GitHub Codespaces

Hosted development environments for GitHub repositories, reached from VS Code or the browser. A closed product from GitHub.

Side by side

5 alternatives to GitHub Codespaces
Tool	Fit	Stars	Licence	Terms	Self-hosted	Language	Latest	Last push
Coder	Full replacement	17k	AGPL-3.0	Open core	Yes	Go	v2.36.7	2026-10-06
DevPod	Full replacement	15k	MPL-2.0	Open source	Yes	Go	v0.6.15	2025-11-14
Eclipse Che	Full replacement	7.2k	EPL-2.0	Not checked	Yes	TypeScript	7.123.0	2026-10-05
code-server	Partial	80k	MIT	Open source	Yes	TypeScript	v4.140.0	2026-10-02
Dev Container CLI	Partial	3k	MIT	Open source	No	TypeScript	v0.89.0	2026-10-02

5 alternatives

Secure environments for developers and their agents

Development workspaces defined in Terraform on your own cloud or Kubernetes, reached from VS Code, JetBrains or SSH.

Codespaces but open-source, client-only and unopinionated: Works with any IDE and lets you use any cloud, kubernetes or just localhost docker.

Dev containers from devcontainer.json on your machine, a cloud VM or Kubernetes, opened from VS Code, JetBrains or SSH, with no server to run.

Kubernetes based Cloud Development Environments for Enterprise Teams

Workspaces defined by devfiles on your own Kubernetes or OpenShift cluster, opened in a browser IDE or a local editor.

VS Code in the browser

VS Code in the browser on one machine you run, without managed per-repository environments.

A reference implementation for the specification that can create and configure a dev container from a devcontainer.json.

Builds and runs devcontainer.json environments on your own machine or server.