There is a lot of buzz and hype about what the best code editor for Python is. Since coders and Python enthusiasts like me spend a lot of time in their code editor, you want to choose one that fits your needs and preferences. To help you out, we’ve put together a list of some of the best Python IDEs in 2021. Check it out!
There are many best Python IDEs, Python virtual environments and even my personal favorite editor for performing text-editing in most programming languages is the Sublime Text editor. While it doesn’t have a built in Python interpreter, my personal favorite editor for performing text-editing in most programming languages is the Sublime Text editor.
Atom IDE
An IDE that facilitates pretty much anything you can think of
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REASONS TO BUY
+Clean and smart interface+Comprehensive package manager+Multi-language support
REASONS TO AVOID
-Sizeable memory footprint
Atom is a customizable text editor maintained by social coding megalith GitHub, so as you’d expect it can do pretty much anything you can imagine. And if it can’t, then someone’s almost certainly working on a plugin to address that.
Atom has its own comprehensive package manager, and a huge community working on packages for it. As well as built-in Git and GitHub integration, Atom allows you to collaborate on coding projects in real-time via the Teletype package. Several thousand other packages are available, but Python coders looking for a more efficient workflow would do well to seek out a script package.
This offering is based on the electron framework, so Atom is cross-platform, but also has a not inconsiderable memory footprint. Coders who prefer their apps to be lightweight will balk at the 400MB (including its dependencies) install footprint and should look elsewhere. But even on a modest system it runs fine and all the functionality Atom provides means that it’s well worth the space investment.
Despite all its features, Atom has a clean interface and is much more beginner-friendly than you’d expect. The project view is helpful once you start to dabble with bigger projects and you are free to split the panels of the interface to suit your fancy.
IDLE
- IDLE (Integrated Development and Learning Environment) is a default editor that accompanies Python
- This IDE is suitable for beginner level developers
- The IDLE tool can be used on Mac OS, Windows, and Linux
- Price: Free
Most notable features of IDLE include:
- Ability to search for multiple files
- Interactive interpreter with syntax highlighting, and error and i/o messages
- Smart indenting, along with basic text editor features
- A very capable debugger
It’s easy to overlook IDLE , Python’s very own bespoke Integrated Development Environment. IDLE (named after Monty Python’s Eric Idle) is fairly minimal compared to some of the other offerings around, but it has everything you need and certainly won’t get in your way.
It’s coded in Python and uses the lightweight tkinter toolkit to draw its GUI. Starting IDLE will open a Python shell, just as you get when starting Python from the terminal. You can play around with code snippets here, with the bonus that keywords and output will be nicely colored.
Moving on from here you can open a new window to start coding proper. Your code will be appropriately highlighted and automatically indented, with a configurable indent level. IDLE supports using spaces or tabs for indentation, and can automagically convert between the two – plus it can indent multiple lines at a time.
IDLE lacks any project management facilities, but that’s no problem if your project spans only a handful of files. It has a powerful debugger which allows single-stepping through the code or over-stepping through each high level function. The debugger shows the call stack as well as the state of local and global variables.
PyCharm
- PyCharm is a widely used Python IDE created by JetBrains
- This IDE is suitable for professional developers and facilitates the development of large Python projects
- Price: Freemium
The most notable features of PyCharm include:
- Support for JavaScript, CSS, and TypeScript
- Smart code navigation
- Quick and safe code refactoring
- Support features like accessing databases directly from the IDE
Visual Studio Code
Free or paid: Visual Studio Code is free to download and open source with freeware binaries.
System compatibility: Windows, macOS, Linux
Description and features: Visual Studio Code is a complete code editor developed by Microsoft. While it has many premium features and is customizable, it has a clear and easy UX, and installing new extensions is beyond easy.
Visual Studio Code provides:
- syntax highlighting,
- bracket-matching,
- auto-indentation,
- box-selection,
- built-in support for IntelliSense code completion,
- rich semantic code understanding and navigation,
- code refactoring tools,
- a debugger.
It integrates with build and scripting tools and supports Git.
Visual Studio Code is known for its innovative features, like Live Share, which allows you to do real pair-programming remotely. Its unique architecture also made it possible for Microsoft to create a cloud-based service out of it, allowing you to leverage VS Code features wherever you are.
Visual Studio Code is extensible and customizable, letting you add more features and connect to additional services (one such extension is a Python package).
Use it if: you want a light, fast editor with an easy interface and customization options. VSC features some one-of-a-kind features like the Live Share mentioned above, which you might find useful!
eric
Powerful offering with support for real-time collaboration on code
TODAY’S BEST DEALSVISIT SITE
REASONS TO BUY
+Great for serious coding work+Excellent support for Ruby, too
REASONS TO AVOID
-Interface is a little busy
This powerful cross-platform IDE – which, like IDLE, is named after Eric Idle – is written in Python and uses the Qt library. Though Python is its focus, eric (lowercase is the intended spelling) has excellent support for Ruby, and other languages too. It supports the bread and butter tasks we’ve come to expect: code folding, code completion, brace matching.
But there’s so much more that you’ll need to use its built-in (and automated) TODO list generation to keep track. It has an integrated class browser and powerful debugger, and thanks to being built-in Qt supports building GUIs via Qt Designer. The initial configuration screen may seem daunting, but most of it can be put off till later.
While the interface does look busy, there’s no reason you can’t use eric as a simple code (or even plaintext) editor. But it really comes into its own for more serious coding – there’s even a built-in hex editor, SQL browser and icon designer. It supports unit tests and can debug both multithreaded and multiprocessing programs, which as anyone who dabbles in such things will testify, generate the worst kind of bugs.
It supports Mercurial and SVN version control natively, and Git support is available through a plugin. Like Code, there’s support for real-time collaboration on code. In short, if you want a feature-rich Python powerhouse, eric is for you.
Conclusion:
Python is one of the best programming languages I’ve worked with, for beginner and professional developers. It’s easy to learn, has a large community and it can be used to build many types of applications. In this article, I have reviewed the best Python IDEs you can use for free.