Coda's idea is a one window workflow, complete with webkit / FTP / Git / terminal built in. Most of my days using Coda I spent simply using it as an editor. Its a philosophical standpoint that really depends on workflow. Its integrated FTP operations are fantastic.

When I changed jobs, and started working for a company with much better work flows (and required more complex tech stacks), I ended up jumping to Sublime + Tower, and just using the terminal separately. On the blue-moon that I need a FTP, I fire up Transmit. Since I'm working off local hosts, then pushing my commits to Git repositories that are then served to Jenkins, (staging/beta builds vs production) I'm now never touching the server itself.

Coda is geared best for someone looking for a one app solution to a multitude of things. I think like many, I started with Coda and outgrew it and that's fine. Its a great place to start and does a good job of being accessible. Panic is renowned for its UI/Design and Coda certainly shows that.

I've still yet to fully embrace the nuances of Sublime Text even after a year of using it as my primary editor. Sublime is not a pleasant experience to configure.

So to summarize, Coda is a great place to start.