Why I cancelled my Replit subscription
I cancelled my annual Replit Hacker plan and I'll let it lapse at the end of December of 2023.
Replit is a popular and growing multi language development environment in the cloud. I've been subscribing to the Hacker plan for the past few years and it worked well for my Python projects, as such an online environment is a good match for my chromeOS lifestyle. But two changes made me reconsider the value of the product.
The first is Replit changed its paid tiers by raising the price of my plan and removing some features. I actually saw it coming when Replit began receiving massive funding by major investors, who are likely pressuring the company to reduce costs and turn profits. Still, this left a sour taste as it felt like a bait and switch.
The other change is my shift of focus back to Lisp, the programming language I love most and know best.
Replit doesn't work well with a highly interactive language like Lisp. It doesn't directly support any Lisp dialects and its default code editor provides little or no integration with a running Lisp image. Moreover, the files created or uploaded outside of the editor are often not preserved across sessions. If I have to install and maintain a full Lisp system in the Linux shell of a Replit workspace, I might as well install it locally on my desktop computer.
Finally, like other development tool vendors, Replit is doubling down on AI coding features which affect the cost of paid plans. But I'm not interested in this as the whole point of my hobby programming is to write all the code myself and learn from the experience.
Update
This post was shared on Hacker News and I blogged about the reactions.
Discuss... Email | Reply @amoroso@fosstodon.org