Best IDE for web development is very necessary when you are working on a very tight deadline. And you need to submit your project to the client or to your boss as soon as possible you can. So that you could get money from clients or could save a job. In this case, for fast development you must choose the best IDE for web development. That makes you very comfortable when you are coding. If you are comfortable with your favorite IDE, that means you can give more output in less time.
There are many IDEs in the market, which help you a lot to get your work done. Some of them are open-source and free and some of them are paid. If you choose a free and open source IDE you will get good results but with less features than a reputed paid IDE. Because a paid IDE provides you many features for which they charge. Also it depends on the situation of work. Like if you are working on a small project then you can get all your project done with a free open-source IDE. When you are working on a large scale or enterprise level project with a team, then you need something special and these IDEs come with a special price.
But before purchasing the best IDE for web development, you must know which IDE is best for. By judging the need of choosing the best IDE for web development. I have written this article for you. So that you could judge and make a decision which IDE you should buy or use if it is free.
What is an IDE and Text Editor?
Web development IDE can perform all the necessary tasks which a simple text editor could do such as Sublime Text or Atom which are used to do only coding like if you are writing HTML or JavaScript, no doubt text editors also has features of some syntax highlights, indentation, customized themes and UI. But IDEs provide us some additional features like automating, visualizing the development process and testing tools. Basically an IDE is full of all the necessary packages which helps you to turn through coding to a full functioning app.
So the question is which is the best IDE for web development? Don’t worry I have created a list of the best IDEs for web development. And tried to explain all the features that they have. This detailed description is going to help you to choose or buy any of your favorite IDE, to make your work simple, quick and easier.
1. Visual Studio Code
If you are looking for great JavaScript IDE for your project? So Visual Studio Code will be the best IDE for web development in building JavaScript apps. It is available almost for every platform, like Windows, Linux or Mac OS. Visual Studio Code also supports NodeJs. And it also has a complete ecosystem of extensions for many programming languages like C, C++, Python, PHP, etc.
It provides you many features like auto-complete, great intellisense syntax highlights based on the variable types of language, function definitions and imported modules. Visual Studio Code also has a feature to debug your code for a running app by its debugger, an interactive console or call stacks. You can also integrate any JavaScript library into Visual Studio Code by not doing any effort. If you want any library or framework intellisense. Just search the extension by typing the name, and you will find many results for your specific keyword. Press install button and that specific extension will be installed for you.
It is very light weight and has a great UI which will be the reason you will love it. And if you are bored with its default UI or color scheme? Then you can also install your favorite theme from millions of themes available by just in one search. If you want to try it after reading this review? You must try and you will love it.
One important note for you. —– it’s free.
2. RJ TextEd
Another great IDE for JavaScript is RJ TextEd. This IDE is a full featured source and text editor which supports unicode. Not only JavaScript, it also supports PHP, ASP, HTML and CSS. Not only it supports these languages, but also it includes support for CSS/HTML editing with integrated CSS/HTML preview, auto completion, spell checking, HTML validation, templates and much more. RJ TextEd also comes with a feature of a dual pane file commander. It has (S)FTP client for uploading your files to the server. This IDE is also completely free.
There are also many features available in RJ TextEd which I didn’t list. But if you want to check all features you can visit their official website here.
3. Light Table
If you want a flexible work surface for exploration and creation of your apps or programs then Light Table will be the best choice for you. This web development IDE is very unique, based on a simple idea that developers need for a real time work surface that only a text editor cannot provide. This IDE supports Windows, Linux and Mac OS platforms.
If you need more deep information about Light Table IDE, you can visit their official website here.
4. NetBeans
Before switching from NetBeans to JetBrains IDE, NetBeans was my favorite IDE. Because it is very powerful, user friendly and has great intellisense. If you are a Java developer then it is a great IDE for you. But not only it supports the Java programming language, but it also supports JavaScript, HTML 5, PHP, C/C++ etc. It is also a great and powerful IDE for JavaScript and HTML 5.
This web development IDE provides lots of tools specially, some cool code analyzing tools which are compatible with latest Java technologies. It makes NetBeans the one of the best IDEs available in the market.
It also supports different languages. And if you want to check and use this IDE you can download it from here.
If you are a new user for NetBeans then the debugging and configuring it could be a bit tricky for you but when once you learned all things then it will be very easy to use for you to develop any project in it.
5. Brackets
If you are a web designer or front-end developer. Then Brackets is the great IDE for you. It has great visual tools and preprocessor support and fact is that it has been created by the front-end designers for the front-end designers.
One more great thing about Brackets IDE is that it is completely free and open source. In addition it has a large community which will help you a lot whenever you want the answer of any query related to this IDE.
You can checkout and download Brackets from here.
6. Komodo Edit
Komodo Edit is a free and open-source IDE. It also has a paid version. But you can also use a free version that is also a great tool. It is very good for JavaScript development. With some efforts of integration you can easily use your favorite frameworks in Komodo Edit. And can do your development by using Komodo Edit IDE.
However, I want to tell you that there are many complaints related to the free version of Komodo Edit, not providing full features which are only available in paid version.
You can download Komodo Edit from here.
7. Atom by Github
Atom is also a great IDE for JavaScript developers. It is a project by Github. It is easy to customize and easy to use. A built-in package manager available, through which you can easily install any package according to your needs of development.
There are also some extensions and packages that are pre-installed in it. It has 8 syntax themes. Atom also has a large community with experienced developers. If you have any issues or query you just ask on the forums and you will get a quick response from the community.
Atom basically is a desktop app that is built with HTML, CSS, JavaScript and Node.js. It runs on Electron, which is a framework used to develop cross platform applications. So if you are a great JavaScript developer and front-end designer. You must choose the Atom for your projects.
Overall this is a great choice for front-end developers. I also used this IDE for my many JavaScript projects. You can download Atom IDE from here.
8. Sublime Text 3
If you are thinking that in web development technologies there are gifts? Yes it is true, Sublime Text 3 is a gift from their developers. I have used this IDE for many years. And this is one of my favorite editors which I used most in my Life. I personally will request you, must try in your life before you die.
Sublime text comes with a free version and paid version. If you use a free version that shows you the dialogue mostly that you need to purchase this software. But you can use it free and if you like it you can purchase it. It is the best JavaScript editor and it is available for all platforms like Linux, Windows or Mac OS.
It is a very flexible and light editor but has powerful features. It is the IDE from which you can expect everything you think, an IDE should have. This is the best choice for beginners and advanced developers. It also comes with a built-in package manager that has a lot of packages. If you are an experienced developer you can install the packages which you want and according to your current project you can set it up according to your workspace. Again I am saying you must try it. You can download Sublime Text 3 from here.
9. Notepad++
Notepad++ is also a very great code editor when you are working on small projects. It is written in C++ language. It also has many features like the above mentioned IDEs. And the bad thing about this IDE is that this is only for Windows. It supports over 50 different languages. It is mostly a favorite of those developers who like mostly manually typing instead of getting intellisense suggestions or any other type. I am not saying this doesn’t have intellisense but due to its simplicity most of the people don’t like it. Specially I but you will be surprised to know that I also like it very much whenever I need to change in simple text files. Actually I mostly use it in my Windows as an alternative to Windows built-in Text Editor.
And I simply say to you that it is a great for Windows alternative than default Text Editor. You can download Notepad++ from here.
10. PyCharm
JetBrains is one of the world’s great software development companies. Because it has some great and powerful dedicated IDEs for almost every language. And PyCharm is one of the greatest IDE for Python developers. Those who are experienced python developers and beginners must use this IDE. I am a big fan of JetBrains products because I am now working in the market as a Magento 2 front-end developer. And the JetBrains products have made my development life so much easier and flexible.
Pycharm comes with a 30-day trail and because it is a paid IDE. Yes it’s worth it if you buy this paid version. Pycharm not only supports Python but it also supports JavaScript, Angular JS, Coffee Script, CSS, Python, HTML, Node.js, TypeScript and template languages.
However, I want to tell you that, the developers who are using PyCharm. Mostly complains for some bugs, like autocomplete feature sometimes doesn’t work.
But beyond this, overall this is a great IDE and you must try it once in your life. You can download PyCharm from here.
11. IntelliJ IDEA
IntelliJ IDEA is also a best ide for web development from JetBrains. It is also a paid tool but also comes with a 30-days trial version. It offers several plans of buying the license of this IDE. It offers many JavaScript tools for you and it is great CSS IDE and it also supports many languages. Basically I think it is the product from JetBrains that supports all major languages which supports all JetBrains products.
You should remember that, if you are an absolute beginner then IntelliJ IDEA is not for you. Because it has many tools that a beginner cannot get an idea how to use it, for them it is not good. But if you are an experienced developer then yes, this tool is made for the experienced developers soul. You can download IntelliJ IDEA from here.
12. RubyMine
Ruby is a great programming language and it is very popular. That means there are many experienced Ruby developers in the world. And if you are an experienced Ruby developer. So you need a very powerful IDE that is specially dedicated for Ruby language. By examining the needs of Ruby developers. JetBrains created an IDE RubyMine, that is a specially dedicated IDE for Ruby developers. It is a very powerful and great IDE. It not only supports Ruby language but also supports CoffeeScript, CSS, HAML, HTML, JavaScript, LESS etc.
You can download RubyMine from here.
13. PHPStorm
I was waiting to describe this IDE. Because currently I am working with this IDE in my company as a Magento 2 front-end developer. JetBrain made a husband for PHP language which cares a lot for this language. It knows what PHP wants and how she could be happy and if PHP is happy that means that has been coded great. Why does it happen? Only because of PHPStorm by JetBrains.
It is a very awesome and beautiful IDE that is best match for PHP developers. It supports many big frameworks in the world like Symfony, WordPress, Laravel, Drupal, Zend Framework, Magento, Yii, and many more.
The most amazing thing about PHPStorm is that it is so simple to use as much you can expect. And the user interface is very attractive and the key maps are so simple once you will know the key maps you will be used to in a very short time.
It supports not only PHP but HTML, CSS, almost all JS frameworks and languages, Sass, Less, Stylus and others.
I want to thank the JetBrains who developed this amazing IDE that makes coding like we are eating our favorite cake. It automatically takes care of our coding while we are typing. A great feature of this PhpStorm is the refactoring that takes care and provides us many options of refactoring in a neat and clean way like manipulating variables, renaming, extracting methods, deleting, push-up members, pull-down members and many other refactoring. With the language specific refactoring you can easily do changes to your code without mixing the code and having no errors only with few clicks. You can download this PHPStorm from here.
14. WebStorm
As we all know that JavaScript is the world’s most popular language, almost 80% of the internet world is covered. And for JavaScript JetBrains also developed a best IDE for web development that is called WebStorm. It is very famous and easy to use IDE that is great for those who are the front-end developers and designers specially for JavaScript developers. It also supports many languages like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, TypeScript, Angular JS, Node.js, Meteor, ECMAScript, React, Vue.js, Cordova, and others.
WebStorm is an extremely user-friendly IDE and is very lightweight that is designed to make development super-fast.
This is great experience with WebStorm when you meet with these all features. You can download the WebStorm from here.
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