What is Replit?
Replit is a browser-based development platform combining an online IDE, an AI coding agent, and one-click deployments. Repls run in Nix-based containers you can share, fork, or ship to production.
Resources
Short guides, curated links, a glossary and FAQ for Replit and the cloud-dev / hosting ecosystem.
Short guides
Replit vs Codespaces
Replit is opinionated and AI-native, with an Agent and integrated deploys. GitHub Codespaces is VS Code + a dev container tied to a GitHub repo — better for large existing codebases.
How Deployments work
Replit supports Autoscale (serverless), Reserved VM (always-on), Static (CDN), and Scheduled (cron) deployments. Each has its own billing model — see the pricing guide.
Reading a status page
A green dot means an endpoint is reachable. It does not guarantee Agent, builds, or deployments are healthy — those internal systems can be degraded while the front-ends stay up.
Why CORS limits browser checks
Most platforms don't return permissive CORS headers, so browser checks confirm DNS/TCP/TLS handshake rather than parsing an API body. That's why we report reachability, not full health.
Curated links
Glossary
- Repl
- A Replit workspace: filesystem + runtime + editor tied to a single project.
- Nix
- The package manager Replit uses to declare system dependencies via replit.nix.
- Agent
- An autonomous coding agent that plans, edits files, and runs commands inside a Repl.
- Autoscale
- Replit deployment type that scales to zero and bills by compute-seconds.
- Reserved VM
- Replit deployment type — an always-on VM billed flat per size.
- Cold start
- Latency of spinning up a new container to serve a scale-to-zero request.
- Dev container
- OCI image + devcontainer.json defining a cloud dev environment (used by Codespaces).
- Edge Function
- Server code that runs at the CDN edge in a V8 isolate — smaller runtime, low cold start.
- Serverless function
- Server code that runs on demand in an ephemeral container/isolate, usually per-request billed.
- Build minutes
- Metered CI time consumed by each deploy — the first ceiling most free-tier hosts hit.
- Preview deployment
- A per-branch or per-PR deploy URL for review before merging to production.
- Custom domain
- A user-owned hostname pointed at a hosting provider via A / CNAME records.
FAQ
Is Replit down right now?
Check the live dashboard on the home page — green dots mean Replit's public surfaces are reachable from your browser. Agent, build, and deployment incidents get reported on status.replit.com.
How is Replit different from GitHub Codespaces?
Replit is AI-native with an integrated Agent and one-click Deployments. Codespaces is VS Code + a real dev container tied to a GitHub repo, and you deploy through your own CI.
Does Replit host production apps?
Yes — Replit Deployments (Autoscale, Reserved VM, Static, Scheduled) are designed for production, with custom domains and SSL.
Why does this site show reachable but the official status page says incident?
Browser checks only see whether public endpoints respond. Internal systems (Agent queue, build queue, region routing) can be degraded while public front-ends stay up.
Do you place any code or hold my data?
No. replit.health is read-only — public reachability checks and outbound links to each platform.