With the rise of online writing and image editors, it was just a matter of time until developers started thinking of themselves. PHPanywhere is a new Croatian startup providing a web based IDE (integrated development environment), or in other words – a web based code editor. This way, you can work on your code from anywhere on any computer. With over 3000 active users in a few months and a modest launch, the developers are keen on the web apps’ future.
PHPanywhere lets you connect to the FTP server where you’re hosting the php files you want to work on. The built-in FTP explorer is a true FTP application, letting you edit and delete files or folders, as well as set permissions. Letting 3rd party applications access your files raises security concernes, but PHPanywhere’s Ivan Burazin says they’re addressing these issues. Passwords are no longer stored in PHPanywhere by default and the application is going to have a SSL certificate within a month.
When connected, you can edit and browse the files using the built-in editor that includes tabs, syntax highlighting, etc. While the application is made for php developers, it also works well as a basic html editor.
The service is free, supported by ads, with a limit of 1.5 GBs of monthly FTP bandwidth. The future Pro version will offer unlimited FTP traffic, remove the ads and SSl, will set you back $5-10 monthly per user.
PHPanywhere doesn’t have any real direct competition, at least not at first glance. While projects such as Coderun also offer development editors, they also host the code you edit. On the other hand, distributed version control systems such as Git and Subversion have been around for a long time, sparking the likes of GitHub for example. SVN support is in PHPanywhere’s development plan, although the team couldn’t give us an exact release date.
PHPanywhere basically gives another you another option when doing development remotely. While the team has gotten requests to create an install-based version, Burazin says they’re sticking with SaaS, at least for the time being. Whether developers adopt PHPanywhere will also depend on the success of version 2.0, which will include themes, code auto competion, etc. If the security concernes are dealt with as promised, and the user base continues to grow, we may yet see the next version shine.