Koding (Gradually) Opens Its Social, In-Browser Development Tools To Everyone

Koding, the startup that helps developers code and collaborate from their web browser, is leaving private beta today.

The company isn’t exactly throwing the doors open. It’s more like … nudging? The goal is to make the product available to everyone, but the company is opening gradually, with the hope of not overloading its servers. Specifically, it’s giving members three invites each, and as each new member uses their invites, the userbase will grow. (The company is also allowing some TechCrunch readers to jump the line — keep reading to find out how.)

Koding is supposed to make the development process both easier and more social. Users build their projects in the browser, with a free development server that supports Java, NodeJS, Perl, Python, Ruby, C, C++, Go, and other languages. The company compares its features to Facebook or Yammer, allowing developers to share their code with each other, ask each other questions, and collaborate on projects that can be public or private.

As a sign of the developer interest, co-founder and CEO Devrim Yasar says that among the people who signed up for an invite, 70 percent actually accepted the invite when it came and created an account (10 percent is standard, he says). A total of 10,000 developers participated in the beta.

Yasar also wrote a blog post about the launch, where he describes Koding as “the next little thing”, as well as a product that he’s been working on for three years:

“This project will try to push you to think differently in some ways, ways that you may not feel comfortable at times. It is not just about writing code, it is about thinking how teams and companies will be formed in the future. We will share more, protect less, that’s the idea. Our offices will be our devices that we connect to internet with. Teams will be more dynamic, can grow to 100s of people and shrink back as fast. We will be more inclusive of others, and have core team members that we’ve never met in person.”

Koding recently raised a $2 million Series A from RTP Ventures and Greycroft. The basic product will always be free, Yasar says, while the company will make money by charging for extra features and services.

The company is offering a special invite code to TechCrunch readers. Just go to the Koding homepage, hit “Register”, and enter “techcrunch” as your invitation code.