Replit is a cloud-based development environment with a free tier called Starter. It's got a full environment for writing, sharing and deploying software in any programming language, along with AI code generation, collaboration tools and secure deployment. The free tier is good for students and open-source programmers who want to try things out without much setup hassle.
Another good choice is GitHub, which has a free tier for managing Git repositories, code review and bug tracking. GitHub also has AI-powered coding help, automated workflows and a full dev environment with GitHub Codespaces. It's good for programmers of all stripes, including those just learning to code, with features like GitHub Advanced Security and secret scanning for better protection.
If you're interested in no-code development, Bubble offers a free development version that lets you build full-stack, production-ready apps without knowing how to code. It comes with hundreds of prebuilt, customizable templates, a drag-and-drop editor and AI-generated pages. Bubble also offers scalable and secure hosting, so it's a good choice for students and open-source programmers looking for a powerful but easy-to-use development tool.
Last, Codeium is an AI-powered coding assistant that offers sophisticated code completion and search for more than 70 programming languages. It works with leading IDEs and offers features like AI chat for writing boilerplate code, refactoring and generating documentation. Codeium's free tier is good for individual developers, but its team and enterprise plans offer more features and support.