7 ms·

Polypane, The browser for ambitious web developers

207 points by ulrischa 2y ago

runekaagaard 2y ago
I've used it a lot. Great product, emulates subtle device issues very well that Chrome device view doesn't
- lofaszvanitt 2y ago
  [flagged]
- wonger_ 2y ago
  Such as?
  - runekaagaard 2y ago
    https://polypane.app/docs/emulation/ https://polypane.app/docs/emulation/
    - paradox460 2y ago
      You can do all of those in chrome
edoceo 2y ago
Shut up and take my money!
tonijn 2y ago
Any free alternative?
- hooverd 2y ago
  Chromium
- mdaniel 2y ago
  The top comment from the last time this was submitted pointed to an open source (AGPLv3) implementation <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29340887 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29340887> but I don't know how they compare feature-wise
  - herpdyderp 2y ago
    Wow this is great! > Responsively App is built on top of Electron and uses Chromium as its rendering engine. Now I want an app that shows Firefox, Chrome, and Safari side-by-side (besides manually opening them all side-by-side of course).
    - edoceo 2y ago
      How could one make an app that could host those multiple engines? I've heard that Firefox doesn't embed well, maybe WebKit would be easier? What about Servo or the engine from LadyBird? Is it even possible?
  - CharlesW 2y ago
    To save other readers a click: https://responsively.app/ https://responsively.app/
tjallingt 2y ago
Seems quite similar to https://sizzy.co/ https://sizzy.co/
- herrherrmann 2y ago
  True! I’d love to hear from someone who tried out both and settled on one.
  - hollin 2y ago
    Sizzy seems to have been abandoned. The developer has been unresponsive and the last update was botched with no way to actually get it. It’s a shame because I preferred Sizzy's experience over the alternatives. It just felt more polished to me.
kilian 2y ago
Hey, I'm Kilian, the creator and solo developer of Polypane. Exciting to see this on the homepage again. Happy to answer any questions folks have!
- ulrischa 2y ago
  I brought it to the hn frontpage again. Is this worth getting some free month? ;-)
  - kilian 2y ago
    Haha, email me and we’ll see
- tdhz77 2y ago
  I like your pricing model.
  - johnisgood 2y ago
    You have to sign up, and then this welcomes me: The password has to have: - At least one lowercase letter - At least one number - At least one uppercase letter - At least 8 characters I do not like it when websites (or applications, w/e) do this. I am somewhat OK with "at least 8 characters long" and I even understand its significance (from a security perspective) but not the rest.
    - dschiffner 2y ago
      zero relevance to the pricing.
      - deleted 2y ago
        [deleted]
    - amelius 2y ago
      Just use the browser's built in password suggestion.
herpdyderp 2y ago
I wish such a browser could accurately emulate a mobile device's browser, not just change screen size, but even Apple's iOS simulator fails at this.
- Y_Y 2y ago
  No need, nowadays sites just guess you're on a phone if you resize the browser window too narrow and whinge at you to "use a desktop device or use our app for the best experience".
  - jsheard 2y ago
    > "use a desktop device or use our app for the best experience". Plot twist: their "app" is just the same site wrapped in a webview, minus the nags to install the app.
    - codedokode 2y ago
      Plus autostart on boot and daily notifications.
      - deleted 2y ago
        [deleted]
- kilian 2y ago
  There's a huge list of things Polypane emulates beyond the screen size. For devices: - user agent - reported platform - device pixel ratio - rendering mode (mobile rendering and desktop rendering respond differently depending on your viewport meta tag) - default input device - orientation APIs Beyond that it can also emulate reading direction, page language, browser locale, user-configured default font-size, different network settings and a whole range of different media queries like color-scheme, reduced-motion reduced-data, reduced-transparency, prefers-contrast, forced-colors (windows high contrast mode) and color gamut. I'll be adding even more device browser-specific emulations later this year.
rckt 2y ago
A browser with a subscription. I have no words. People try to make money out of anything. And they succeed in this. The world is an insane place, really.
- haukilup 2y ago
  Do browsers not make money though? Through leveraging their market share they generate revenue. This is just a different approach. Provide a product (a browser), charge people that want that product.
- kspacewalk2 2y ago
  Looks more like a browser-centred IDE to supplement (not replace) the regular codebase-centred IDE to improve front-end development productivity. That productivity increase is what's very valuable if it actually materializes. The goal obviously isn't to improve your Youtube-viewing experience or whatever, so it's not really comparable to Chrome or Firefox.
- bogwog 2y ago
  I see this more of an IDE/dev tool than a web browser. I'm not a web developer, but I could see why someone would pay for this to get more features than what you get in Chrome/Firefox/Safari.
- Ataraxic 2y ago
  I don't feel that you have a measured take on what is basically browser tooling. It's a customized browser built around web development. Is that _so_ insane? Imagine someone came out with a browser that synced and allowed you to view/test your app in the days of ie6/7/8/9 across all those browsers. Would charging money per month for that be so weird? This isn't for anyone to use as their normal browser.
- didgetmaster 2y ago
  > People try to make money out of anything. So...software developers who mimic the real world. If I walk by a fruit stand, a grocery store, or a booth at a fair selling homemade crafts; I don't expect anything to be free. It is the exception when they are handing out free samples. In the software world, too many expect everything in the store to be free (as in beer). Each software product represents real effort on someone's part, so it is not insane to expect them to want some compensation for that.
sam_goody 2y ago
I totally get why you do subscription. I totally get why I don't do subscription. Is there some sort of middle ground? Say, minimum purchase cost is the same price as six months, but it keeps on working afterwards sans updates. When the dev realizes that such a tool is only 80% effective unless it is totally updated, they can subscribe.
- kilian 2y ago
  Happy to answer this. Polypane is a browser. If you don't keep your browser rendering engine up to date, you're opening yourself to a whole host of security issues (not to mention just generally diverging from what your end users use). Keeping that rendering engine up to date means dealing with a slew of potentially breaking changes with each new chromium version. So there's two reasons: 1. The only way to do that continuous upkeep of the rendering engine that I have found to be sustainable is with a subscription. 2. I definitely don't want to be responsible for people using years-old versions of Chromium.
  - HWR_14 2y ago
    If my users are using an old version of Chromium, I probably want to support that and test on it.
    - kilian 2y ago
      Sure. Chromium is an evergreen browser, which means it's continuously patched and updated in the background. Getting a pinned Chromium version takes quite a lot of work, and really only happens in very specific, controlled environments. If you happen to work in such an environment you have vastly different considerations from the other 99% of developers building websites and apps on the public facing web.
- VyseofArcadia 2y ago
  I liked the old "pay for updates" model. Nowadays, that seems less viable because security updates are so important[0]. I think the middle ground model would be something like security updates are free, feature updates cost money. Something like pay $x for version n+1 or a discounted rate for a subscription. Sounds like a bit of a hassle on the logistics/release engineering side, though. That would need to be handled with some care and planning. [0] Which I'll admit I don't 100% buy, but I'd love for a security expert to weigh in.
lofaszvanitt 2y ago
[flagged]
cluckindan 2y ago
Is it just an Electron app with webviews synced via Browsersync?
- kilian 2y ago
  Yeah, just like Dropbox is two curls duct-taped to an SD card.
  - rcarmo 2y ago
    And a stapler - don't forget their document integration!
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - cluckindan 2y ago
    My question was legitimate, though.
    - neogodless 2y ago
      Remove the word "just" from your question, and you'll magically get a lot more positive feedback! Sorry JUST remove the word ;)
      - cluckindan 2y ago
        How about ”simply”?
        neogodless 2y ago
        That doesn't change the meaning. It's not trivial to execute well on an idea, test a wide swath of use cases and edge cases, and release a high quality product.
  - philipwhiuk 2y ago
    Be fair, they also harvest your email and store it.
Ataraxic 2y ago
The question is that it seems to emulate many things, but what doesn't it emulate well? It looks like it's built off chromium, so I'm assuming it wouldn't be able to show an issue that only appears in safari or maybe Mozilla? Perhaps this is in the docs. edit: It's in the FAQ at the bottom. Still, beyond the actual browser engine, are there other known limitations?
- kilian 2y ago
  This feels like a lay-up, but here you go :) https://polypane.app/docs/emulation/#emulation-or-simulation https://polypane.app/docs/emulation/#emulation-or-simulation Polypane doesn't simulate the specific rendering engine of other browsers, it just pretends to be another browser (which is what emulation is) so you can test that the code you wrote for those browsers (for example, a polyfill) responds well. You'll still need to test in those real browsers to check against their rendering bugs or support gaps. (but something like Polypane portal[1] can make that step much easier) [1] https://polypane.app/docs/portal/ https://polypane.app/docs/portal/
  - zero_shift 2y ago
    Perhaps there's a way you could remotely render a page in Firefox, Safari, etc? And then stream into the viewport.
jamesmkenny 2y ago
I've been using it for a while now. It is an excellent tool in the tool belt, making me a much better developer and more productive, a lot less messing around.
cantSpellSober 2y ago
* What are a few features you offer over Browserstack? (re: x-browser testing). * Do you offer GenAI integrations? (Copilot, Claude, etc) (Help me sell this to my manager)
- kilian 2y ago
  Polypane is a chromium-based browser that you install on your own device and use while building applications that lets you develop at different (emulated) devices and screensizes/variation in one overview, with a bunch of development, accessibility and quality tools built right in. Browserstack is an online device testing tool where you check if your site works on different real devices one-by-one. That is to say, they don't really compete: if you don't have real devices to test with then Browserstack is an excellent option. What users mostly find is that by using Polypane (fast, local) they have far less use of Browserstack (slow, online) and the entire process speeds up. There will always be a need for real device testing. There's no gen AI integrations, and I don't have any planned. You can happily use Claude or CoPilot in the browse panel though (which is a little browser that lives inside Polypane, so you can browse without losing the context of your project)
  - mattl 2y ago
    Thank you for not adding AI slop to this.
short_sells_poo 2y ago
I don't understand the many comments here complaining that the browser has a subscription. Finally! I want more paid browsers, not less. I want to get back to a world where we paid for products with money, instead of being datamined and have ads pushed down my throat. People here, out of all places, should be aware of what it means when a product is free.
- elashri 2y ago
  I guess that when people usually talk about paid browsers, they talk about separate web engines not chromium forks. If this will help with the battle against Google's dominance.
  - charcircuit 2y ago
    Dominance comes from owning the product (the browser), it didn't come from the browser engine.
    - billiam 2y ago
      If dominance wasn't at least enhanced or supported by owning the browser engine, Google wouldn't be doing Chromium.
machine_ghost 2y ago
I read the website, but I still don't get what value it's offering over Chrome? Better viewport sizing?
- perdomon 2y ago
  Here's a comment from the creator with a host of things that are mostly not available in Chrome: There's a huge list of things Polypane emulates beyond the screen size. For devices: - user agent - reported platform - device pixel ratio - rendering mode (mobile rendering and desktop rendering respond differently depending on your viewport meta tag) - default input device - orientation APIs Beyond that it can also emulate reading direction, page language, browser locale, user-configured default font-size, different network settings and a whole range of different media queries like color-scheme, reduced-motion reduced-data, reduced-transparency, prefers-contrast, forced-colors (windows high contrast mode) and color gamut. I'll be adding even more device browser-specific emulations later this year.
  - ranger_danger 2y ago
    But chrome already supports all of that?
    - perdomon 2y ago
      I don’t know chrome devtools enough to say whether or not it already has all of these features. I will say that you can place a nail with a hammer, but if you’re building houses for a living, it might be best to invest in a nail gun.
sureglymop 2y ago
Super cool! Is there the possibility to get a students discount? Will try the free trial for now :)
- kilian 2y ago
  Its free for students through the GitHub Student Developer Pack :)
  - sureglymop 2y ago
    Wow, that's amazing. Thank you sincerely!
monkey_monkey 2y ago
I understand the subscription model, but the cost doesn't sit right for me. My all products JetBrains subscription is £137 a year, for every single product they create (and perpetual fallback licences). This is £91 a year, which is about 66% of the cost of my JB sub and if I stop paying, I assume PolyPane stops working.
bluetidepro 2y ago
I really wish the pricing model offered some sort of lifetime purchase. This seems great but I don’t think I could justify the monthly/yearly cost.
- tempodox 2y ago
  I would be OK with payed upgrades but a subscription is a big no-no.
  - kilian 2y ago
    I explain my reasoning elsewhere in the thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43472234 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43472234
masto 2y ago
I just spent several long days implementing my first modern CSS responsive web design, learning flexboxes and grids and what-can-I-use along the way. I currently have three different browser windows and two device emulators open across two monitors. So what I'm saying is, I have an appreciation for how this app could probably have saved me a lot of trouble if I'd known about it last week.
- whatnow37373 2y ago
  You basically reproduced the product by opening a couple of browser instances, right? What would polypane do for you? Maybe I am not getting it. I am probably not getting it.
  - bobthepanda 2y ago
    polypane lets you see everything happen simultaneously, which is way less tedious than just like refreshing and changing your viewport and whotnot for however many permutations you're testing, is my understanding. as a general example if you make an inline CSS change in a browser tab that generally only affects the one you're currently in.
  - masto 2y ago
    As a purpose-built tool, it improves on the experience of having multiple windows open. While the headline feature is keeping them all in sync, for my particular app, that's not as big a deal (though it's pretty cool that it will even do that for stuff like tweaking CSS styles in the inspector). I've been playing around with it for a few minutes and I think what I'm really appreciating is that it's filled with dev tools of all kinds and it's really optimized for working on web sites rather than browsing. It can automatically open panes based on CSS breakpoints, and it has presets for many devices. Some of it is things I had in Chrome, but better, like rulers and guides and grids. Even the way screenshots are implemented shows they put thought into saving time and hassle over a thing you could of course do before with a few more steps. And it's not all related to layout: it shows meta tags and icons and previews for social media sharing. Anyway, it's pretty cool IMO and I'll probably end up buying it if I keep working on web apps. The only downside I've noticed is that it feels a little sluggish, even when not heavily loaded down (e.g. just 3 panes). I'm using this monster M2 Ultra Mac Studio so it's a bit unusual for a browser to lag.
imjackofitall 2y ago
I've been using Polypane for over a year now, and while it may not be the right fit for everyone, it works well for my needs. What I appreciate: - Session management keeps my workflow organised. - Responsive-first design, with panes for both desktop and mobile views. - Comprehensive screenshot functionality, including annotations. Sure, you could replicate these features with other browsers or plugins, but I prefer having everything set up out of the box—one less thing to configure. The support is outstanding. I encountered an issue with my IDE not launching Polypane correctly, and after reaching out on Slack, Killian helped resolve it quickly. Reading through the Slack conversations, it's clear he's dedicated to building the best possible product for his users.
culi 2y ago
Almost all of these features are already built into Firefox devtools. Why is a whole new browser warranted? It seems like this could've been an extension
- inetknght 2y ago
  > already built into Firefox devtools. Why is a whole new browser warranted? Have you seen the state of the (lack of) competition in browser markets these days? Even Firefox (via Mozilla's new EULAs) has stopped caring about your privacy. More competition in the browser and browser tooling space is absolutely warranted.
- kilian 2y ago
  I don’t see how you can come to that conclusion with even a superficial reading of the homepage, unless you count ‘shows web pages’ as ‘almost all features’. And even then the homepage only lists about 30% of what Polypane does.
  - culi 2y ago
    You can simulate mobile screens, toggle light/dark/print/other media modes, edit css, debug layout, run a11y and lighthouse tests, and download all the framework-specific devtools you want. Besides the multi-pane synced windows I don't really see a new feature here. It's a lot of advertising of little-known features that are already built-in to Firefox I'm not trying to shit on your product. It seems polished and possibly useful. It just seems insincere for you to advertise browser features that are built in as features of your app specifically
    - kilian 2y ago
      > It just seems insincere for you to advertise browser features that are built in as features of your app specifically Sorry but I honestly don't understand this line of reasoning. Advertising a product having a feature in no way means claiming other products do not have the same or similar features. I could list dozens of things not in Firefox, Chrome or any other browser that Polypane has (and in fact, you list off a few that definitely aren't in Firefox. ) but even so, listing the features a specific product has is the whole point of a marketing website. Do you also expect Apple to list HP and Acer laptop alongside their Macbooks because those also have screens and keyboards, or otherwise it would be insincere they advertise (on their own marketing website) the screen of a Macbook?
gaoryrt 2y ago
As a frontend developer focusing on mobile React, the features I've wanted the most for several years is the ability to simulate the safe-area (yes, the notch) on modern iOS devices. I tried using Polypane, but unfortunately, I couldn't find any relevant settings. That’s not surprising, though Chrome DevTools doesn’t support it, and even the Safari simulator lacks this functionality. It seems I still have to rely on guesswork and iterative adjustments to resolve all the issues related to safe-areas.
- kilian 2y ago
  I hired Igalia to work on Chromium recently. Give me a month or two ;)

207 points by ulrischa 2y ago

runekaagaard 2y ago

I've used it a lot. Great product, emulates subtle device issues very well that Chrome device view doesn't

lofaszvanitt 2y ago
[flagged]
wonger_ 2y ago
Such as?
- runekaagaard 2y ago
  https://polypane.app/docs/emulation/ https://polypane.app/docs/emulation/
  - paradox460 2y ago
    You can do all of those in chrome

edoceo 2y ago

Shut up and take my money!

tonijn 2y ago

Any free alternative?

hooverd 2y ago
Chromium
mdaniel 2y ago
The top comment from the last time this was submitted pointed to an open source (AGPLv3) implementation <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29340887 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29340887> but I don't know how they compare feature-wise
- herpdyderp 2y ago
  Wow this is great! > Responsively App is built on top of Electron and uses Chromium as its rendering engine. Now I want an app that shows Firefox, Chrome, and Safari side-by-side (besides manually opening them all side-by-side of course).
  - edoceo 2y ago
    How could one make an app that could host those multiple engines? I've heard that Firefox doesn't embed well, maybe WebKit would be easier? What about Servo or the engine from LadyBird? Is it even possible?
- CharlesW 2y ago
  To save other readers a click: https://responsively.app/ https://responsively.app/

tjallingt 2y ago

Seems quite similar to https://sizzy.co/ https://sizzy.co/

herrherrmann 2y ago
True! I’d love to hear from someone who tried out both and settled on one.
- hollin 2y ago
  Sizzy seems to have been abandoned. The developer has been unresponsive and the last update was botched with no way to actually get it. It’s a shame because I preferred Sizzy's experience over the alternatives. It just felt more polished to me.

kilian 2y ago

Hey, I'm Kilian, the creator and solo developer of Polypane. Exciting to see this on the homepage again. Happy to answer any questions folks have!

ulrischa 2y ago
I brought it to the hn frontpage again. Is this worth getting some free month? ;-)
- kilian 2y ago
  Haha, email me and we’ll see
tdhz77 2y ago
I like your pricing model.
- johnisgood 2y ago
  You have to sign up, and then this welcomes me: The password has to have: - At least one lowercase letter - At least one number - At least one uppercase letter - At least 8 characters I do not like it when websites (or applications, w/e) do this. I am somewhat OK with "at least 8 characters long" and I even understand its significance (from a security perspective) but not the rest.
  - dschiffner 2y ago
    zero relevance to the pricing.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
  - amelius 2y ago
    Just use the browser's built in password suggestion.

herpdyderp 2y ago

I wish such a browser could accurately emulate a mobile device's browser, not just change screen size, but even Apple's iOS simulator fails at this.

Y_Y 2y ago
No need, nowadays sites just guess you're on a phone if you resize the browser window too narrow and whinge at you to "use a desktop device or use our app for the best experience".
- jsheard 2y ago
  > "use a desktop device or use our app for the best experience". Plot twist: their "app" is just the same site wrapped in a webview, minus the nags to install the app.
  - codedokode 2y ago
    Plus autostart on boot and daily notifications.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
kilian 2y ago
There's a huge list of things Polypane emulates beyond the screen size. For devices: - user agent - reported platform - device pixel ratio - rendering mode (mobile rendering and desktop rendering respond differently depending on your viewport meta tag) - default input device - orientation APIs Beyond that it can also emulate reading direction, page language, browser locale, user-configured default font-size, different network settings and a whole range of different media queries like color-scheme, reduced-motion reduced-data, reduced-transparency, prefers-contrast, forced-colors (windows high contrast mode) and color gamut. I'll be adding even more device browser-specific emulations later this year.

rckt 2y ago

A browser with a subscription. I have no words. People try to make money out of anything. And they succeed in this. The world is an insane place, really.

haukilup 2y ago
Do browsers not make money though? Through leveraging their market share they generate revenue. This is just a different approach. Provide a product (a browser), charge people that want that product.
kspacewalk2 2y ago
Looks more like a browser-centred IDE to supplement (not replace) the regular codebase-centred IDE to improve front-end development productivity. That productivity increase is what's very valuable if it actually materializes. The goal obviously isn't to improve your Youtube-viewing experience or whatever, so it's not really comparable to Chrome or Firefox.
bogwog 2y ago
I see this more of an IDE/dev tool than a web browser. I'm not a web developer, but I could see why someone would pay for this to get more features than what you get in Chrome/Firefox/Safari.
Ataraxic 2y ago
I don't feel that you have a measured take on what is basically browser tooling. It's a customized browser built around web development. Is that _so_ insane? Imagine someone came out with a browser that synced and allowed you to view/test your app in the days of ie6/7/8/9 across all those browsers. Would charging money per month for that be so weird? This isn't for anyone to use as their normal browser.
didgetmaster 2y ago
> People try to make money out of anything. So...software developers who mimic the real world. If I walk by a fruit stand, a grocery store, or a booth at a fair selling homemade crafts; I don't expect anything to be free. It is the exception when they are handing out free samples. In the software world, too many expect everything in the store to be free (as in beer). Each software product represents real effort on someone's part, so it is not insane to expect them to want some compensation for that.

sam_goody 2y ago

I totally get why you do subscription. I totally get why I don't do subscription. Is there some sort of middle ground? Say, minimum purchase cost is the same price as six months, but it keeps on working afterwards sans updates. When the dev realizes that such a tool is only 80% effective unless it is totally updated, they can subscribe.

kilian 2y ago
Happy to answer this. Polypane is a browser. If you don't keep your browser rendering engine up to date, you're opening yourself to a whole host of security issues (not to mention just generally diverging from what your end users use). Keeping that rendering engine up to date means dealing with a slew of potentially breaking changes with each new chromium version. So there's two reasons: 1. The only way to do that continuous upkeep of the rendering engine that I have found to be sustainable is with a subscription. 2. I definitely don't want to be responsible for people using years-old versions of Chromium.
- HWR_14 2y ago
  If my users are using an old version of Chromium, I probably want to support that and test on it.
  - kilian 2y ago
    Sure. Chromium is an evergreen browser, which means it's continuously patched and updated in the background. Getting a pinned Chromium version takes quite a lot of work, and really only happens in very specific, controlled environments. If you happen to work in such an environment you have vastly different considerations from the other 99% of developers building websites and apps on the public facing web.
VyseofArcadia 2y ago
I liked the old "pay for updates" model. Nowadays, that seems less viable because security updates are so important[0]. I think the middle ground model would be something like security updates are free, feature updates cost money. Something like pay $x for version n+1 or a discounted rate for a subscription. Sounds like a bit of a hassle on the logistics/release engineering side, though. That would need to be handled with some care and planning. [0] Which I'll admit I don't 100% buy, but I'd love for a security expert to weigh in.

lofaszvanitt 2y ago

[flagged]

cluckindan 2y ago

Is it just an Electron app with webviews synced via Browsersync?

kilian 2y ago
Yeah, just like Dropbox is two curls duct-taped to an SD card.
- rcarmo 2y ago
  And a stapler - don't forget their document integration!
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- cluckindan 2y ago
  My question was legitimate, though.
  - neogodless 2y ago
    Remove the word "just" from your question, and you'll magically get a lot more positive feedback! Sorry JUST remove the word ;)
    - cluckindan 2y ago
      How about ”simply”?
      - neogodless 2y ago
        That doesn't change the meaning. It's not trivial to execute well on an idea, test a wide swath of use cases and edge cases, and release a high quality product.
- philipwhiuk 2y ago
  Be fair, they also harvest your email and store it.

Ataraxic 2y ago

The question is that it seems to emulate many things, but what doesn't it emulate well? It looks like it's built off chromium, so I'm assuming it wouldn't be able to show an issue that only appears in safari or maybe Mozilla? Perhaps this is in the docs. edit: It's in the FAQ at the bottom. Still, beyond the actual browser engine, are there other known limitations?

kilian 2y ago
This feels like a lay-up, but here you go :) https://polypane.app/docs/emulation/#emulation-or-simulation https://polypane.app/docs/emulation/#emulation-or-simulation Polypane doesn't simulate the specific rendering engine of other browsers, it just pretends to be another browser (which is what emulation is) so you can test that the code you wrote for those browsers (for example, a polyfill) responds well. You'll still need to test in those real browsers to check against their rendering bugs or support gaps. (but something like Polypane portal[1] can make that step much easier) [1] https://polypane.app/docs/portal/ https://polypane.app/docs/portal/
- zero_shift 2y ago
  Perhaps there's a way you could remotely render a page in Firefox, Safari, etc? And then stream into the viewport.

jamesmkenny 2y ago

I've been using it for a while now. It is an excellent tool in the tool belt, making me a much better developer and more productive, a lot less messing around.

cantSpellSober 2y ago

* What are a few features you offer over Browserstack? (re: x-browser testing). * Do you offer GenAI integrations? (Copilot, Claude, etc) (Help me sell this to my manager)

kilian 2y ago
Polypane is a chromium-based browser that you install on your own device and use while building applications that lets you develop at different (emulated) devices and screensizes/variation in one overview, with a bunch of development, accessibility and quality tools built right in. Browserstack is an online device testing tool where you check if your site works on different real devices one-by-one. That is to say, they don't really compete: if you don't have real devices to test with then Browserstack is an excellent option. What users mostly find is that by using Polypane (fast, local) they have far less use of Browserstack (slow, online) and the entire process speeds up. There will always be a need for real device testing. There's no gen AI integrations, and I don't have any planned. You can happily use Claude or CoPilot in the browse panel though (which is a little browser that lives inside Polypane, so you can browse without losing the context of your project)
- mattl 2y ago
  Thank you for not adding AI slop to this.

short_sells_poo 2y ago

I don't understand the many comments here complaining that the browser has a subscription. Finally! I want more paid browsers, not less. I want to get back to a world where we paid for products with money, instead of being datamined and have ads pushed down my throat. People here, out of all places, should be aware of what it means when a product is free.

elashri 2y ago
I guess that when people usually talk about paid browsers, they talk about separate web engines not chromium forks. If this will help with the battle against Google's dominance.
- charcircuit 2y ago
  Dominance comes from owning the product (the browser), it didn't come from the browser engine.
  - billiam 2y ago
    If dominance wasn't at least enhanced or supported by owning the browser engine, Google wouldn't be doing Chromium.

machine_ghost 2y ago

I read the website, but I still don't get what value it's offering over Chrome? Better viewport sizing?

perdomon 2y ago
Here's a comment from the creator with a host of things that are mostly not available in Chrome: There's a huge list of things Polypane emulates beyond the screen size. For devices: - user agent - reported platform - device pixel ratio - rendering mode (mobile rendering and desktop rendering respond differently depending on your viewport meta tag) - default input device - orientation APIs Beyond that it can also emulate reading direction, page language, browser locale, user-configured default font-size, different network settings and a whole range of different media queries like color-scheme, reduced-motion reduced-data, reduced-transparency, prefers-contrast, forced-colors (windows high contrast mode) and color gamut. I'll be adding even more device browser-specific emulations later this year.
- ranger_danger 2y ago
  But chrome already supports all of that?
  - perdomon 2y ago
    I don’t know chrome devtools enough to say whether or not it already has all of these features. I will say that you can place a nail with a hammer, but if you’re building houses for a living, it might be best to invest in a nail gun.

sureglymop 2y ago

Super cool! Is there the possibility to get a students discount? Will try the free trial for now :)

kilian 2y ago
Its free for students through the GitHub Student Developer Pack :)
- sureglymop 2y ago
  Wow, that's amazing. Thank you sincerely!

monkey_monkey 2y ago

I understand the subscription model, but the cost doesn't sit right for me. My all products JetBrains subscription is £137 a year, for every single product they create (and perpetual fallback licences). This is £91 a year, which is about 66% of the cost of my JB sub and if I stop paying, I assume PolyPane stops working.

bluetidepro 2y ago

I really wish the pricing model offered some sort of lifetime purchase. This seems great but I don’t think I could justify the monthly/yearly cost.

tempodox 2y ago
I would be OK with payed upgrades but a subscription is a big no-no.
- kilian 2y ago
  I explain my reasoning elsewhere in the thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43472234 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43472234

masto 2y ago

I just spent several long days implementing my first modern CSS responsive web design, learning flexboxes and grids and what-can-I-use along the way. I currently have three different browser windows and two device emulators open across two monitors. So what I'm saying is, I have an appreciation for how this app could probably have saved me a lot of trouble if I'd known about it last week.

whatnow37373 2y ago
You basically reproduced the product by opening a couple of browser instances, right? What would polypane do for you? Maybe I am not getting it. I am probably not getting it.
- bobthepanda 2y ago
  polypane lets you see everything happen simultaneously, which is way less tedious than just like refreshing and changing your viewport and whotnot for however many permutations you're testing, is my understanding. as a general example if you make an inline CSS change in a browser tab that generally only affects the one you're currently in.
- masto 2y ago
  As a purpose-built tool, it improves on the experience of having multiple windows open. While the headline feature is keeping them all in sync, for my particular app, that's not as big a deal (though it's pretty cool that it will even do that for stuff like tweaking CSS styles in the inspector). I've been playing around with it for a few minutes and I think what I'm really appreciating is that it's filled with dev tools of all kinds and it's really optimized for working on web sites rather than browsing. It can automatically open panes based on CSS breakpoints, and it has presets for many devices. Some of it is things I had in Chrome, but better, like rulers and guides and grids. Even the way screenshots are implemented shows they put thought into saving time and hassle over a thing you could of course do before with a few more steps. And it's not all related to layout: it shows meta tags and icons and previews for social media sharing. Anyway, it's pretty cool IMO and I'll probably end up buying it if I keep working on web apps. The only downside I've noticed is that it feels a little sluggish, even when not heavily loaded down (e.g. just 3 panes). I'm using this monster M2 Ultra Mac Studio so it's a bit unusual for a browser to lag.

imjackofitall 2y ago

I've been using Polypane for over a year now, and while it may not be the right fit for everyone, it works well for my needs. What I appreciate: - Session management keeps my workflow organised. - Responsive-first design, with panes for both desktop and mobile views. - Comprehensive screenshot functionality, including annotations. Sure, you could replicate these features with other browsers or plugins, but I prefer having everything set up out of the box—one less thing to configure. The support is outstanding. I encountered an issue with my IDE not launching Polypane correctly, and after reaching out on Slack, Killian helped resolve it quickly. Reading through the Slack conversations, it's clear he's dedicated to building the best possible product for his users.

culi 2y ago

Almost all of these features are already built into Firefox devtools. Why is a whole new browser warranted? It seems like this could've been an extension

inetknght 2y ago
> already built into Firefox devtools. Why is a whole new browser warranted? Have you seen the state of the (lack of) competition in browser markets these days? Even Firefox (via Mozilla's new EULAs) has stopped caring about your privacy. More competition in the browser and browser tooling space is absolutely warranted.
kilian 2y ago
I don’t see how you can come to that conclusion with even a superficial reading of the homepage, unless you count ‘shows web pages’ as ‘almost all features’. And even then the homepage only lists about 30% of what Polypane does.
- culi 2y ago
  You can simulate mobile screens, toggle light/dark/print/other media modes, edit css, debug layout, run a11y and lighthouse tests, and download all the framework-specific devtools you want. Besides the multi-pane synced windows I don't really see a new feature here. It's a lot of advertising of little-known features that are already built-in to Firefox I'm not trying to shit on your product. It seems polished and possibly useful. It just seems insincere for you to advertise browser features that are built in as features of your app specifically
  - kilian 2y ago
    > It just seems insincere for you to advertise browser features that are built in as features of your app specifically Sorry but I honestly don't understand this line of reasoning. Advertising a product having a feature in no way means claiming other products do not have the same or similar features. I could list dozens of things not in Firefox, Chrome or any other browser that Polypane has (and in fact, you list off a few that definitely aren't in Firefox. ) but even so, listing the features a specific product has is the whole point of a marketing website. Do you also expect Apple to list HP and Acer laptop alongside their Macbooks because those also have screens and keyboards, or otherwise it would be insincere they advertise (on their own marketing website) the screen of a Macbook?

gaoryrt 2y ago

As a frontend developer focusing on mobile React, the features I've wanted the most for several years is the ability to simulate the safe-area (yes, the notch) on modern iOS devices. I tried using Polypane, but unfortunately, I couldn't find any relevant settings. That’s not surprising, though Chrome DevTools doesn’t support it, and even the Safari simulator lacks this functionality. It seems I still have to rely on guesswork and iterative adjustments to resolve all the issues related to safe-areas.

kilian 2y ago
I hired Igalia to work on Chromium recently. Give me a month or two ;)