Can You Develop Websites On An iPad?

Since Steve Jobs revealed the iPad more than ten years ago, Apple has been trying to pretend that it was a real alternative to a laptop. In some ways, it is: modern iPad Pros are as powerful as most laptops and have amazing screens. But how feasible is it to actually develop websites on them?

Can you develop websites on an iPad?

First of all, let’s think of what iPad we’ll be talking about. There are four lines: basic, cheapest iPads, Minis, Airs, and Pros. If you plan on doing serious work, we recommend the iPad Pro, but it bears mentioning that their price is higher than most of the mid-range laptops. So think twice. The M1 Air is also a good option — cheaper, too.

Anyways, let’s go with the latest offering, an iPad Pro with the M2 chip and the biggest screen possible. It’s a beast, able to outperform most laptops. But all that power is rarely utilized because the OS is still hardly any different from iOS.

But it’s been getting better and better. For working with SSH, you can use Terminus. This app even supports MOSH, an SSH substitute designed specifically for mobile devices. Or you can use iSH Shell, which is even lighter and easier to use. The choice is there.

Now, you need a code editor as well. We suggest Koder, which is free. You can try Github Codespaces. This powerful tool allows you to work on your projects straight from your browser. Code Server is another project with the same idea. It’s great for running VSCode on any server!

Looking for a fun and quirky way to code on your iPad? If you have a Raspberry Pi 4B (or any model of Pi, though the 4B offers the best results), you can connect it to your iPad and start coding away. While it’s easier if you have an iPad with a USB-C connector, it’s possible to make it work on a 2019 iPad Air as well. But that’s more of a proof of concept than a real thing we advise you to try.

Another issue is the browser. Like iPhones, iPads don’t have “proper” ones because every browser in the AppStore is a Safari in disguise. BUT not all is lost: since Safari supports extensions, you can install Web Inspector for a wide array of dev tools.

And last but not least, you’re going to need a decent keyboard. Apple’s Magic Keyboard is amazing but extremely expensive. You can use any wireless keyboard, and in that sense, we can recommend Logitech K780.