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Show HN: Crocodile - Better code review for GitHub

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Show HN: Crocodile - Better code review for GitHub

#1

Post by jameslao »

Hi HN!

I've been working on a code review app for GitHub called Crocodile for about a year. I used to work at Microsoft where we used a tool called CodeFlow for reviewing code and I missed it after I left. I know many other ex-Microsoft engineers feel the same. Here are some of the distinguishing features of Crocodile that are inspired by CodeFlow:

* Comments float above the code instead of being inline. Long discussions that are displayed inline make it really hard to review the code.

* Comment on any text selection in the file, even a single character.

* Comments don't get lost when code changes. I hate it when comments become "outdated" because I rebase or the line is edited.

I also implemented lots of features that I wish CodeFlow had which you can read more about on the blog. [1]

For those curious about the tech stack: it's mostly written in Go with Alpine.js, HTMX, and Tailwind CSS for the frontend. For storage I use PostgreSQL, S3 compatible object storage, and Redis for caching. I use Pulumi for infrastructure provisioning and Kubernetes deployments. Everything is hosted on DigitalOcean.

Feedback is welcome!

[1] https://www.crocodile.dev/blog/why-crocodile

Show HN: Crocodile - Better code review for GitHub
crocodile.dev

Re: Show HN: Crocodile - Better code review for GitHub

#2

Post by http-teapot »

I am a bit at odd with the pricing. My team has 6 engineers and base price for Github is $24. Your product would increase our bill by $48, an increase of 200%. $48 is nothing compared to the salaries of 6 engineers but I am not convinced the feature set would make my team more productive.

If you told me that your solution help my team ship faster and saves an hour per engineer per week then that's easy math: your product pays for itself.

Suggestions:

  - Make all base features free (the ones on your site currently)
  - Add analytics to your product, collect data and put it behind a paywall (entirely or partially by truncating historical data)
  - Iterate on premium features that improves critical metrics
  - Offer analytics with a trial of 2 to 3 months, enough time for graphs to speak for themselves
  - Make sure the gains are seen by the manager or business owner or whoever is the person in charge
Pricing can be based on the average of hours saved.

Re: Show HN: Crocodile - Better code review for GitHub

#3

Post by paulgb »

http-teapot wrote: post #2

I am a bit at odd with the pricing. My team has 6 engineers and base price for Github is $24. Your product would increase our bill by $48, an increase of 200%. $48 is nothing compared to the salaries of 6 engineers but I am not convinced the feature set would make my team more productive. If you told me that your solution help my team ship faster and saves an hour per engineer per week then that's easy math: your pro…

I’m going to disagree, I think the model they have is both familiar to me as a potential user and priced such that, if it is even slightly better than GitHub, it’s a no-brainer. I wouldn’t pay extra for analytics, though, it just sounds like another thing to check.

IMHO if the one-month free trial isn’t enough to know whether a SaaS solution is worth an $8/head price, it’s probably not worth that price.

Re: Show HN: Crocodile - Better code review for GitHub

#4

Post by tr1ll10nb1ll »

paulgb wrote: post #3
http-teapot wrote: post #2

I am a bit at odd with the pricing. My team has 6 engineers and base price for Github is $24. Your product would increase our bill by $48, an increase of 200%. $48 is nothing compared to the salaries of 6 engineers but I am not convinced the feature set would make my team more productive. If you told me that your solution help my team ship faster and saves an hour per engineer per week then that's easy math: your pro…

I’m going to disagree, I think the model they have is both familiar to me as a potential user and priced such that, if it is even slightly better than GitHub, it’s a no-brainer. I wouldn’t pay extra for analytics, though, it just sounds like another thing to check. IMHO if the one-month free trial isn’t enough to know whether a SaaS solution is worth an $8/head price, it’s probably not worth that price.

For me, the most worthy SaaS purchases usually have been the ones that I knew were worth it from day 0.

The trial has always just been a cherry on top.

I haven’t ever used the entire trial for the sake of “trying” and then choosing to not use the product further.

Re: Show HN: Crocodile - Better code review for GitHub

#5

Post by OJFord »

paulgb wrote: post #3
http-teapot wrote: post #2

I am a bit at odd with the pricing. My team has 6 engineers and base price for Github is $24. Your product would increase our bill by $48, an increase of 200%. $48 is nothing compared to the salaries of 6 engineers but I am not convinced the feature set would make my team more productive. If you told me that your solution help my team ship faster and saves an hour per engineer per week then that's easy math: your pro…

I’m going to disagree, I think the model they have is both familiar to me as a potential user and priced such that, if it is even slightly better than GitHub, it’s a no-brainer. I wouldn’t pay extra for analytics, though, it just sounds like another thing to check. IMHO if the one-month free trial isn’t enough to know whether a SaaS solution is worth an $8/head price, it’s probably not worth that price.

Adding Y to Xy is already a tough sell, but when the upgraded Y costs more than all of Xy? I sympathise with GP. GitHub can do it from an economy of scale and probably 'should' be more expensive, but it can manage not to be (maybe cheaper is actually optimal, given how many more will pay for it, point is it's in some sense 'worth' more) which puts OP in a tough spot.

Imagine trying to sell a better WYSIWYG editor for WordPress for example. You can be better, save time, etc. - it's still always going to be a tough sell to charge more than a fraction of WP itself which offers a WYSIWYG editor and everything else.

Re: Show HN: Crocodile - Better code review for GitHub

#6

Post by burlesona »

This looks great! Food for thought on pricing: Because you offer free for open source, there’s minimal need for a free trial for private repos. I would consider requiring a credit card and making it a 14 day trial. My experience selling SaaS in the past is this will net you fewer but much more serious evals, so whenever someone signs up you know they are legit and worth your time to contact and support. That leads to higher conversion, better retention, etc.

Best of luck!

Re: Show HN: Crocodile - Better code review for GitHub

#9

Post by searchableguy »

This provides better UX but adds one more redirection when you are using github.

Do you support features like github suggestions which can be committed easily by author?

Given your history with Microsoft and their internal tool which this is inspired by, how long until github copies some of the ideas?

How many active users does this have?

Are there potential problems you see outside of current product?

I remember a startup providing paid code reviews as a service launched on HN a while ago. That could be a pivot for example in providing more value.

Re: Show HN: Crocodile - Better code review for GitHub

#10

Post by http-teapot »

OJFord wrote: post #5
paulgb wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m going to disagree, I think the model they have is both familiar to me as a potential user and priced such that, if it is even slightly better than GitHub, it’s a no-brainer. I wouldn’t pay extra for analytics, though, it just sounds like another thing to check. IMHO if the one-month free trial isn’t enough to know whether a SaaS solution is worth an $8/head price, it’s probably not worth that price.

Adding Y to Xy is already a tough sell, but when the upgraded Y costs more than all of Xy? I sympathise with GP. GitHub can do it from an economy of scale and probably 'should' be more expensive, but it can manage not to be (maybe cheaper is actually optimal, given how many more will pay for it, point is it's in some sense 'worth' more) which puts OP in a tough spot. Imagine trying to sell a better WYSIWYG editor for…

Hence my suggestion, if your product saves me $500/seat/month then I'll gladly pay $50/seat/month.

Wordpress is a great example, rather than build another Wordpress, solve one problem Wordpress doesn't solve (example: Elementor) and do it far better (depth vs breadth).

We are using this Github Action (https://github.com/flowwer-dev/pull-request-stats) for now, it adds stats to every PR, it has helped the team visualize their contributions and how critical it was for us moving forward and as a manager/tech-lead it helps me identify areas of improvements at the individual level. I think it's a simple idea with a lot of depth.

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