Python is one of the easiest programming languages to learn. It is also very powerful and its application can be found in almost every industry. It has gained popularity among web developers too. So, what are the best IDEs for Python web development?
In this post, I’ll tell you about the best Python IDEs for beginners and how to use them. You’ll also find a list of freely available online Python IDEs that you can use from any computer.
Jupyter
Jupyter is an easy-to-use interactive data science IDE for many programming languages that work not only as an editor but also as an educational presentation tool. It is one of the best Python IDEs supporting numerical simulation, data cleanup, machine learning, data visualization, and statistical modeling. It can be an amazing tool for people just starting out in data science.
Features:
- You can easily combine software code, explanatory text, and images in a single document.
- Jupyter Notebook also comes with a Smart Indentation feature.
- It offers support for numerous programming languages.
- Comes bundled with integrated data science libraries like Matplotlib, NumPy, Pandas.
- Jupyter Notebook is a free, open-source, and web-based software that is compatible with all major platforms.
PyCharm
- Category: IDE
- First Release Date: 2010
- Platform Compatibility: Windows, macOS, Linux
- Who It’s For: Intermediate to advanced Python users
- Supporting Languages: Python, Javascript, CoffeeScript, etc.
- Price: Freemium (free limited feature community version, paid full featured professional version)
- Download: PyCharm Download Link
- Popular Companies using Pycharm Python IDE –
Twitter, HP, Thoughtworks, GROUPON, and Telephonic.
Developed by JetBrains, PyCharm is a cross-platform IDE that offers a variety of features such as version control, graphical debugger, integrated unit tester, and pairs well for web development and Data Science tasks. With PyCharm’s API, developers can create their custom plugins for adding new features to the IDE. Other features include:
● Code completion
● Live updates to code changes
● Python refactoring
● Support for full-stack web development
● Support for scientific tool such as matplotlib, numpy, and scipy
● Support for Git, Mercurial and more
● Comes with paid and community editions
Advantages of PyCharm —
● Can boost productivity and code quality
● Highly active community for support
Disadvantages of PyCharm —
● Can be slow to load
● Requires changing default settings for existing projects for best compatibility
● The initial installation might be difficult
Screenshot for References-
Spyder
- Category: IDE
- First Release Year: 2009
- Platform Compatibility: Windows, macOS, Linux
- Who It’s For: Python data scientists
- Price: Free
- Download: Spyder Download Link
Spyder is awith support for packages like NumPy, SciPy, Matplotlib, and Pandas. Targeted towards scientists, engineers, and data analysts, Spyder offers advanced data exploration, analysis, and visualization tools. Features of this cross-platform IDE include:
● Code completion
● Syntax highlighting
● Code benchmarking via Profiler
● Multi-project handling
● Find in Files feature
● History log
● Internal console for introspection
● Third-party plugins support
Advantages —
● Includes support for numerous scientific tools
● Comes with an amazing community support
● Interactive console
● Lightweight
Disadvantages —
● Comes with execution dependencies
● Can be a bit challenging at first for newcomers
Screenshot for References-
Eclipse + Pydev
- Category: IDE
- First Release Year: 2001 — for Eclipse, 2003 — for Pydev
- Platform Compatibility: Windows, macOS, Linux
- Who It’s For: Intermediate to advanced Python users
- Supporting Languages: Python, (Eclipse supports Java and many other programming languages)
- Price: Free
- Download: PyDev Download Link
- Popular Companies using PyDev and Eclipse Python IDE —
Hike, Edify, Accenture, Wongnai, and Webedia.
Eclipse is one of the top IDEs available, supporting a broad range of programming languages for application development, including Python. Primarily created for developing Java applications, support for other programming languages is introduced via plugins. The plugin used for Python development is Pydev and offers additional benefits over Eclipse IDE, such as:
● Django, Pylint, and unittest integration
● Interactive console
● Remote debugger
● Go to definition
● Type hinting
● Auto code completion with auto import
Advantages —
● Easy to use
● Programmer friendly features
● Free
Disadvantages —
● Complex user interface makes it challenging to work with
● If you’re a beginner then using Eclipse will be difficult
Screenshot for References-
IDLE
- Category: IDE
- First Release Year: 1998
- Platform Compatibility: Windows, macOS, Linux
- Who It’s For: Beginning Python users
- Price: Free
- Download: IDLE Download Link
- Popular Companies using IDLE Python IDE —
Google, Wikipedia, CERN, Yahoo, and NASA.
Short for Integrated Development and Learning Environment, IDLE has been bundled with Python as its default IDE for more than 15 years. IDLE is a cross-platform IDE and offers a basic set of features to keep it unburdened. The features offered, include:
● Shell window with colorized code, input, output and error messages
● Support for multi-window text editor
● Code auto-completion
● Code formatting
● Search within files
● Debugger with breakpoints
● Supports smart indentation
Advantages —
● Perfect for beginners and educational institutions
Disadvantages —
● Lacks features offered by more advanced IDEs, such as project management capabilities
Wing
- Category– IDE
- First Release Year— September 7, 2000
- Platform– Windows, Linux and Mac
- Who It’s For: Intermediate to advanced Python users
- Price: $179 per user for a year of commercial use, $245 per user for a permanent commercial use license
- Download: Wing Download Link
- Popular Companies using Wing Python IDE-
Facebook, Google, Intel, Apple, and NASA
The feature-rich IDE for Python, Wing, was developed to make development faster with the introduction of intelligent features such as smart editor and simple code navigation. Wing comes in 101, Personal, and Pro variants with Pro being the most feature-rich and the only paid one. Other notable features by Wing include:
● Code completion, error detection, and quality analysis
● Smart refactoring capabilities
● Interactive debugger
● Unit tester integration
● Customizable interface
● Support for remote development
● Support for frameworks such as Django, Flask, and more
Advantages —
● Works well with version control systems such as Git
● Strong debugging capabilities
Disadvantages —
● Lacks a compelling user interface
Cloud9 IDE
- Category: IDE
- First Release Year — 2010
- Platform: Linux/MacOS/Windows
- Popular Companies using Cloud9 Python IDE —
Linkedin, Salesforce, Mailchimp, Mozilla, Edify, and Soundcloud.
Part of Amazon’s Web Services, Cloud9 IDE gives you access to a cloud-based IDE, requiring just a browser. All the code is executed on Amazon’s infrastructure, translating to a seamless and lightweight development experience. Features include:
● Requires minimal project configuration
● Powerful code editor
● Code highlight, formatting and completion capabilities
● Built-in terminal
● Strong debugger
● Real-time pair programming capabilities
● Instantaneous project setup, covering most programming languages and libraries
● Unobstructed access to several AWS services via terminal
Advantages —
● Enables painless development of serverless applications
● Remarkably robust and globally accessible infrastructure
Disadvantages —
● Depends entirely on internet access
Wing IDE
Supporting Platforms: Windows, MacOS, Linux
This feature-rich IDE is one of the oldest Python IDEs which has been used around 2 decades. It’s advanced features and customizability makes it suitable for professionals. Wing IDE’s code editor and debugger. Wing IDE’s intelligent code editor and a robust graphical debugging tool enable breakpoints, navigating and monitoring data lets you complete any development effortlessly in no time. Many Python Software developers use this IDE for its project management support. It blends with several version control systems including GIT, Mercurial, CVS, SVN, and Perforce. You can manages conflicts and perform check-in and out easily within the IDE. It also supports Matplotlib.
This Python IDE comes in 3 different packages to suit the requirements of beginners, professionals and enterprises. The beginners’ package is a freeware with moderate features, professional and enterprise packages are the paid ones with high-end features.
- Code navigation
- Integration with frameworks (Django, Flask)
- binds with other editors (Vim)
- Debugging capabilities, (Multi-threaded debugging, remote debugging, auto debug child processes.)
- syntax highlighting.
- PyTest unit testing framework
- archive results in the project workspace
Eric
Supporting Languages: Python, Ruby, Perl, Lua, Dmd, Bash, C++, Java
Supporting Platforms: Windows, Mac OS X, Linux / Ubuntu
Eric is an open-source Python IDE (GPL license for unlimited usage) written in Python and QT framework. Despite being an opensource or free Python IDE, it has got all advanced features required for professionals. One can confidently say that no other free Python IDE can provide you with such rich features. It has a sturdy plugin manager which makes the IDE more flexible and customizable for developers. It s well known for its Effortless Project management and also, it lets you use its form preview function while working on a QT GUI application.
code completion, bracket matching, call tips, syntax highlighting, class browser, code profiling, and integrated unit tests.
- Inbuilt Python shell
- Ability to spawn external programs from within IDE
- Integrated web browser
- Rope refactoring
Visual Studio Code
- Category: IDE
- First Release Year: 2015
- Platform Compatibility: Windows, macOS, Linux
- Who It’s For: Professional
- Supporting Languages: All the major programming languages (Python, C++, C#, CSS, Dockerfile, Go, HTML, Java, JavaScript, JSON, Less, Markdown, PHP, PowerShell, Python, SCSS, T-SQL, TypeScript.)
- Price: Free
- Download: Visual Studio Code Download Link
- Popular Companies using Visual Source Code (Python IDE —
The Delta Group, TwentyEight, Inc., Focus Ponte Global, Creative Mettle, and National Audubon Society, Inc.
Developed by Microsoft, Visual Studio Code is an acclaimed cross-platform code editor that is highly customizable and allows development in several programming languages, including Python. It offers a wide variety of features to programmers, such as smart debugging, customizability, plugin support for extending core features. Key highlights include:
● Built-in support for Git and version control
● Code refactoring
● Integrated terminal
● IntelliSense for smarter code highlight and completion
● Intuitive code debugging capabilities
● Seamless deployment to Azure
Advantages —
● Regularly updated with active community support
● Free
Disadvantages —
● Vast collection of plugins can make finding the right one challenging
● Lackluster handling of large files
● Longer launch time
Screenshot for References-
Conclusion
As a Python developer, at some point of time you will want to use an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) to boost your coding productivity. There are various IDEs you can choose from, but I would recommend one of these four IDEs—PyCharm, Komodo IDE, Spyder, and Visual Studio Code. I’ll discuss why each of the above mentioned is best for Python development.