Coda 4+

Love Coda, but not the app

This is tough because I really love Coda. I’ve been using it daily for years (on my laptop) and have been a paid subscriber for a couple years now. So I’m definitely rooting for them! But the user experience of the iPhone app consistently gets in the way of it being great. I’ve built docs for other people to use several times (and in doing so have onboarded a ton of new users), but they always complain because they can’t get it to work properly on their phone when they need it - which is the whole point of having an app-like experience for the doc. For example, people want to use it to track their hours worked while in the field. But the Coda app won’t even load so they end up having to write everything down on paper and then put it into the Coda doc later at their computer. And I experience the same thing myself. This problem does not persist with either of the two primary competing apps. I’m not even complaining about the limited functionality of the iPhone app. It’s just that it simply won’t even open 90% of the time.

Not there yet

Update: upon further investigation this app only works fully in the Chrome browser. Hopefully that will change in the future. I’ve updated my rating from 2 stars to 4.
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There are a lot of good reviews here. I will offer a realistic one. This app simply does not work good. It is iPhone only - no iPad version. Additionally, there is no “+” button on the screen to add a table or any other elements, as the tutorials claim there to be. There is only a text format bar when you start typing. Can’t do much with that and basically makes this app useless. That “+” button simply isn’t there.
Maybe that is a paid feature, but they’re website says everything is free. The website itself is also not easy to use on an iPad. Touching elements doesn’t always work and the site header disappears sometimes when I am typing. Rating this 2 stars because it looks nice, but shouldn’t even be that high.
Even on the website there are screenshots of apps like the Project Tacker and there is no sidebar on the iPad like there is on the screenshots they show on the website.

Developer Response ,

Hey, I'm Jeremy - the designer at Coda who worked on the app. I appreciate the feedback.

A few things:
1) on your point about the iPad version, we heard you and prioritized finishing that. The latest update includes an iPad optimized version, so I would suggest trying it again.
2) I definitely want to get to the bottom of where you got the impression there should be a plus button. What tutorial are you referring to? I definitely want to make sure we aren't misleading people into thinking we have features in the app that we don't.

For this first version of the app, we limited the scope to be about viewing, using, and editing the documents you create on desktop. If we tried to rebuild every desktop feature from the start, that would have taken a lot more time and we felt that using and editing documents delivered its own value apart from being able to create them from scratch. So that is why we released it before adding every feature Coda has to offer.

The idea with this is that you can create a doc that is as powerful as an app on desktop and then use and edit it on your phone. The examples when you press the plus button on the doc list try to illustrate the kinds of things you can build. Feel free to reach out if you are interested in chatting more about it - [email protected]

My prayers are answered

When I first learned how to use spreadsheet formulas, I thought it was magic. I’d hack a spreadsheet or a google doc for almost everything in life and work (trip planning, project tracking, notes... the list goes on). Now I use Coda for everything AND I DON’T EVEN NEED TO HACK IT. I made a CRM for my apartment search when I moved to Seattle. I planned a trip to Iceland with my mom so we could share our itinerary, expenses, reservations, and emergency info all in one place. I moved my family recipe database from a huge Drive folder to a single Coda doc with cute icons for every section. On a project tracker with my team at work, I made my own view for my tasks that still updates the main tracker when I change a status. Now with the app, I can pull up my recipes on my phone, use buttons to make status updates when I’m not at my desk, or get reminders from my habit tracker doc as push notifications. 🙏🏼 All I can say is YAS.