Have you ever been searching for a specific piece of code or wondered how to do something in a language that isn’t your primary one? There are a lot of online tools built by coders to make their own job a little bit easier. This post shares the best online tools for developers, including collaborative code editors, code sharing platforms, code testing platforms and more.
There are a lot of online tools for developers to make your life easier. You just need to know what they are and how to use them. We’ve collected some great tools that we’ve found and we want to share them with you.
Web development tools have come a long way in just a few short years. Thanks to this progress, we can harness the power of highly tested libraries to improve our workflow and benefit from greater possibilities when it comes to responsive design. Not only that, we can build things together thanks to ever-improving version control systems. From browser add-ons and plugins, to processors that streamline your code, there have never been more possibilities for creating awesome web applications.
But with the number of web dev tools increasing almost daily, finding the best software to get the job done can sometimes feel daunting. To help you out, we’ve created a list of essential tools for frontend development to get you started. If you’re interested in finding out about one in particular, simply select it from the list below.
Not keen on reading? Then watch the video below in which Will, one of our course specialists, talks you through the tools.https://www.youtube.com/embed/I527_XR76PE
1. Sublime Text
Let’s start with the basics: a first-rate code editor – one that features a well-designed, super efficient, and ultra speedy user interface. There are several that do this well, but arguably the best (and most popular) is Sublime Text.
Artfully run by a one-man development team, the secret to Sublime’s success lies in the program’s vast array of keyboard shortcuts – such as the ability to perform simultaneous editing (making the same interactive changes to multiple selected areas) as well as quick navigation to files, symbols, and lines. And when you’re spending 8+ hours with your editor each day, those precious few seconds saved for each process really do add up…
You can start coding with Sublime in this free web development tutorial (no sign-up necessary).
2. Chrome Developer Tools
Wouldn’t it be great if you could edit your HTML and CSS in real-time, or debug your JavaScript, all while viewing a thorough performance analysis of your website?
Google’s built-in Chrome Developer Tools let you do just that. Bundled and available in both Chrome and Safari, they allow developers access into the internals of their web application. On top of this, a palette of network tools can help optimize your loading flows, while a timeline gives you a deeper understanding of what the browser is doing at any given moment.
Google release an update every six weeks–so check out their website as well as the Google Developers YouTube channel to keep your skills up-to-date.
Vim
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If you’re after a highly configurable text editor to build your perfect programming environment, then Vim is the way to go. While it does work out of the box, for the most part, it’s a tool that you have to learn to conquer.
The cool thing about Vim is that it can be used for any type of text editing—from writing an email to posting blogs in Markup, or of course, editing HTML code. It comes with 200+ syntax files, a comprehensive tag system and integrations with Perl, TCL and Python, and can even act as an OLE automation server in Windows.
5. Visual Code Studio
Visual Studio Code (or VS Code) is an open-source code editing program built by Microsoft. It runs everywhere and allows you to do anything from debugging code to inputting Git commands or creating Sass code.
There is a bevy of appearance options, including the ability to customise fonts, icons, layout and colour scheme. But the remote development features are what set it apart—you can use a container or a remote machine as a full-featured dev environment.
VS Code is the text editor of choice for Dean McPherson, Paperform’s co-founder and resident code-geek. He uses the remote plugins for version control and to keep our global dev team working in the same virtual environment.
Web Application Frameworks
Web application frameworks (or just web frameworks) are software libraries that are designed to help you build web services, resources and APIs.
Choosing the right framework for your project is super important. Why? Because it’s difficult, time-consuming and expensive to switch to a different solution. It’s much easier to stick with one.
Below we’ve curated a list of the best web frameworks in 2021—both front-end and back-end to cover all the bases. This is a big decision and this is only meant as an overview of options, so be sure to do further research before deciding on one.
6. Django
Django is a high-level Python framework built by expert developers and used by giant web apps like Reddit, Instagram and Uber. It’s secure and scalable, which means it’s suitable for a small side hustle or enterprise-scale projects.
In a nutshell, Django makes it easier to build great web apps. Fast. The focus here is on enabling devs to create sites and apps with less code (to get nerdy, Django’s server-side processing speed is super fast and the file structure is feather-light).
Django’s goal is to support devs to go from concept to completion as quickly as possible. They achieve this by encouraging clean design and swift development.
One of the greatest strengths of Django is its community. They contribute a tonne of useful packages and utilities—a search on PyPI brings up 4,000+ packages free and ready to use.
6. Animatron
People like moving objects more than static plain ones. Animatron will aid you to make HTML5 and SVG animations without writing a solitary line of code.
It has been made to be utilized by both experts and newbies alike, so regardless of whether you have involvement with other animation apparatuses, it is a breeze to make your designs.
7. Free Stock Photos
Photography has always been an integral part of a design. However, there is not always a budget for a professional photo shoot or even paid stock photos. When that’s the case, you can use free stock photo sites like Unsplash.
8. Original Mockups
A mockup is a model that helps you digitally represent, as it would look the design of a project like Stationery, Cards, Poster, Flyers, Banners, etc. in the real life, it helps you save some time and money in printing and photography.
If you are searching for mock-ups, then you can choose Original Mockups as it is the place to go at whatever point need making a mockup of any sort. Regardless of whether it’s a logo or flyer, you need or you need to decipher your idea for a mobile application or website into something visual, it can help you.
9. Themify.Me
Theme is an important part of the aesthetics of your website. A good theme gives your website a distinct character and feels that sends out a positive impression to your target readers or visitors.
Themify online tool creates designs that tend to be bright and bold, with lots of eye-catching elements such as animated background colors, parallax, and scrolls.
All themes come with a drag-and-drop builder which allows people who are relatively new to WordPress and web design to customize most aspects of the way a site looks.
10. Livereload
Livereload is an easy to use tool for developers. Live Reload specifies the changes in the file system. As soon as you save a file, it is preprocessed as needed, and the browser is refreshed.
These are the best web development tools which out there that you might not have come across yet. Hopefully, you will get the better help from them in order to create and develop the unique design.
Therefore, check out the tools and see how they improve your developing experience. You might wonder how you coped beforehand. And I would like to hear how these tools aided you out.
Conclusion
In the fast-paced world of web development, there are a number of online tools that can be used to suit a developers needs. In this article, I will share with you a handful of my favorites as well as provide some additional resources to find other helpful sites. I’ve included enough information below to get you started, but if you use this list as a basis for further exploration, you should be able to find something that suits your needs.