Duckly Review, Pricing & Features

Duckly adds live pair programming, terminal sharing, and video calls directly inside VS Code, IntelliJ, and other IDEs, with a free plan and paid tiers from…

Category
Automation
Pricing
Freemium, from Free
Verified
Not yet
Last updated
July 20, 2026
Founded
2019
Headquarters
San Francisco, California, USA
Free PlanWeb AppFreemium

What Is Duckly?

Duckly is a real-time collaboration tool for developers that runs as a plugin inside popular IDEs rather than as a separate screen-sharing application. It lets multiple developers see each other's cursors and edits live, share a terminal or a locally running server, and talk over audio or video, all without leaving the code editor they normally work in.

The product was originally launched as GitDuck in 2019 by a small San Francisco-based team and later rebranded to Duckly. It remains a lean, small-team company, which shapes both its narrow developer-tool focus and its straightforward, low-priced plans compared to broader remote collaboration suites.

Key Features

Duckly's core feature is IDE-native pair programming: it supports VS Code, IntelliJ, PyCharm, PhpStorm, WebStorm, Android Studio, and other JetBrains-based editors, and participants can even be using different IDEs simultaneously while collaborating on the same session. Live cursors and synchronized edits make it function like a shared coding session rather than a one-way screen share.

Beyond code editing, Duckly includes terminal sharing (so a teammate can run commands in your shell), local server sharing (so others can preview a running dev server), and integrated audio, video, and screen sharing. The company emphasizes that all connections are peer-to-peer and end-to-end encrypted, which appeals to teams wary of routing pair-programming sessions through a third-party server.

Duckly Pricing

Duckly's free plan supports up to 2 simultaneous participants but does not include video calls, making it suitable mainly for occasional, lightweight sessions like quick screen shares. The Hacker plan, at $6/month, is aimed at individual developers and adds unlimited video call minutes and support for up to 3 participants.

For teams, the Team plan is priced at $10 per member per month and raises the participant limit to as many as 60 people in a single session, alongside the same unlimited call time and full feature set. All paid and free tiers include the core collaboration features, unlimited rooms, terminal sharing, and end-to-end encryption; the difference between tiers is participant capacity and call length rather than feature gating.

Key Features

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • Collaboration happens inside the IDE developers already use daily
  • Supports mixed-IDE sessions, useful for teams with varied editor preferences
  • Low-cost individual plan compared to broader collaboration suites
  • End-to-end encrypted, peer-to-peer connections

Cons

  • Free plan is quite limited, capped at 2 participants with no video
  • Small company size may mean slower feature development than larger competitors
  • Narrow focus on code collaboration, not a general meeting or whiteboarding tool
  • Peer-to-peer architecture can be less reliable on restrictive corporate networks

Pricing

Frequently Asked Questions

What was Duckly called before?

Duckly was originally launched as GitDuck before rebranding to Duckly.

Which IDEs does Duckly support?

It supports VS Code, IntelliJ, PyCharm, PhpStorm, WebStorm, Android Studio, and other JetBrains-based editors.

Is Duckly free?

There's a free plan for up to 2 participants without video calls; paid plans start at $6/month for individuals and $10/member/month for teams.

Is Duckly secure?

Duckly describes its connections as peer-to-peer and end-to-end encrypted.

Can different IDEs collaborate together in Duckly?

Yes, participants can join the same session from different supported IDEs simultaneously.

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