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What is DevPod?

DevPod is a tool used to create reproducible developer environments. Each developer environment runs in a separate container and is specified through a devcontainer.json. DevPod providers can create these containers on the local computer, any reachable remote machine, or in a public or private cloud. It's also possible to extend DevPod and write your own custom providers.

DevPod Flow
DevPod

You can think of DevPod as the glue connecting your local IDE to a machine you want to use for development. So depending on your project's requirements, you can create a workspace locally on the computer, a powerful cloud machine, or a spare remote computer. Within DevPod, every workspace is managed the same way, which also makes it easy to switch between workspaces that might be hosted somewhere else.

DevPod Architecture
DevPod - Architecture

Why DevPod?​

DevPod reuses the open DevContainer standard to create a consistent developer experience no matter what backend you want to use.

What is DevPod

Compared to hosted services such as Github Codespaces, JetBrains Spaces or Google Cloud Workstations, DevPod has the following advantages:

  • Cost savings: DevPod is usually around 5-10 times cheaper than existing services with comparable feature sets, because it uses bare virtual machines and shuts down unused virtual machines automatically.
  • No vendor lock-in: Choose whatever cloud provider suits you best, be it the cheapest one or the most powerful, DevPod supports all cloud providers. If you are tired of using a provider, change it with a single command.
  • Local development: You get the same developer experience also locally, so you don't need to rely on a cloud provider at all.
  • Cross IDE support: VS Code and the full JetBrains suite is supported, all others can be connected through simple SSH.
  • Client-only: No need to install a server backend, DevPod runs solely on your computer.
  • Open-Source: DevPod is 100% open-source and extensible. A provider doesn't exist? Just create your own.
  • Rich feature set: DevPod already supports prebuilds, auto inactivity shutdown, git & docker credentials sync and many more features to come.
  • Desktop App: DevPod comes with an easy-to-use desktop application that abstracts all the complexity away. If you want to build your own integration, DevPod offers a feature-rich CLI as well.