preserved runtime context.
3️⃣ Predictive resource optimization – Dynamically right-sizes CPU/GPU resources in real time to cut costs and improve performance.
4️⃣ Production-symmetric environments – Delivers reproducible, centrally managed setups that closely mirror production for consistency.
DevZero offers a Free Plan, a Paid Plan (10% of savings) with multi-cluster optimization for up to 2000 CPUs, and an Enterprise Plan with custom pricing
Replit is a cloud development platform that lets you code, collaborate, and ship apps entirely in the browser without managing local environments. It offers AI-assisted coding, instant deployments, built-in databases, and secure integrations, so teams and individuals can go quickly from idea to production. However, while it’s great for beginners, some users report that as projects grow or require more specialized testing and automation, its features feel less mature compared to newer entrants.
1️⃣ Zero-setup IDE – Launches instantly in the browser with support for 50+ languages, eliminating local installs or configuration.
2️⃣ Real-time collaboration – Enables multiple developers to code together live with shared console output and editing.
3️⃣ AI-powered development – Uses Replit Agent to generate, refine, and scale code across entire projects from natural language prompts.
4️⃣ Integrated deployment – Provides one-click hosting with autoscaling, custom domains, SSL, and real-time analytics.
Replit offers a Free Plan, 2 Paid Plans starting at $25 per month, and an Enterprise Plan with custom pricing.
CodeSandbox is a cloud-based development environment that allows you to quickly spin up secure, isolated sandboxes for writing, testing, and running code. With its scalable microVM infrastructure, it supports AI agents, CI/CD workflows, code evaluation, and collaborative development, making it easier to build, share, and experiment with projects at scale. While it excels in containerized and GPU-powered environments, it lacks the more advanced AI automation and adaptive testing features compared to Zencoder.
1️⃣ Pre-configured environments – Provides development setups using Dev Containers, Dockerfile, or Docker Compose to ensure consistent environments.
2️⃣ microVM infrastructure – Uses lightweight virtual machines with checkpointing to reduce startup times and support scalable workloads.
3️⃣ VS Code extension – Integrates with VS Code keybindings, themes, and extensions for a familiar coding experience.
4️⃣ Online code editor – Offers a browser-based editor with task automation and live collaboration features.
CodeSandbox offers a Free Plan, a Scale Plan starting at $170 per month, and an Enterprise Plan with custom pricing.
GitHub Codespaces is a cloud-based development environment that lets you instantly spin up a fully configured, secure workspace directly from any GitHub repository. It eliminates the need for local setup, making it easy to code, collaborate, and ship projects from any device with just a browser or IDE. However, flexibility outside the GitHub ecosystem remains limited since it’s tightly tied to GitHub repositories and infrastructure.
1️⃣ GitHub integration – Launch and manage development environments directly from repositories, pull requests, or commits without leaving GitHub.
2️⃣ Configuration-as-code – Use devcontainer.json files to define dependencies, extensions, and settings, ensuring reproducible, ready-to-code environments.
3️⃣ Built-in security – Run code in isolated cloud environments with granular access control and cost management for safer collaboration.
4️⃣ Device-agnostic development – Code from a browser, IDE, or even mobile devices, with personal dotfiles preserving your preferred setup everywhere.
GitHub Codespaces offers 120 free core hours and 15 GB of storage per month for personal accounts, with additional usage billed from $0.18 per hour for a 2-core machine and $0.07 per GB-month of storage.
Coder is an open-source, self-hosted platform that enables enterprises to securely deploy developer and AI coding environments anywhere, from cloud, on-premises, or air-gapped, while maintaining full control over compute, access, and compliance. It leverages infrastructure-as-code with Terraform to deliver fast, consistent onboarding, scalable development environments, and optimized compute for modern software and AI workloads.
1️⃣ Self-hosted deployment – Runs on any cloud, on-premises, or even air-gapped environments to give enterprises full control over security and compliance.
2️⃣ Universal IDE and OS support – Works with web or desktop IDEs (VS Code, JetBrains, Jupyter, and Cursor) across macOS, Linux, and Windows for maximum flexibility.
3️⃣ AI agent scalability – Manages AI coding agents alongside developers with fine-grained permissions, task monitoring, and conversation logging.
4️⃣ Cost-optimized workspaces – Provides ephemeral, right-sized environments with shared resources to reduce idle spend and standardize onboarding.
Coder offers a Free Community Plan and a Premium Plan with custom pricing.
Eclipse Theia is an AI-native, open-source IDE for cloud and desktop, offering transparency, control, and full data ownership. Built on the extensible Theia Platform, it enables developers and organizations to create custom IDEs while remaining fully compatible with the VS Code extension ecosystem. While it’s great for custom IDE builds, some users report that its default configuration and out-of-the-box experience feel less refined than what hosted platforms like Codespaces or Replit offer.
1️⃣ Full extensibility – Enables deep customization with a modular architecture, allowing organizations to build tailored IDEs beyond what Gitpod offers.
2️⃣ Dual deployment – Runs in both the browser and as a desktop app from a single codebase, simplifying cross-platform development.
3️⃣ AI-native design – Integrates open, customizable AI agents for code generation, chat assistance, and license compliance with full self-hosting options.
4️⃣ Vendor-neutral open source – Backed by the Eclipse Foundation and a diverse contributor base, ensuring transparency and avoiding vendor lock-in.
Eclipse Theia IDE is completely free with no usage fees, subscriptions, or commercial licenses required.
Codeanywhere is an AI-powered cloud IDE that enables you to code, test, and collaborate from any device, featuring a familiar VS Code-like interface, instant containerized environments, and built-in AI assistance. It supports nearly all major programming languages, frameworks, and databases, while offering features like AI code completion, shared workspaces, SSH access, and GPU-powered environments for generative AI development.
1️⃣ LVM / microVM isolation – Provides lightweight virtual machines for stronger security, better performance, and more reliable resource allocation than container-only setups.
2️⃣ DevContainer compatibility – Uses the open devcontainer.json standard for seamless interoperability with VS Code and other developer tools.
3️⃣ On-premises deployment – Offers self-hosted installation options for organizations that require maximum control, compliance, and data security.
4️⃣ Fully managed cloud IDE – Delivers a ready-to-use, managed environment so developers can start coding instantly without infrastructure overhead.
Codeanywhere offers a Free Plan and 2 Paid Plans starting at $12 per month.
DevPod is an open-source tool that enables you to spin up repeatable, infrastructure-independent dev environments instantly without server-side setup. It works with any stack, IDE, or cloud provider, making onboarding and collaboration fast, consistent, and flexible. DevPod requires more setup (local client, choosing provider, etc.) vs Gitpod’s managed cloud service. Compared to Gitpod, DevPod requires more setup since you need to install the local client, choose and configure a provider such as Kubernetes, Docker, or a remote VM, and handle parts of the environment management yourself.
1️⃣ Client-only setup – Runs entirely on your machine, with no server-side setup required, making it lightweight and easy to get started.
2️⃣ Devcontainer support – Automatically provisions environments from a devcontainer.json or generates one by analyzing your project for best-fit settings.
3️⃣ Infrastructure agnostic – Works with any environment, including local machines, Kubernetes clusters, remote VMs, or cloud providers.
4️⃣ Local productivity features – Supports prebuilds, automatic inactivity shutdown, and credential syncing directly on your system.
DevPod is completely free to use, with no licensing fees, subscriptions, or vendor lock-in.
Eclipse Che is a cloud-native, Kubernetes-based developer workspace platform that lets you run your favorite IDEs like VS Code or JetBrains directly in the browser with no local setup. It provides fast, repeatable, and software-defined environments using Devfiles, making onboarding easy and enabling development in production-like conditions. While it’s great for reproducible cloud workspaces, some users report that installation and maintenance can be complex, with feedback mentioning a steep learning curve, complex interface, debugging issues, and high memory usage.
1️⃣ Containerized workspaces – Run development environments inside Kubernetes pods with VS Code or JetBrains IDEs directly in the browser.
2️⃣ Git service integration – Connect GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket accounts via OAuth to quickly start projects from repositories.
3️⃣ Shareable environments – Generate one-click URLs to replicate and share identical development setups with teammates.
4️⃣ Enterprise security – Support air-gapped networks, custom TLS certificates, proxies, and RBAC-based multi-tenant authentication.
Eclipse Che is entirely free and open source, with no pricing or subscription fees required.
Now that you’ve explored the top Gitpod alternatives, it’s time to pick the one that best fits your team’s development needs, infrastructure setup, and security priorities. Platforms like Replit and CodeSandbox are great for developers who want instant, browser-based collaboration with minimal setup, while Coder and Eclipse Theia empower enterprises to maintain full control with self-hosted, customizable environments. However, if you want an all-in-one AI-powered solution with enterprise-grade security and advanced agents, Zencoder stands out as the ultimate choice.
With Zencoder, you can:
To help you find the best replacements for Gitpod in 2025, we:
✅ Analyzed 25+ cloud IDEs and AI-powered dev platforms across categories like browser-based coding, self-hosted setups, and AI-augmented environments.
✅ Prioritized tools with more than just online editing, focusing on solutions that add automation, scalability, and security to real-world workflows.
✅ Evaluated deployment flexibility, including options for cloud, hybrid, and on-premises environments to suit teams with different compliance and infrastructure needs.
✅ Reviewed integration depth with modern developer tools such as GitHub, GitLab, Jira, and CI/CD pipelines.
✅ Considered developer feedback from teams actively using these platforms to ensure practical, proven value in production environments.