Best Free PHP Editor for Mac

by

Free PHP Editor is a development tool for writing codes in the PHP language. It uses syntax highlighting to provide comfort with code reading. There are plenty of functions, including auto-completion, formatting function suggestions, bracket matching, brace matching and three-out-of-sync checking. Code templates are supported.  

Best free PHP editor for Mac including Atom, Brackets, NetBeans, Eclipse PDT. Here is a list of the best free PHP Editors for Mac.

Komodo Edit

  • Platform(s): Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux
  • Supported Languages: Python, Perl, PHP, Ruby, Tcl, SQL, Smarty, CSS, HTML, XML
  • Price: USD 295/License
  • More Information: Package Manager, Vagrant, Docker, Unit Testing
  • Visit: Komodo Edit

Give Your PHP Applications Optimum Web Performance

Host Your PHP Apps With Us & See The Blazing Web Performance Yourself!DEPLOY NOW

RJ TextEd

  1. Platform(s): Microsoft Windows, Linux,
  2. Supported Languages: PHP, ASP, JavaScript, HTML, CSS
  3. Price: FREE
  4. More Information: FTP and SFTP client
  5. Visit: RJ TextEd

Rapid

  1. Platform(s): Microsoft Windows
  2. Supported Languages: PHP 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6 and 7.0, HTML and JavaScript
  3. Price: USD 49.95 for the first year, Subsequent usage costs less.
  4. More Information: Code beautifier, PHPUnit tests, GitHub , Superb FTP/SFTP support
  5. Visit: Rapid PHP

UltraEdit

  1. Platform(s): Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux
  2. Supported Languages: PHP 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6 and 7.0, HTML and JavaScript
  3. Price: USD 99 for the first year.
  4. More Information: Blazingly fast large file handling, Integrated FTP client, Layouts
  5. Visit: Ultraedit

Best PHP Development Tools

Zend Studio

Most websites are written in PHP version 7. Zend Studio is suitable for PHP 7 and is used by most developers for the same. The specialty of Zend Studio is that it has optimal speed. You can write and debug code using Zend Studio and Zend Debugger without spending any extra time.It integrates X-ray, Xdebug, and Zend Debugger and debugs PHP scripts. It is a comprehensive PHP IDE, and it comes with an advanced set of features that are capable of deploying applications on various servers, including the ones in the cloud.  In fact, developers also have an option to use Eclipse plugins and extend Zend Studio.

Some unique points of Zend Studio:

Allows to code better with an intelligent code editor

Allows debugging and profiling (independently or with Zend server)

Leverage interoperability: Git, GitHub, CVS, and SVN

Deployment becomes easy and PHP apps can be deployed to private and public clouds

DPI scaling and other resolution capabilities of HiDiPi displaysAdditional specialties:

It supports various languages like PHP, Visual Basic, JavaScript, C, C++, and C#

It supports various platforms like Microsoft Windows, Linux, and macOS

Code Lobster

Codelobster PHP IDE is an IDE created by Codeobster software firm. The web developer community considers this it’s favorite among all the PHP development tools. You might have heard about PHP frameworks like Laravel, CodeIgniter (our PHP developers love this), CakePHP, Joomla, Drupal, and Symfony. Codelobster supports all these, and this is one of the contributing factors in its popularity.The web development process can be complicated if it wasn’t for CodeLobster’s quality of simplifying and organizing it.  Another thing that developers find useful is that it has implemented auto-complete features of tags for languages like JavaScript, HyperText Markup Language, Cascading Style Sheets, and the names of arguments, functions, and attributes. This means there is no fear of forgetting them.The developers can also validate their code locally using its internal PHP debugger. Apart from all this, this tool also automatically detects the current settings of the server and configures the required files, making it easier for you to use the free debugger.

Some unique points of CodeLobster:

The PHP debugger contains all the information like when you get while debugging a compiled language

Helps in finding the root cause of complex, difficult, and simple bugs

Plugins for many popular frameworks like WordPress, Joomla, and Magento

Autocompleting of keywords, DOM elements & their propertiesAdditional specialties:

It supports languages like PHP, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS

Supported Platforms: Windows, Fedora, Linux, Ubuntu, Debian, Mac OS, Mint

Supported Content Management Systems: Drupal, WordPress, Magento, and Joomla

Sublime Text 3

It is one of the most classy and sturdy text editors for the PHP developers out there. It has the classiness of the Sublime and sturdiness of PHP. It has extraordinary designs and feature-rich functionalities that make it a favorite source code editors amongst the developer community.Apart from this, it is extremely lightweight and supports OS X, Windows, and Linux.  Sublime Text 3 is not an PHP IDE but you can install certain plugins/packages and can make it a suitable editor for developing different PHP apps. Some of the most important packages for this are xDebug client-CodeBug, Sublime PHP companion,  Simple PHPUnit, CodIntel, and PHPDoc.It is a customizable text editor with a custom UI toolkit, you can use it to climb across symbols, words, or lines using appropriate key shortcuts.

Some unique points of Sublime Text:

Allows multiple sections so that one can make over 10 changes at one time

Allows interacting with many lines at once and change variable names and other attributes

Supports split editing

Has instant project switch feature

Effective command palette

It has a distraction-free mode

Many plugin API and packagesAdditional Specialties:

It supports almost all the popular programming languages

Supported platforms: Windows, Mac OS, and Linux

EclipseEclipse is a cross-platform PHP editor and one of the top PHP development tools. It is a perfect pick for large-scale PHP projects. It supports multiple languages – C, C++, Ada, ABAP, COBOL, Haskell, Fortran, JavaScript, D, Julia, Java, NATURAL, Ruby, Python, Scheme, Groovy, Erlang, Clojure, Prolong, Lasso, Scala, etc. – and platforms like Linux, Windows, Solaris, and Mac OS.Features:

  • It provides one with a ready-made code template and automatically validates the syntax.
  • It supports code refactoring – enhancing the code’s internal structure.
  • It enables remote project management

Functions:

  • Allows one to choose from a wide range of plugins, easing out the tasks of developing and simplifying the complex PHP code.
  • Helps in customizing and extending the IDE for fulfilling project requirements.
  • Supports GUI as well as non-GUI applications.

CodelobsterCodelobster is an Integrated Development Environment that eases out and modernizes the PHP development processes. Its users do not need to worry about remembering the names of functions, attributes, tags, and arguments; as these are enabled through auto-complete functions. It supports languages like PHP, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS and platforms such as Windows, Linux, Ubuntu, Fedora, Mac OS, Linux, and Mint. Additionally, it offers exceptional plugins that enable it to function smoothly with myriad technologies like Drupal, Joomla, Twig, JQuery, CodeIgniter, Symfony, Node.js, VueJS, AngularJS, Laravel, Magento, BackboneJS, CakePHP, EmberJS, Phalcon, and Yii.Offerings:

  • It is an internal, free PHP debugger that enables validating the code locally.
  • It auto-detects the existing server settings followed by configuring the related files and allowing one to utilize the debugger.
  • It has the ability to highlight pairs of square brackets and helps in organizing files into the project.
  • This tool displays a popup list comprising variables and constants.
  • It allows one to hide code blocks that are presently not being used and to collapse the code for viewing it in detail.

NetbeansNetbeans, packed with a rich set of features is quite popular in the realm of PHP Development Services. It supports several languages like English, Russian, Japanese, Portuguese, Brazilian, and simplified Chinese. Its recent version is lightweight and speedier, and specifically facilitates building PHP-based Web Applications with the most recent PHP versions. This tool is apt for large-scale web app development projects and works with most trending PHP frameworks such as Symfony2, Zend, FuelPHP, CakePHP, Smarty, and WordPress CMS. It supports PHP, HTML5, C, C++, and JavaScript languages and Windows, Linux, MacOS and Solaris platforms.Features:

  • Getter and setter generation, quick fixes, code templates, hints, and refactoring.
  • Code folding and formatting; rectangular selection
  • Smart code completion and try/catch code completion
  • Syntax highlighter

DreamWeaverThis popular tool assists one in creating, publishing, and managing websites. A website developed using DreamWeaver can be deployed to any web server.Offerings:

  • Ability to create dynamic websites that fits the screen sizes of different devices
  • Availability of ready-to-use layouts for website development and a built-in HTML validator for code validation.
  • Workspace customization capabilities

NetBeans

NetBeans is a PHP IDE initially created as open-source by Sun Microsystems and was later held by Oracle. It is now moving to Apache and is called Apache NetBeans. It was originally developed for Java development and was sluggish, but the current version is more supportive of  PHP development services and is also much faster.

It boasts of being downloaded 18+ million times and having one of the largest communities of developers operational on an open-source integrated development environment.You can develop large scale web apps using NetBeans, and it also supports a range of languages like English, simplified Chinese, Japanese, Brazilian, Russian, and Portuguese.  Apart from this, it has incredible support resources for the popular PHP frameworks like Zend, Smarty Doctrine, and Symfony2. 

Further, it uses Laravel-IDE-helper to support Laravel and enable support for other frameworks like FuelPHP, CakePHP, Yii, and WordPress Content Management System.The top features of NetBeans like getter setter generation, efficient project management, smart code completion and editing, quick fixes, hints, code templates, and refactoring are the reason why it is so popular.Debugging is also very efficient when it comes to NetBeans.

The developers can use a command line or xDebug together locally and remotely. Moreover, NetBeans also takes into account JavaScript, HTML, and CSS and supports web development. NetBeans is a one such PHP IDE that comes with SSG support and has Git support.

Some unique points of NetBeans:

Code folding and formatting

Smart code completion and editing

Rectangular selection

Getter Setter generation

Helps write bug-free code

Rapid user interface development

Try/catch code completion

Code navigation

Syntax highlighting

Additional Specialties:

It supports multiple languages like PHP, JavaScript, C, C++, and HTML5

Platforms supported: Windows, Linux, macOS, and Solaris

Conclusion

Well, PHP has certainly evolved over the past few years. Back in the day it was tough to really “get into” and create a website. Not only did you need to learn the language itself but you had to learn basic HTML and CSS as well, and worse of all – FTP (fear!). These days though we’ve got some great editors which make everything a lot easier – thank goodness!

Leave a Comment