We ended up switching from Repl.it to CoderPad. It's not perfect, but it nails the basics:

Collaborative editor with syntax support for most major languages

Real-time execution in the cloud (including terminal-based ones like Python, Bash)

Solid multi-user support — you can watch what they’re typing and guide them easily

No fluff

Other options we evaluated:

Codeshare: decent for quick interviews but lacks execution support

CodeInterview.io: had potential but felt a bit janky UX-wise

Visual Studio Code Live Share: great experience but assumes the candidate has a local dev environment, which is a no-go for us

CoderPad is around the same price range as Replit, but at least we feel like we’re paying for what we actually use. Hope that helps!

In a lot of organizations, it is pretty easy to burn a significant multiple of $1500 switching systems you use 0% of because the business does not stick.

What I mean is the question reads (to me) as if the only motivations for switching are irritation with the marketing and not finding additional value in the new features.

That might not exhaust the list of actual problems, but those are the only ones I can suss from the question. If you were going to build rather than buy, maybe they might make a better business case. Good luck.

Or is that per month?

I am interested in uncovering the real problem. Most apps we buy especially at work have shit we put up with (like AI sparkles everywhere) because basically they do the job. So switching I imagine happens when the platform isn't doing what's needed or as a cost saving exercise. It may be in rare cases a personal bugbear thing or ethical reason.

I just wonder what is the real driving painful issue, if any?