If you are a JavaScript programmer and looking for the best IDE to make the day to day things like structuring projects, auto-completion and formatting much easier and comfortable here comes a list of 4 IDEs. From the above list we can make a quick comparison between 4 popular IDEs.
So, what are the best options? I’ve used many different JavaScript IDEs. Some are free, some are paid. And I’m not just talking about the big ones either. I’ve compared them all here to help you decide which is the best IDE for your JavaScript development.
RJ TextEd
Platforms: Windows
Price: free, donation is welcome
RJ TextEd is a free text editor with source code editing and Unicode support. The program will also be useful for web developers, thanks to the ability to carry out HTML/CSS — editing and work with standard commands and functions in JavaScript and PHP.
Besides, it includes lots of useful features such as:
- syntax highlighting,
- preview in the most popular browsers,
- spell checker,
- automatic word completion,
- support for templates and plugins,
- drag-and-drop,
- built-in file manager
- and FTP client for file uploads, and much more.
Pros:
- relatively small size;
- syntax highlighting support for many languages;
- spell check;
- work with projects;
- many useful tools that make development easier and faster.
Cons:
- not always successful autocorrect;
- some small usefulness is missing (for example, removing unnecessary line breaks in a selection).
- only for Windows.
CodeLite
Platforms: Windows, Ubuntu, macOS
Price: free and open source
CodeLite is an open source development environment with full support for C, C ++, Node.js, and PHP. There are versions for Linux, Mac, as well as for Windows 32 and 64-bit operating systems.
Because CodeLite is an IDE, it provides a more sophisticated built-in development environment for the languages it supports, flexibly expanding its scope with custom plugins. Despite its complexity, it is lightweight and easy to use.
The IDE also has general compiler support, interactive debuggers, integrators, and code completion. While CodeLite has advanced features that can be a bit overwhelming for beginners, getting started with its superficial functionality is easy.
Pros:
- Many useful plugins;
- 50 mb memory footprint;
- Cross-platform;
- Still developing actively on Github;
- Free open-source.
Cons:
- Boring UI
Codeply
Platforms: Online editor in web browser
Price: free
Codeply is another tool JavaScript IDE for quickly editing online. This product was launched back in 2014, and the 2nd version was released in 2019.
The team behind Codeply claims that their product is suitable for rapid prototyping, mock-up, learning, and exploring popular new libraries, APIs, plugins, and frameworks.
The standard set of functionality includes layout settings, a preview of results, ready-made templates, and social network elements. Compared to other tools, Codeply is fast.
Pros:
- Works with many frameworks such as Bootstrap, Pure CSS, etc.
- Responsive preview.
- Snippets for UI editor.
- Compared to other tools, Codeply is fast.
Cons:
- Only after donation, you can receive upgrades.
Best Premium Javascript IDE
Visual Studio
Platforms:Windows, Linux, macOS
Price: from $45/month
Microsoft Visual Studio is an IDE from Microsoft. It is used to develop computer programs for Microsoft Windows and websites, web applications, and web services. Visual Studio uses Microsoft software development platforms such as Windows API, Windows Forms, Windows Presentation Foundation, Windows Store, and Microsoft Silverlight. It can create both native codes and managed code. Visual Studio includes a code editor that supports IntelliSense as well as code refactoring. The integrated debugger works as a source-level debugger and a machine-level debugger. Other built-in tools include a form designer for building GUI applications, a web designer, a class designer, and a database schema designer. It accepts plugins that extend functionality at almost every level, including adding support for version control systems (such as Subversion) and adding new toolkits editors and visual designers for domain-specific languages or toolkits for others.
Visual Studio supports various programming languages and allows the code editor and debugger to support virtually any programming language as long as a dedicated language service exists. Embedded languages include XML / XSLT, HTML / XHTML, JavaScript and CSS, C, C ++ and C ++ / CLI, VB.NET, C #, and F #. Support for other languages such as M, Python and Ruby, and others is available through language services installed separately.
Pros:
- Many tools in the environment work very well in JS and C#.
- There is a free version called Community Edition.
- The community is full of everything an independent developer needs.
- The best software for development on any platform, let alone .Net and C #.
- There is cloud storage.
Cons:
- Resource intensity.
- If you switch to the paid version, the settings and the corporate server may go wrong.
- The program is difficult to master on your own due to the abundance of functions and menus.
WebStorm
Platforms: Windows, Linux, macOS
Price: $0-$129/year
WebStorm stands out because it is a fully-featured JavaScript IDE. The developer of this IDE is JetBrains.
This JS editor is great for various platforms such as React, Angular, Vue.js, and more. It can be used to debug node scripts and run tests on an embedded server. You can also run and debug npm scripts (using the tree-like interface). And you don’t need any plugins for all this.
However, plugins are available for some more specific functionality not built into the IDE itself. But in most cases, everything you might need is already in the IDE. The best part about this is that you can discover new features you never knew before and appreciate how great they are.
By default, WebStorm is configured to autosave files as you work on them. When you switch to some other Javascript editor without such functionality, you begin to feel how much it lacks after this IDE. However, this is not a unique feature of WebStorm. It’s just that the implementation here is a little nicer.
Some people don’t always trust ctrl-z to undo, but WebStorm has a built-in version control system that commits every time a file is saved. It’s purely internal, completely separate from your Git commits. So if you haven’t made a commit in Git in a while, and you need to go back and see the previous state after the last commit, you can do it without any problems.
Despite some disadvantages, the project is constantly evolving and improving.
Pros:
- Convenient auto-completion for both HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
- Error checking and easy code debugging is provided through integration with a number of bug tracking systems.
- Native integration with source control systems such as GitHub, Git, as well as Subversion, Perforce, and Mercurial.
- Flexibility of settings.
- Quite a large number of plugins.
- Lots of features.
- No need to search for packages and configure it.
- Excellent indentation, tips on how to simplify the code and basic code validation for errors.
- Great merge tool.
- Smart code completion, on-the-fly error checking, fast code navigation and refactorings for JavaScript.
Cons:
- Due to its extensive functionality, WebStorm is heavy and resource-intensive;
- Sometimes, when working on very large projects, it eats up memory;
- Inherent to all IDEs, it is slow and resource-intensive.
- Relatively complex settings.
- Paid IDE, distributed by subscription.
- Slow working with lots of projects.
IntelliJ IDEA
Platforms: Windows / Linux / macOS
Price: from $15/month, $150 -$499/year.
The free version only works with Java and Android.IntelliJ IDEA is the next premium IDE developed by JetBrains on our list. You can also use the free Community Edition, and the paid version has a 30-day trial period. IntelliJ IDEA was created as a development environment for Java. Still, now the developers define this IDE as “the smartest and most user-friendly development environment for Java, including support for all the latest technologies and frameworks.” Using plugins, this IDE can be used to work with other languages.
Pros:
- Code quality analysis tools, easy navigation, advanced refactorings, formatting and code injection for Java, Groovy, Scala, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, CoffeeScript, ActionScript, LESS, XML, and many other languages.
- Integration with application servers, including Tomcat, TomEE, GlassFish, JBoss, WebLogic, WebSphere, Geronimo, Resin, Jetty, and Virgo.
- Tools for working with databases and SQL files.
- Integration with commercial version control systems Perforce, Team Foundation Server, ClearCase, Visual SourceSafe.
- Tools for running tests and analyzing code coverage, including support for all popular testing frameworks.
Cons:
- You will have to take time to understand this IDE, so it may seem daunting to novice programmers.
PyCharm
Platforms:Windows / Linux / macOS
Price:from $9/month and $90/year.
If you are doing Python development too, take a look at PyCharm, another IDE from JetBrains. Also, it supports CoffeeScript in the free version. Like IntelliJ, it is supported by all three major operating systems. The professional license includes support for HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. Besides, you can always extend the functionality with plugins.With PyCharm, you will have access to:
- Code completion and automatic error search;
- Intelligent navigation through the project;
- Built-in debugger, Python profiler, and terminal;
- Integration with popular version control systems, as well as Jupyter Notebook, Anaconda, and other libraries.
Like IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm has an open-source Community version, but with limited functionality. It lacks many web development tools, no Python profiler, and no database support.
The Professional license costs $ 89 per year for individuals and $ 199 per year for organizations (per user).Pros:
- excellent code completion (including Django templates, an order of magnitude better than analogs, also good autocompletion for JS, CSS, HTML, etc.);
- good debugging capabilities;
- convenient work with version control servers (VCS);
- the ability to work with databases (also good SQL auto-completion and much more);
- the ability to work with code located on a remote machine (also debugging it);
- automatic dependency fix;
- built-in shell.
Cons:
- paid (it is free, but it is cut off);
- the IDE is written in java, and the main problem is java? – That’s right, there are tons of resources. If you leave the IDE for a long time in debug mode, everything may freeze, which is very stupid;
- sometimes weird when debugging (there are various small bugs).
Sublime Text
Platforms:Windows, Linux, macOS
Price:from $0 – $70
Sublime Text is a powerful text editor and PHP IDE. It’s lightweight, feature-rich, and supported on popular platforms. Users only need one license to use Sublime Text on any computer.
The functionality of the Sublime text editor can be expanded and adapted using plugins. In practice, many JS plugins help turn Sublime Text into an elegant Javascript IDE. Some of the most popular JS plugins are Babel, SublimeLiner, and SideBar Enhancements.
Sublime Text consists of custom components and is very responsive. Projects in Sublime Text capture all of the contents of the workspace, including modified and unsaved files.
Sublime Text uses a custom UI toolkit optimized for speed and beauty, taking advantage of native functionality on each platform.
Pros:
- Convenient editing of the JS and PHP code
- easy to navigate
- Possible to expanded functionality
- Multi-line editing possible
- Beginner-friendly
- many plug-ins available
Cons:
- not open source
- some plug-ins are faulty
- large files are slow to load (Windows)
- not a complete IDE
Conclusion
Developing a JavaScript application requires you to have some sort of IDE. Also known as an Integrated Development Environment. In the past, I’ve used a free version of Visual Studio Code, but with this article, I explain how and why I switched to using Brackets.