Awesome gem of an app to find. My top pick for best dev app – GoCoEdit - Code & Text Editor Review

I’ve been using this app for about 1.5 years and love it. Thanks for making such a nice and powerful option, I use it daily to do a ton of web edits and so on. I have tried many other developer editors (IDE is taking things a bit for at this point) and have been pretty unhappy with them. Textastic for example - I do own it (Even bought it on the Mac so I could sync) but it’s overly simplistic. It’s a nice *text* editor, but once you go into code-writing-mode, the “tools” that are expected of a developer code editor are lacking….I honestly don’t know what all of the hype is around that app. Coda by Panic is a bit better, but it’s not updated and is pretty old. I’m just guessing, but hopefully they’ll be able to successfully port over their new flagship full true IDE which is called Nova. Hoping that’s what’s coming to iPadOS, ASAP! So to come back to GoCoEdit: It’s a seriously powerful tool, especially for developers. The integration with Working Copy (Git app for iOS) is great to have working as well, without that, I couldn’t recommend the app (But it works with it and very well, so +1 there! Any further improvements and just keeping up-to-date with them would be all I ask of you). Other notable features of GCE: * Not expensive - THANK YOU! * Able to edit LIVE files directly on a remote host without having to download, then upload files (huge timesaver). Of course, editing saved files located on-device, on another server, in the cloud and much more, just *works*. I’d honestly say things work extremely well and blow the competitors away (Sure, there are things that could be added…syncing to a Mac app such as Panic’s Nova would be a MASSIVE bonus!). * Syntax highlighting works well and as it should. Not much else to say here. * Works on plain iOS (I use it 99.9% on my iPad though). This is helpful in a pinch. Nobody wants to edit a ton of code or build huge projects on an iPhone, or I don’t think anyone does. But there have been 2 times in particular when I was out doing errands and got the dreaded call saying our client’s site was down. I pulled GCE out on my iPhone, logged into their FTP and made a few changes to a config file and - done! GCE really helped and saved me on those times alone. Definitely a major player in the iOS Apps for Developers list. * It has nice themes and built-in dark mode. * iPadOS support is fantastic. I’m using an external Logitech case/keyboard and hotkeys/shortcuts work great out of the box. I’m sure trackpad support works well too (Say, for Apple’s Magic Keyboard w/trackpad), I just don’t have one. …But I do use my Bluetooth mouse with it (basically a trackpad to iOS) and it has worked nicely. * Native iOS features that work with you (not against you like some apps) Things like, support for drag-and-drop, split screen on iPad, works with the Files app, code folding & hinting (big one!), bracket matching, RegEx search capabilities, Siri Shortcuts are supported (Though I have to say that I haven’t used them…I need to get back into that habit), Snippets are nice to have, Preview browser, lots of server types are supported, integrated shell, and tons more. * Git Support! It works with Working Copy (the only real option for Git on iOS (it’s also very affordable and works well with many apps.There isn’t built-in Git support, but like competitors, GCE does support version control through an app like Working copy). I could keep going on and on why this app is at the top of my dev app list. I think it’s an excellent buy, price tag is definitely *not* greedy, and it is top in the dev editor class in my opinion. It doesn’t have the thousands of reviews that Textastic got, they just got lucky and put out a dev editor (which again, is SO simple…too much so that I just don’t see why anyone would use it for any real world project. Never thought I’d say this: Just to give myself a challenge during Covid, I decided to see how far I could get with developing a custom WordPress theme for a client. Again, this was WordPress, and starting with a fully-blank theme that I was making. My Mac wasn’t working at the time so I didn’t have much choice. But I quickly found using GCE was not only quick and straightforward but it actually helped me build out the first version without any major hiccups. That’s saying a LOT. I used the editing features (mainly HTML, CSS, PHP and JS and similar files) every second. This app really was a solid rock and workhorse…powerhouse. I fully recommend it to any developer as it offers so much for so little money (and NO subscription model either, which is refreshing and a requirement of me at this point!!!!!!). There isn’t much else to say besides, this app covers all of the main features a developer (Especially if you’re a web developer). It gets regular updates and is a solid development app. I think it should be #1 in the “Developement” category. Wow. Long review, but this app deserves it. Thanks to the developer(s) that make GoCoEdit, please keep up the great work!
Review by SeeSticks on GoCoEdit - Code & Text Editor.