Something interesting about computers and programming: Many books, software and sources of information claim to be the “best coding software” or “best code editor” on the market. That said, you may be wondering how to really figure out what is the best free coding software (or what you need to get better at coding).
Coding Software is a great way to make your code more organized and easy to understand for others. Let’s take a look at what makes some different from the others, and how they can make your life better as a programmer. If you need a free code editor for Windows, macOS, iOS, Android or Linux, you’ve come to the right place. I regularly share the best responsive tools and best products for bootstrapping entrepreneurs.
Code Avengers
“Code Avengers has built-in tools, video tutorials and quizzes that all provide a way to apply what you are learning through the free online course. It’s easy to follow for anyone, including someone who has never tried to code before.” – Angela Ruth, Calendar
Webflow
Webflow is a powerful, web-based design tool that gives you the superpower of designing, building, and launching responsive websites without writing a single line of code. Amazing right? I know!
Rather than sketching/designing your projects and then coding them into an actual product, you use a different approach with Webflow.
Websites built with Webflow are powered by Amazon Cloudfront, hosted on Fastly, and don’t require external plugins.
With Webflow, you can:
- Create automatic site backups (versioning) and staging URLs.
- Move from prototype to mockup in minutes.
- You can design hundreds of pages at once.
- Design, build and launch with no stress at all.
Pricing
Webflow has a free tier and four other paid tiers listed below:
- Basic: $12 a month (paid annually) or $15 a month (paid monthly)
- CMS: $16 a month (paid annually) or $20 a month (paid monthly)
- Business: $36 a month (paid annually) or $45 a month (paid monthly)
- Enterprise: You have to contact the sales team to get this information
Atom
The creators of Atom describe it as a “hackable text editor for the 21st Century”. This is in reference to the insane levels of customisation it offers that allow you to make it uniquely yours.
Choose from thousands of open-source packages that add new functionality, tweak the look and feel with CSS, or even add your own major features with HTML and JavaScript.
Using Atom really is a smooth experience. It works with Mac, Windows or Linux and has all the features you would expect. Plus, there is a nice suite of real-time collaboration tools to help you work with a team.
Codecademy
“Whether learning the basics of HTML/CSS or trying to understand the benefits of data science, Codecademy.com has some great courses. The courses have projects and quizzes just like a traditional education source, but they are easy to use at your own pace. While not the best long-term, it can get you off the ground.” – Michael Averto, ChannelApe
BuildBox
Did you ever think it was possible to create exciting games without writing code? I am happy to let you know that it is!
Imagine if you are already busy with coding a game app, but a new client asked you to create a game for them. Instead of rejecting the offer, you can use BuildBox to make the game. It’s a win-win situation if you ask me. 😉
Buildbox is the world’s first software that truly allows anyone to create amazing games regardless of technical skill. Due to its unique user interface, making games becomes a fluid process that doesn’t require any scripting, programming, or software design experience.
As a developer, you can use Buildbox to:
- Drag and drop to create unique and professional 3D games.
- Add smart assets into your game.
- Add action effects and logic to your games and more! 🚀
Pricing
Buildbox has a free tier and two other paid tiers listed below:
- Plus: $9.99 a month or $89.99 per year
- Pro: $224.99 per year
Sublime Text
Sublime Text is going to be at the top of any list of the best text editors. It doesn’t have all the advanced features other solutions do, but what it lacks in power, it more than makes up for with its beautiful appearance and overall ease of use.
The context-aware auto-completion feature is particularly useful. It suggests code based on your text, meaning you can cut down on repetitive typing. Add to that an updated Python API, syntax definitions and hyper-fast load times, Sublime Text is hard to go past.
GitHub Integration
Atom definitely reflects the fact it was developed by GitHub. Not only can you access GitHub directly from the editor, but you can perform all the common commands you might need for your version control. This includes committing, pushing and pulling code, seeing if there are pull requests from others on the team, and so forth. If GitHub is your jam, no one does the integration better than Atom.
Hashnode
As a developer, blogging lets you share your technical knowledge and experience with the developer community. And it also helps you reinforce your learning on every topic you write.
Hashnode enables developers to create a blog mapped to their custom domain for free. So you only have to focus on publishing articles on your blog while Hashnode takes care of the rest – customization, readership, visibility, web monetization, and so much more.
Over the years, I’ve seen many developers build blogs from scratch only because they wanted to map it to their personal domain and give it a peculiar look and feel. Well guess what? This no-code tool lets you achieve all that and more.
With Hashnode, you:
- Don’t have to worry about maintaining or constantly updating your blog since Hashnode handles everything.
- Only have to focus on writing and publish articles on the blog.
- Will get readership on your blog from day zero.
- Can customize your blog to meet your needs and so much more!
Pricing
Hashnode is free forever for developers. However, they plan to launch a paid team tier for business.
Notepad++
Notepad++ is for those of you who don’t care about themes and minimalist design and all that fancy stuff. From an aesthetic viewpoint, it’s not going to win any awards, but it’s still a powerful open-source text editor that has most of your needs covered.
Created by a talented software engineer web dev named Don Ho, Notepad++ is a user friendly text editing solution for Windows users. It supports 27 programming languages, synchronised edits and views, and uses Win32 API to produce a tiny program size and faster execution speed.
Pro Tip: This is also a good option for energy conscious users. By optimising as much as possible, Ho aims to use less CPU power and reduce power consumption, leading to a greener environment.
Smart Autocompletion
Atom has a built-in and very robust auto-completion feature. It is able to make suggestions based on several factors, including the programming language being used, and generally makes smart choices in terms of the functions and module names you can utilize. This can save you time as a developer, as it only takes a few keystrokes to complete some of the most commonly used string names. Besides this, the autocompletion feature is also extendable, meaning you can customize the experience to go through multiple files and so forth.
Conclusion:
Coding is a way of controlling a computer for the specific purpose.You will learn to control certain behaviors from computer from your input which you provide through a special language known as coding language. But, to be able to do so, you need to have a coding software.