What is Playcode

Playcode is an AI platform for building and running websites and apps for a business. You describe the result you need, by text or voice. The Playcode agent builds it, publishes it, and changes it when you ask. A visual editor shows the result, so you can review it and adjust it yourself.

Who it is for

Playcode is built first for people who know their customers and their trade but do not have a development team: entrepreneurs, small business owners, and experts in their field who want to start or grow an online business. It also serves founders testing an idea, freelancers and agencies building for clients, and developers who want a fast place to write and run code.

What you can build

• A website - a business site or landing page with your own domain, forms, and content you can update by asking.
• A web app - software with sign-in, data, and workflows: a CRM, a booking or ordering tool, a client portal, an internal tool, a dashboard, or an online service.
• A mobile app - an iPhone and Android app from the same project as your website, built in the cloud with no Mac required.
• The pieces around it - buy a domain inside Playcode or connect one you own, send email from your own domain, add AI features inside your app through Playcode's own AI gateway, and create presentations and short product videos.

You do not need all of this on day one. Many businesses start with a website and add the app, the domain, or the email later, in the same project and the same chat.

How building and running fit together

Playcode AI builds the software. Playcode Cloud runs it. Both live in one project, so a change you ask for goes live in the same place where the app already runs.

1. Describe - say what you need in plain words. The agent asks when something is unclear.
2. Watch it build - the agent creates the pages, logic, and data step by step and shows the result as it works.
3. Review and adjust - open the preview, click any element in the visual editor, or ask for changes in chat.
4. Publish - one click puts it live, with hosting and HTTPS included. A web app runs on Playcode Cloud with its backend, database, and files.
5. Keep changing it - come back any time and ask for the next feature. Checkpoints restore code, files, and database together to a saved point if a change goes wrong.

You stay in control. The agent works on what you asked for and shows what it changed. Some steps take time or depend on outside services: AI generation, a new build of a mobile app, or a domain's DNS changes. Playcode does not guarantee sales, search rankings, or app store approval. It gives you working software and the tools to keep improving it.

Which builder to start with

• Website - start with the AI Website Builder when you need pages people read: a business site, a landing page, a portfolio, or an old site to modernize.
• Web app - start with the AI App Builder when people need to sign in, store data, or follow a workflow: a CRM, a booking tool, a client portal, an internal tool, or an online service.
• Mobile app - start with the AI Mobile App Builder when your customers or team need an app on their phones. It shares the backend with your web app.
• Code by hand - open the Playgrounds when you want to write and run code yourself: JavaScript, TypeScript, HTML and CSS, React, Python, SQL, and more. They are free browser tools for learning, testing a snippet, or sharing a demo, not the starting point for a business app.

All builders create the same kind of project. A website can grow into a web app, and a web app can get a mobile app, without starting over.

Where Playcode came from

Playcode started in 2016 as a JavaScript playground: a place to write code in the browser and see the result right away. Over the years it grew into a set of online playgrounds, compilers, and editors used by developers and students around the world.

Those coding tools still work and are still supported. The JavaScript Playground, the JavaScript Compiler, and the other playgrounds remain free to use in the browser, and in any Playcode project you can open the file explorer and edit the code directly. What changed is the main product: today Playcode is the AI platform described above, and the playgrounds are one of the tools inside it.

Free tools and paid plans

The playgrounds and compilers are free browser tools. Building with the AI agent uses credits: you start with trial credits and no credit card, and paid plans add more credits, Playcode Cloud apps, custom domains, and private projects. See How credits work and Pricing for the current limits.

Where Playcode is going

Our long-term goal is to let anyone turn their expertise into a working online business without first hiring a development team: describe what should happen in your business, and Playcode builds and runs the software for it. Building the business stays your work. Playcode supplies the software and keeps it running. This page describes only what works today; new capabilities appear in the changelog when they ship.