There are many tools that let you write code online. Some are free, some are paid. The best Javascript IDE can be overwhelming to choose among them.
To help you make an informed decision about the IDE you should use, here is an overview of the top 5 free and affordable JavaScript IDEs of 2020.
Visual Studio Code
 | Developed by Microsoft |
Probably the biggest player right now in the code editor space, Visual Studio Code is open source, developed by Microsoft (and, of course, all of its open-source contributors).
Despite its name, it’s quite different from Visual Studio (Microsoft’s premium editor, primarily aimed at .NET development). It’s very flexible and works with most, if not all, popular programming languages.
There are also plenty of extensions available to download for free, which extend its functionality even further. You can even write your own and since it uses web technology, it’s all just JavaScript.
It also integrates well with Visual Studio Code Online. This is a service hosted by Microsoft that lets you run Visual Studio Code on a server, which can do all the heavy lifting for you.
Microsoft also offers a service called Live Share, which lets you invite another developer to work on your project with you remotely. You can see each other’s cursors and edit the same files at the same time.
Features
- Very customizable
- Built-in version control
- Debugging support
- Works well with most popular programming languages
- Marketplace with extensions
- Live Share for easy remote collaboration
Pros
- Free
- Open-source
- Cross-platform
- Flexible and extensible
- Popular so it’s easy to find help or extensions
Cons
- Requires extra setup for certain projects and languages
- Built on Chrome so uses a lot of memory
Cost
Free
Atom
 | Backed by GitHub |
Before the rise of Visual Studio Code, Atom was often what the IDE developers would reach for. Using similar technology, Atom is built with web technologies using Electron and is easily extensible and customizable. Plus, it’s open-source and backed by GitHub, a big name in open-source software. It’s maybe not as popular anymore but it’s still a great and stable editor.
Features
- Very customizable
- Works well with most popular programming languages
- Lots of extensions available
Pros
- Free
- Open-source
- Cross-platform
- Flexible and extensible
- Popular so it’s easy to find help or extensions
Cons
- Requires extra setup for certain projects and languages
- Built on Chrome so uses a lot of memory
Cost
Free
CodeSandbox
 | Developed by CodeSandbox |
CodeSandbox is one of the best IDEs to choose if you want to work on a front-end project — especially React — as it comes with official templates for a lot of the major front-end frameworks and libraries (such as React, Vue, and Angular). So you can skip the setup and start hacking.
It also comes with some excellent integrations that improve the developer experience, like inline unit test results and built-in DevTools.
Features
- Powered by Visual Studio Code in the browser
- NPM support
- Hot module reloading
- Integrates with GitHub
- Deploy directly to Netlify or Vercel
- Easy collaboration, allows multiple people to edit the same file at the same time
- Inline chat and classroom mode
- Terminal access for command-line tools
- Integrated DevTools (including React DevTools)
- Integrated with Jest for unit tests, shows results next to your code
Pros
- Feels like a desktop IDE as it uses Visual Studio Code in the browser
- Great for front-end projects, especially React
- Good for team collaboration
Cons
- JavaScript and TypeScript only
- Not great for back-end development
Cost
Free or paid for extra features
WebStorm
- Type: IDE
- Developed by JetBrains
- For Windows, Linux, and macOS
- Paid software
You can download this from Here.
It is the first JavaScript IDE on our list. WebStorm is specially designed for JavaScript and its frameworks. JetBrains is very famous for their IDEs available for every popular programming language
They have released specific IDEs that support many built-in features. The debugging feature of WebStorm is just amazing. But all these features come with a price. Yes, you have to pay for the JS IDE. They, however, provide you with a 30-day free trial.
Some main features of WebStorm:
- Intelligent code completion.
- Error identification.
- Inbuilt debugger.
- Built-in Node.js app.
Codeanywhere
 | Built by Codeanywhere, Inc |
Whether you want to work in the cloud or connect to your own servers, Codeanywhere has got you covered. They support over 100 programming languages with the usual syntax highlighting and auto-completion with live collaboration. You can also host your applications from Codeanywhere’s containers and see private previews of the app you’re editing.
Features
- Support for a large number of popular programming languages
- Easy collaboration, allows multiple people to edit the same file at the same time
- Support for containers and allows you to host websites directly from them
- Coding assistance tools
- Private preview URLs
- Terminal access for command-line tools
Pros
- Good for team collaboration
- Quick to get started on a project
- Supports cloud storage and your own servers
Cons
- Subscription needed
Cost
Paid (multiple tiers available) with free trial
Code::Blocks
Code::Blocks are very lightweight, and it is a popular IDE used for web development and normal coding in C, C++, Fortran, etc. Code::Blocks come with a lot of compilers for the user and are very stable to be used on Windows, Linux, and Solaris.
Top Features:
- Equipped with a lot of compilers.
- Performs code refactoring.
- Smart auto-complete and suggestion enabled editor.
- Comes with very vast and customizable options.
- Performs code folding.
- Easy user interface.
- Supports a lot of plugins.
- Equipped with debuggers with breakpoint analysis.
- Supports multi-user development.
GNU Emacs
GNU Emacs is a text editor that comes with a basic user interface but with useful functionalities, belonging to the family of text editors identified by their extensibility. It is common among the people who are more familiar with the Vim editor and provides all the support to the web development languages into it. Although you might not be able to get a few features in it, it is often prescribed as a hard-core web development IDE for those who do not need help from the editor and like to code by themselves.
Top Features:
- Emacs Lisp code enables customization in the IDE.
- Well documented references available.
- Supports Unicode files.
- Capabilities to install and download the extensions.
NetBeans
 | Apache Software Foundation |
Another open-source Java IDE, NetBeans was first created in 1997 so has been around for a long time, though it only became open-source in 2000. In 2016 it got donated to the Apache Software Foundation as it was competing with another Java IDE owned by the same company.
Features
- Great support for Java
- Plug-ins available
- Debugging support
- Integrated unit testing tools
- Tools for refactoring code
- Built-in version control
Pros
- Free
- Open-source
- Cross-platform
- Been around for a long time
Cons
- Not as great for big projects
Cost
Free
10. PyCharm
 | Built by JetBrains |
PyCharm is JetBrains’ Python IDE boasting their usual array of coding assistance along the lines of ReSharper for Visual Studio. Python’s popularity has been rising the last few years due to its many applications so this is a great option to look at.
Features
- Great support for Python and virtual environments
- Support for data science tools like Anaconda, IPython Notebook, NumPy, etc.
- Debugging support
- Integrated unit testing tools
- User interfaces for common command-line tools
- Database tools
- Support for plugins
Pros
- Lots of tools that make development easier
- Customizable
- Similar to other JetBrains IDEs, common experience
- Cross-platform
Cons
- Subscription needed for most use cases
Cost
- Free for students and open-source projects
- Monthly subscription (price varies between individuals and teams)
Brackets
- Type: Code Editor
- Developed by Adobe
- For Windows, Linux, and macOS
- Open-source
You can download this from Here.
Brackets are designed by Adobe systems and released on 4th November 2014. It is specially designed for front-end web development, such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
Unlike other JavaScript IDE and code editors, Brackets is lightweight, and therefore, you won’t find any difficulty while running it on even systems with low configuration.
Some main features of Brackets:
- Ease of jumping between tabs.
- Intelligence auto-correction.
- Syntax highlight.
- Live Preview (It helps you to have a good look at the live output of the code).
- Very fast processing as compared to other options.
Komodo IDE
- Type: IDE
- Developed by Active State
- For Windows, macOS, Linux, and CentOS
You can download this from Here.
It is a JavaScript IDE developed by ActiveState in May 2000. Being written in Python, C++, C, XUL, JavaScript, and CSS makes it native to JavaScript, thus, facilitating code development in JS.
Komodo IDE is not an open-source application but it has a subset – a code editor – known as Komodo Edit, which is free and open-source. Obviously, it does not provide as many features as that offered by Komodo IDE.
Some features of Komodo IDE:
- Multi-language Editor.
- Intelligent Code completion.
- Live Preview.
- Printing Debugging.
- Chrome Debugging.
- Interactive Shell.
- Real-time Code collaboration.
Notepad++
- Type: Code Editor
- Developed by Don Ho
- Open-source
- For Windows
You can download it from Here.
Notepad++ is a classic text editor. It supports almost every programming language. As such, with this text editor, you can code for most of the popular programming languages.
Notepad++ is a basic tool found on the toolkit of many front-end developers. As it is written in C++, simplicity is its main asset. Also, you can directly launch the code from it.
The main feature of Notepad++ is the multifile opening, which lets you easily switch from one file to another. Due to its lightweight build, you will not find any difficulty while running this application.
Some main features of Notepad++
- Open-source.
- Lightweight.
- Auto-correction suggestion.
- Multifile opening.
- Syntax Highlighting.
Sublime Text Editor
- Type: Code Editor
- Developed by Jon Skinner and will Bond
- Open-source
- For Windows, Linux, and macOS
You can download it from Here.
Sublime, initially introduced on 18th Jan 2008, is written in C++ and Python. As with other leading text editors, developers use Sublime to write code in a range of programming and markup languages.
Like Notepad++, Sublime is also a very lightweight application that is very easy to use and run too. Many experts prefer Sublime over Notepad++ because the interface of sublime text is more attractive than Notepad++. Moreover, you can customize its theme according to your mood and preferences.
Some main features of Sublime Text:
- Lightweight.
- Customizable theme.
- Syntax Highlighting.
- Auto-Correction.
Conclusion
There are so many javascript IDEs out there and it is hard to choose the best one. I have tested a lot of them and shared my experience with you so you can pick the tool that fits your needs perfectly.