I’ve been using Replit since 2020, back when I had little programming knowledge. One of my friends had been creating cool Python projects and I was interested in learning some myself. I didn’t like the idea of sharing screens and etc, and I needed something online. Replit was probably the exact match.
When I was researching, I knew of no online coding websites that had live collaboration, until I found Replit. Compared to now, Replit was a lot further down on the search list (at least on Bing) and took considerable effort to find. You'd expect a feature like multiplayer to be paywalled, but it allowed you to add up to fifty (now it's 100 I believe) other people to collaborate on a single Repl. Replit did all of the annoying work setting up your. No confusing command prompt or bash, and I didn't have to install anything. Replit has a similar interface that you might find on a well-known IDE like VSCode and allows you to by simply pressing CTRL+Enter. It wasn't complicated and cluttered with a bunch of random buttons that went completely over my head, and the options menu wasn't cluttered with a bunch of nonsense. The file manager automatically hides all the confusing files and folders that a beginner's tutorial probably won't explain, and the interface allows to you easily move around windows to your liking.
Replit also has some nice, kinda lesser-known features. Back when I was starting to learn some intermediate stuff, I found the database tool pretty useful. Secrets were also nice, allowing me to actually make some sort of high-end password system without my friends just looking at the code. A theme maker is also really nice, and the community-made themes are of good quality. The package manager is way easier to use than the shell, and it’s pretty cool to look at some of the community-made extensions similar to something such as VSCode. Best of all, RAM/CPU aren’t even a problem. My programs always run swiftly, like on an actual Windows PC.
I have some ideas to help improve Replit though. I do wish the user page was more customizable, similar to something like Replit Ask. I do wish the shell and console were more distinguishable from each other, as beginner users may get a bit confused. This might be just me, but I kind of wish the Packager files were hidden by default (I usually hide them anyway), it increases clutter in your files. Probably the biggest though, I don't use the Git feature as it also takes some unnecessary folders like "venv", which are extremely annoying to remove from your repo if you are working online. If it only took in your actual project, I would use it way more often.
Replit is insane at what it does, especially considering it's on the web. Compared to something like Github Codespaces, or basically any other online Python or HTML editor, Replit is the easiest to set up, the most straightforward, and has quality interface.