Remote Pair Programming Tools in 2026, Now That Code With Me Is Shutting Down

Remote pair programming in 2026 comes down to three kinds of tool: an app that shares a whole screen with remote control (Tuple, Hopp, Pop), an editor that lets two people type in the same files (VS Code Live Share, Zed), and an ordinary call with screen sharing. JetBrains is shutting down Code With Me, so teams that relied on it are choosing again. Below is what each option costs and does, checked against each product's own pages on 7 November 2026.

We make TinyFloor, a virtual office for remote teams, which comes up near the end. It isn't a pairing tool, and we say where it fits and where it doesn't.

Remote pair programming tools compared

Tool	What you share	Both can control?	Price	Runs on
Tuple	Whole screen	Yes, keyboard and mouse	$30 a user a month, 14-day trial	macOS, Windows (Linux in alpha)
Hopp	Whole screen	Yes	Free to self-host; Cloud $15 a user a month after a 14-day trial	macOS, Windows
Pop	Whole screen	Yes, multiplayer	Free (Pro is free while in beta); Enterprise $25 a user a month	Desktop app
VS Code Live Share	Your editor, terminals and local servers	Yes, each in their own editor	Free	VS Code
Zed	Your editor	Yes, each in their own editor	Free (collaboration is in every plan)	Zed
JetBrains Code With Me	Your IDE	Yes	No new sales; shuts down in Q1 2027	JetBrains IDEs
A call with screen sharing	Whole screen or a window	No, one drives	Slack free: huddles with one other person; Zoom free: 40 minutes	Anywhere

What happened to JetBrains Code With Me

JetBrains announced on 16 March 2026 that it is sunsetting Code With Me. The 2026.1 IDE release is the last to support it, as a separate plugin rather than built in, and no new features are coming. During the transition the plugin keeps working with security updates and the public relay stays up. In Q1 2027 the relay is turned off and the service stops. New sales and renewals have ended; existing subscriptions run until support ends.

JetBrains' reason is plain: demand for built-in pair programming peaked during the pandemic and has since shifted. If your team pairs inside IntelliJ, PyCharm or GoLand, the choice is now between a screen-sharing app that works with any IDE and moving the pairing into a different editor.

Screen-sharing apps with remote control

These share your whole screen and let the other person type and click on your machine, so they work with any editor, terminal or browser. They're the closest thing to sitting at the same desk.

Tuple is the best-known option and the most expensive: $30 a user a month on its teams plan, with a 14-day trial. It runs on macOS and Windows, with Linux in alpha. A guest can join from a browser to talk and watch the shared screen, but sharing, remote control and drawing need the app. Paid users can pair with outside collaborators for free, companies under two years old with fewer than 50 people get 90% off for a year, and significant open source contributors can get free licenses.

Hopp is the open source alternative. Self-hosting is free; Hopp Cloud costs $15 a user a month after a 14-day trial. It runs on macOS and Windows, with Linux planned (Ubuntu first). The code is on GitHub. If your team already runs its own infrastructure, it's the cheapest way to get Tuple-style remote control.

Pop lets several people share and control screens at the same time. Joining is free, and the Pro plan, which hosts meetings with no time limit, is free while Pop is in beta. Enterprise, with single sign-on, is $25 a user a month, starting at 40 licenses. "Free while in beta" is worth reading as "free for now".

Editors where you both type

Instead of sending video of a screen, these sync the files, so each person types in their own editor with their own keybindings and theme.

VS Code Live Share is free and has more than 24 million installs. Guests can edit and debug in real time, and open any terminals and localhost servers the host shares. Everyone needs VS Code. There's no voice built in, so you pair it with a call.

Zed builds collaboration into the editor itself, and it's included in every plan, including the free Personal plan (Pro is $10 a month, Business $30 a seat). It's a good fit for a team that's already moved to Zed; switching editors just to pair is a big ask.

A plain call with screen sharing

Plenty of pairing happens on whatever call tool the team already has: one person shares, the other watches and talks, and you swap who drives by swapping who shares. It costs nothing extra, and nobody gets control of anyone else's machine, which some security teams prefer.

The free plans have limits worth knowing. Slack's free plan allows huddles with one other person only (group huddles need a paid plan) and keeps 90 days of messages. Zoom's free plan ends meetings at 40 minutes; Zoom Pro is $14.16 a user a month billed yearly, or $16.99 monthly.

The weak spot is text. Call tools tune screen sharing for slides and faces, so code can arrive soft or late. If you pair this way, share a single window rather than a 4K screen, and bump the editor's font size.

The part pairing tools don't solve: starting the session

Every tool above starts with a link someone sends. That's fine for a pairing session booked in the calendar. It's the wrong shape for the unplanned kind: "can you look at this for five minutes?" Remotely, that question becomes a message, a wait for a reply, a link and a call, and usually it doesn't get asked at all.

That's the gap a virtual office fills. In TinyFloor everyone on the team has a desk on a shared floor in the browser, so you can see who's at their desk and who's already in a call, walk your character over, and start a call with one click. Screen sharing in TinyFloor goes up to 1080p at 15 frames a second, tuned to keep code and documents sharp, and one-to-one calls send it in AV1 where both browsers support it.

What it doesn't do: there's no remote control, and it doesn't share your computer's sound. So it pairs well with the tools above rather than replacing them. Start the conversation in the office, and open Live Share or Tuple when you both need to type.

How to choose

• You pair every day, across editors and terminals: Tuple, or Hopp if you'd rather self-host or pay half.
• Your team is all on VS Code: Live Share. It's free and both of you keep your own setup.
• Your team uses Zed: use its built-in collaboration.
• You were on Code With Me: plan the move before Q1 2027. A screen-sharing app keeps you in your JetBrains IDE.
• You pair now and then: a call with screen sharing is enough. Check the free plan's limits first.
• The problem is that pairing never starts: that's about seeing who's free, not about the screen-sharing tool.

FAQ

Is JetBrains Code With Me being discontinued?

Yes. JetBrains announced on 16 March 2026 that Code With Me is being sunset. IDE version 2026.1 is the last to support it, new sales and renewals have stopped, and the service shuts down completely in Q1 2027.

What is the best free tool for remote pair programming?

VS Code Live Share, if everyone uses VS Code: it's free and lets guests edit, debug and use shared terminals. Zed's collaboration is also free. For whole-screen sharing with remote control, Hopp is free if you host it yourself, and Pop is free while it's in beta.

How much does Tuple cost?

$30 a user a month on its teams plan, with a 14-day free trial, as listed on its pricing page in November 2026. Startups under two years old with fewer than 50 employees can get 90% off for the first year.

Can you pair program over Slack huddles?

Yes, with screen sharing, but on Slack's free plan a huddle holds only you and one other person, and the other person can't control your screen.

Do pairing tools work on Linux?

Partly. Tuple's Linux app is in alpha and Hopp's Linux support is planned. VS Code Live Share and Zed run on Linux, because they share the editor rather than the screen.

Sources

1. JetBrains, Sunsetting Code With Me, 16 March 2026
2. Tuple pricing, checked 7 November 2026
3. Hopp, checked 7 November 2026
4. Pop pricing, checked 7 November 2026
5. Live Share on the Visual Studio Marketplace, checked 7 November 2026
6. Zed pricing, checked 7 November 2026
7. Slack pricing and Zoom pricing, checked 7 November 2026
8. How TinyFloor works, for its screen-sharing numbers and what it doesn't do