How Cloudpen started (and why I'm still building it)

I didn't set out to build a cloud IDE. I was helping someone get started with web development and watched them spend an entire evening just trying to get Node.js running on their machine. They never wrote a single line of code that night.

That stuck with me.

I'd been building web apps for a while and had gotten so used to my own setup that I'd forgotten how brutal that first experience is. The installations, the PATH errors, the Stack Overflow rabbit holes before you've even started. It's not a skill issue — it's a friction issue.

So I started building Cloudpen. A browser-based IDE where you open a tab and you're already in. Real Monaco editor (same engine as VS Code), a real terminal with Python, Node.js, C, Go and more, one-click deployment to a live URL, GitHub sync, and Quill — a built-in AI assistant so you're never stuck alone.

No setup. No installs. Just code.

I'm a solo founder, self-funded, building this in public. Cloudpen launched on Peerlist Launchpad in June 2026 and the response has been encouraging. There's a free plan with real functionality — no card required — and a Pro plan at $12/month ($6 for students).

Still early. Lots to build. But the core works, people are using it, and I'm not stopping.

If you're building something or just learning, give it a try at cloudpen.dev. I'd love to hear what you think.