Nova is Panic's full code editor, and the successor to Coda. Hydra is a workspace for the servers, databases and repositories around your code, with an editor for changing files where they live.
If you write code all day in a project, with extensions, language support and build tasks, Nova is the better editor. If your editing is mostly fixing files on servers, and the rest of your day is databases, transfers and Git, Hydra covers that in one window and adds what an editor does not: a database client, compare and merge, and access for AI agents.
Both cost $99 and include a year of updates; you keep what you have if you stop renewing.
From each product's own website, checked October 6, 2026. Prices in US dollars.
| Hydra Dev Studio | Nova | |
|---|---|---|
| Editing | Syntax highlighting for 36 languages, find and replace, auto-indent and bracket pairing; encoding and line endings preserved | A full code editor with an extensions API, language support including Rust, Swift and C/C++ |
| Remote files | SFTP, FTP and FTPS, WebDAV, Amazon S3, Azure Blob, SMB, local folders | SFTP, FTP and FTPS, WebDAV, Amazon S3, Azure, Backblaze B2, Box, DreamObjects, Dropbox |
| Saving to a server | Each file saves straight back, the way the service allows (an atomic rename on SFTP, a conditional write on S3) | Edit remote files directly, and publish a project to its server |
| Git | Stage by the hunk, commit, branches, push and pull, three-way merge for conflicts | Clone, fetch, pull, commit and push, with GitHub and GitLab sign-in |
| Terminal | SSH terminals in a tab, and SSH tunnels | Built-in terminal |
| Databases | Nine SQL engines and DynamoDB | No |
| Compare | Files, folders and servers, images and binary files, patches | Not listed |
| AI agents and scripts | Claude Code and your scripts use your connections through Hydra without seeing a password, and every call is logged | Not listed |
| Runs on | macOS 26 or later, Apple silicon | macOS 15.6 or later |
| Price | $99 once, with twelve months of updates; the version you have keeps working after that. Fourteen-day trial with everything unlocked. Another year of updates is $75. | $99 with a year of updates, then $49 a year if you want them; $79 for Coda owners. |
You spend the day writing code in projects and want extensions, language servers and build tasks.
You publish to Backblaze B2, Box or Dropbox.
You are on macOS 15, or want the cheaper renewal.
Your editing is mostly fixing configuration and templates on live servers, and you want it saved back exactly, with encoding and line endings untouched.
You need the database next to the files: query it, browse it and edit rows in a grid, in the same window as the SFTP site.
You want to know whether the server matches the repository, and to copy the differences either way.
You use AI agents and want them working through your connections, with a log of everything they did.
Panic stopped selling Coda in September 2020 when Nova replaced it. If what you miss is Coda's rhythm (open a site, edit a file on the server, save, check the database, open a terminal), that is close to how Hydra works: one window, a library of sites, and an editor that saves in place.
Hydra will not replace Coda's live preview or its project publishing; it is not a web page builder. It adds what Coda never had: a database client, compare and merge, Git staging by the hunk, and agent access.
Add each site under New › File Server, or point Hydra at a project folder and let it find the connections already described there. You can keep Nova for writing code and use Hydra for everything around it.
The trial is fourteen days with everything unlocked.
Fourteen days, everything unlocked, no account required.
Download for macOS