4 ms·

I'm new to programming. Is Coda worth the $99 price compared to Sublime?

k-mcgrady 12y ago
Depends how you like to code. One is a text editor with an optional fee of $70 the other is more like an IDE for web development. Both are powerful and useful tools. For most people I think it's just personal preference.
- estoile 12y ago
  If you want to get access to Sublime Text 3 Beta, the $70 fee is not optional. Just an observation.
  - adamors 12y ago
    It is: http://www.sublimetext.com/3 http://www.sublimetext.com/3
    - estoile 12y ago
      Yes, sorry, bad wording. You can download a Sublime Text 3 Beta build, however, you need a valid key in order to use it. Edit: Could be that you only need a valid key for the development builds. I was under this impression because those are the ones that I always download.
      - adamors 12y ago
        There was a period (about 6 months?) that ST3 was in "private" beta, and you indeed had to buy a license to use it. For a while now it's in "open" beta, meaning everyone can download and use it.
uptown 12y ago
I'd suggest trying out their trial version (I think they still have that) to see if you like it. I used to use Coda, then Coda 2, but moved onto Sublime Text and haven't looked back. I still fire it up occasionally, but ST is my go-to editor.
dewey 12y ago
Depends on what kind of coding you are interested in and what your workflow is like. If you are a new web developer it could be worth it, if you are looking into other non-web programming sublime or atom are probably the better choices because there are a lot of plugins and they support a bunch of different languages.
madoublet 12y ago
I prefer Sublime, but Coda has better support for accessing remote locations (via FTP, sFTP, etc). With ST2, you need a third party plugin to do this and I found it a bit awkward to use.
- uptown 12y ago
  I like using Transmit to mount wherever I'm working-with as a drive, then saving is pretty seamless.
  - madoublet 12y ago
    I will have to give that a try again. I had it working for awhile, but the drive disappeared.
jkestner 12y ago
Personal taste. I tried an older version of Coda and instead bought http://www.macrabbit.com/espresso/ http://www.macrabbit.com/espresso/ because it felt more in tune with my style, and because it came with the wonderful CSSEdit. But Panic makes great products, several of which I've bought. Transmit is cooler than an FTP client has a right to be.
sseal 12y ago
I have both, Sublime seems to be leaner, but Coda has some neat features. If you are new to programming I would personally use Sublime since it is free, and then decide from there after a month or so.
- michaelgrafl 12y ago
  Ahem, Sublime Text costs 70 USD at the moment.
- Tloewald 12y ago
  If you want an actual free but very solid programmers' text editor for the Mac, try TextWrangler (the baby sibling of BBEdit). Sublime is great but _not_ free. I used to like Coda when I was mostly developing PHP stuff solo with MAMP, but when doing serious stuff I find it kind of an impediment. I still love Transmit.
Dewie 12y ago
IMO it might not be worth to spend that kind of money on something like this if you don't know what you want from it yet, which you don't seem to. Maybe you can find some free editor/IDE, or a free version of such? Then maybe you can choose what to purchase (if anything) once you know what you want.
fuzzywalrus 12y ago
Coda's idea is a one window workflow, complete with webkit / FTP / Git / terminal built in. Most of my days using Coda I spent simply using it as an editor. Its a philosophical standpoint that really depends on workflow. Its integrated FTP operations are fantastic. When I changed jobs, and started working for a company with much better work flows (and required more complex tech stacks), I ended up jumping to Sublime + Tower, and just using the terminal separately. On the blue-moon that I need a FTP, I fire up Transmit. Since I'm working off local hosts, then pushing my commits to Git repositories that are then served to Jenkins, (staging/beta builds vs production) I'm now never touching the server itself. Coda is geared best for someone looking for a one app solution to a multitude of things. I think like many, I started with Coda and outgrew it and that's fine. Its a great place to start and does a good job of being accessible. Panic is renowned for its UI/Design and Coda certainly shows that. I've still yet to fully embrace the nuances of Sublime Text even after a year of using it as my primary editor. Sublime is not a pleasant experience to configure. So to summarize, Coda is a great place to start.

Depends how you like to code. One is a text editor with an optional fee of $70 the other is more like an IDE for web development. Both are powerful and useful tools. For most people I think it's just personal preference.

estoile 12y ago
If you want to get access to Sublime Text 3 Beta, the $70 fee is not optional. Just an observation.
- adamors 12y ago
  It is: http://www.sublimetext.com/3 http://www.sublimetext.com/3
  - estoile 12y ago
    Yes, sorry, bad wording. You can download a Sublime Text 3 Beta build, however, you need a valid key in order to use it. Edit: Could be that you only need a valid key for the development builds. I was under this impression because those are the ones that I always download.
    - adamors 12y ago
      There was a period (about 6 months?) that ST3 was in "private" beta, and you indeed had to buy a license to use it. For a while now it's in "open" beta, meaning everyone can download and use it.

uptown 12y ago

I'd suggest trying out their trial version (I think they still have that) to see if you like it. I used to use Coda, then Coda 2, but moved onto Sublime Text and haven't looked back. I still fire it up occasionally, but ST is my go-to editor.

dewey 12y ago

Depends on what kind of coding you are interested in and what your workflow is like. If you are a new web developer it could be worth it, if you are looking into other non-web programming sublime or atom are probably the better choices because there are a lot of plugins and they support a bunch of different languages.

madoublet 12y ago

I prefer Sublime, but Coda has better support for accessing remote locations (via FTP, sFTP, etc). With ST2, you need a third party plugin to do this and I found it a bit awkward to use.

uptown 12y ago
I like using Transmit to mount wherever I'm working-with as a drive, then saving is pretty seamless.
- madoublet 12y ago
  I will have to give that a try again. I had it working for awhile, but the drive disappeared.

jkestner 12y ago

Personal taste. I tried an older version of Coda and instead bought http://www.macrabbit.com/espresso/ http://www.macrabbit.com/espresso/ because it felt more in tune with my style, and because it came with the wonderful CSSEdit. But Panic makes great products, several of which I've bought. Transmit is cooler than an FTP client has a right to be.

sseal 12y ago

I have both, Sublime seems to be leaner, but Coda has some neat features. If you are new to programming I would personally use Sublime since it is free, and then decide from there after a month or so.

michaelgrafl 12y ago
Ahem, Sublime Text costs 70 USD at the moment.
Tloewald 12y ago
If you want an actual free but very solid programmers' text editor for the Mac, try TextWrangler (the baby sibling of BBEdit). Sublime is great but _not_ free. I used to like Coda when I was mostly developing PHP stuff solo with MAMP, but when doing serious stuff I find it kind of an impediment. I still love Transmit.

Dewie 12y ago

IMO it might not be worth to spend that kind of money on something like this if you don't know what you want from it yet, which you don't seem to. Maybe you can find some free editor/IDE, or a free version of such? Then maybe you can choose what to purchase (if anything) once you know what you want.

fuzzywalrus 12y ago

Coda's idea is a one window workflow, complete with webkit / FTP / Git / terminal built in. Most of my days using Coda I spent simply using it as an editor. Its a philosophical standpoint that really depends on workflow. Its integrated FTP operations are fantastic. When I changed jobs, and started working for a company with much better work flows (and required more complex tech stacks), I ended up jumping to Sublime + Tower, and just using the terminal separately. On the blue-moon that I need a FTP, I fire up Transmit. Since I'm working off local hosts, then pushing my commits to Git repositories that are then served to Jenkins, (staging/beta builds vs production) I'm now never touching the server itself. Coda is geared best for someone looking for a one app solution to a multitude of things. I think like many, I started with Coda and outgrew it and that's fine. Its a great place to start and does a good job of being accessible. Panic is renowned for its UI/Design and Coda certainly shows that. I've still yet to fully embrace the nuances of Sublime Text even after a year of using it as my primary editor. Sublime is not a pleasant experience to configure. So to summarize, Coda is a great place to start.