FEWD Studio vs Etch Studio: £79.99 Desktop Editor for Your Own Files
A desktop studio for real HTML, CSS and JavaScript, built with Astro in mind. It edits your plain HTML, CSS and JavaScript or your Astro project directly, so you can drop it whenever you like and keep your site.
Etch Studio costs $590 a year on the annual plan, or $708 if you pay monthly.
FEWD Studio costs £9.99 a month or £79.99 a year. That covers two device activations and every update, and you can cancel any time.
What it is
It’s a desktop app for Mac and Windows. You click an element in a live preview and edit the real file behind it.
Its pitch is “No builder, no proprietary format, no lock-in.” The features page says your project stays “a real development project using real files stored on your machine”.
Those files are plain HTML, CSS and JavaScript, or an Astro project if that’s what you’re building. You don’t need to keep FEWD. Your site still builds without it, and you can open it in VS Code tomorrow.
Want to see it work before you pay? Chris Good, who makes FEWD Studio, posts demos on his YouTube channel. They’re worth your time: he builds things on screen and explains them, without the shouting. If you’re coming from Etch, start with the one where he explains why FEWD Studio isn’t an Etch clone.
I haven’t tested FEWD Studio myself yet, and I’m looking forward to it.
Built for Astro
Plain HTML is where its visual mode works best: a structure tree you can build with, writing to your real file. Astro files open in a separate Framework Mode, as code, with styling still available from the preview.
FEWD says it’s “designed from the ground up with Astro projects in mind”, with component and layout management and one-click project creation.
There’s a built-in terminal for dev servers, npm and git, plus GitHub commits from inside the app.
AI you already pay for
FEWD doesn’t sell you its own AI. It works with whatever edits your files: Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot and others. You run them through the terminal.
You’re not paying twice for the same assistant.
The catches with FEWD Studio
It’s a subscription if you want all of it. There is a free copy that edits HTML, CSS and JavaScript with the live preview and inspector. Astro, the terminal, git commit and push, and HTML export all need a licence.
The difference from Etch Studio is that you can walk away and keep the editable project, not just a zip of the finished pages.
It’s a small operation too. The site’s copyright line names one person, Chris Good, and the Agency plan is still “coming soon”.
You get a 14-day refund guarantee, though. Etch’s pre-sale buyers were sold under a strict no-refunds policy.
The bill
Over three years, FEWD Studio on the annual plan is £239.97. Etch Studio on its annual plan is $1,770.
You don’t need to convert the currency to see the gap.