If you are a Windows or Mac user, you do not have to abandon the comfort of your computer. There are numerous tools that you can install to make working with PHP easier. I’ve tried many different programs, but the following are my picks for the best PHP development tools.
There are many tools and software’s available today and it is really hard to find the best for your use, if your request is Build A Website With PHP then there may different tools for you develop a website.
PHPStorm
Lightweight, extremely fast and smooth, PHPStorm is a standard choice for PHP development tools. This PHP IDE works well with PHP frameworks like Zend Framework, Symfony, Yii, Laravel, and CakePHP and with popular Content Management Systems (CMS) like Drupal, Magento, and WordPress. This IDE provides live editing support for major frontend technologies, such as CSS, HTML5, and JavaScript, in addition to code refactoring, unit testing, and debugging. It also empowers developers to integrate with databases, version control systems, remote deployment, composer, command line tools, and rest client.
PHPStorm Features:
- Code completion.
- Code re-arranger.
- Zero Configuration Debugging.
- Native ZenCoding support.
- Supports extension with plenty of useful plugins like VimEditor.
PHPStorm Specialties:
- Languages supported: PHP, JavaScript, Visual Basic, C, C++, and C#.
- Platforms supported: Microsoft Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.
#php #eclipse #web dev #php development
Eclipse
Eclipse is one of the most popular of the PHP tools – one of the reasons why it tops our list of top PHP development tools. Since it is a fully developed tool, it is the commonly used integrated development environment (IDE) that PHP offers. The most amazing part of this tool is that it offers support to some of the most popular operating systems, including Windows, MacOS, and Linux. Some of the tools that are offered by Eclipse make it easier to develop and simplify complicated PHP applications. With Eclipse, you have the liberty to choose from an enormously wide range of plugins. It also supports GUI and non-GUI apps.
Zend Studio
Zend Studio finds a way in our list of best PHP tools because of its unmatchable speed unlike any of the other PHP development tools. When using the Zend Studio, programmers and developers can enjoy the flexibility of writing and debugging code without the need to put extra time or effort to accomplish the same. With the Zend Studio, the developers can easily organize the PHP application on more than one server. Zend Studio has been built to support PHP 7. Additionally, it is capable of code debugging in integration with the Zend Debuggers, X-debug, and X-ray. Also, here there is a possibility of integration through Eclipse plugins in an attempt to extend the Zend Studio.
PhpED
Offered by NuSphere, PhpED is considered to be one of those robust PHP development tools available. Apart from offering its support to PHP 7.1, there is also enormous support to CSS3, JavaScript, and HTML5. Using this, the web developers can work across some of the most commonly used PHP frameworks, such as Yii, Zend, and Laravel. It is imperative to choose the PhpED latest version as it will allow the programmers to organize PHP code locally and remotely as well. Since it comes with refactoring capabilities, it allows bringing about improvisation in coding.
Code Lobster
One of the most portable IDEs for PHP is Code Lobster. It provides enormous support to a wide range of popular PHP frameworks and even CMSes. Some of the best CMS frameworks include CakePHP, Drupal, Joomla, Symfony, CodeIgniter, WordPress, and Magento. With Code Lobster, programmers can now write customized web apps in PHP inserting in useful features, such as autocomplete, syntax highlights, debuggers, SQL managers, code validators, etc. Now, the PHP developers can enjoy a large number of advanced features by choosing to upgrade to the professional edition of this.
NetBeans
You can use Net Beans IDE in integration with a wide range of programming languages including PHP. This is in contrast to the fact that it has been written in PHP. Like many of the other PHP development tools, NetBeans also allows you to use a number of PHP web frameworks and content management system, including Symfony, CakePHP, Zend, and WordPress. The source code editor and debugger support continuous integration. But you cannot find support for PHP 7.x with NetBeans IDE.
Selenium Test
Selenium Remote Control is used as a testing tool. This testing tool will allow you to write automated web application UI tests in a programming language that is expected to comply on an HTTP website. This is possible by integrating with any of the mainstream Javascript-enabled browsers. Now, when this is used in aggregation with a PHP Unit, it will help to run automated tests within the web browser of your choice.
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Scriptcase
This is one of the best PHP development tools if you are planning to develop web-enabled apps. It helps in building connections with databases and generating reports. With this software, you can shift from prototype to production phase in no time. Since the cost is too high, it might not be the best suitable option for small companies. However, it is the best choice for mid-tier companies.
Some of the features of Scriptcase include easy connectivity with major database engines, generating charts, including pivot tables, creating interactive reports while exporting common formats, which include PDF and XLS.
It is available for a 20-day free trial if you would like to try it before adopting it. The starter rate is $279.2 for a year, the professional is available at $319.20 for a year and enterprise is available at $479.20 for a year.
XAMPP
If you are an experienced, professional developer, you would be already familiar to Apache solutions. The Apache Friends organization created this development platform. XAMPP is the best choice for organizations that need a MySQL database solution. However, it might not be the best solution for start-ups and small businesses.
Some of its features include easy installation via wizard. It is part of the Apache family of products. Being one of the oldest development platforms for PHP, it comes with the combined experiences of all contributing developers for more than 10 years. You get to enjoy the perks of MySQL and Perl as part of the installation process. You can now install CMS components on top of XAMPP installation through Bitnami. An easy-to-use control panel has been included for all components. Since it is open source, you can avail it for free.
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Retrace
With Retrace, developers get all the necessary tools that they need within one stop and this comes from beyond the standard application performance monitoring (APM). Initially, it was meant only for Java and .NET, but now, it will be ready to embrace PHP as well. The enhanced log and error tracking feature of Retrace make it stand out in the crowd. This PHP development tool is affordable and helps teams with diagnosing, improving and accelerating application performance.
Some of its features include view-related logging feature to help you find and fix concerns before users find it. Help you identify that part of the app stack which is a bottleneck and the web requests that might be affected. It also helps in tracking and monitoring all key apps and server metrics. With this, you can now capture all the vital information regarding what part of your code is doing what with code profiling.
It offers you a 14-day free trial after which you would have to pay $10 for non-production servers every month and $25-$50 for production servers every month.
Newrelic
Newrelic an industry-leading APM, which provides support to some of the top programming languages, such as PHP, Ruby, Java, and .NET. Now, you have full-stack visibility into the app performance, including mobile apps and infrastructure monitoring. Some of the key features include app performance trends view, browser, mobile, browser and infrastructure monitoring, performance tracking of individual SQL statements, code-level diagnostics, cross-app tracing, and low-impact production thread profiler. It costs around $75 to 600 every month.
Visual Studio Code (VS code) FREE
Visual Studio Code (VS Code in short) is a free and open source code editor by Microsoft that has gained huge popularity in recent years. It supports the PHP syntax by default, and you can download further PHP extensions from the VS Code Marketplace to make it an advanced PHP editor that suits your specific coding needs. You can customize every aspect of VS Code, from themes to key bindings to integrations and functionality.
Support
- Supported operating systems: Windows, Linux, macOS
- License: MIT License
- Source code: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode
- Supported languages: PHP, HTML, CSS, SCSS, Less, JavaScript, JSON, TypeScript, Markdown, PowerShell, C++, Java, Python, Go, T-SQL, C#, .NET Core, and more
Best features:
- syntax highlighting, autocomplete, and code navigation
- smart code completion with IntelliSense
- color theme picker
- built-in Git and GitHub integration
- built-in Emmet support
- extensibility (you can create your own extension)
- linting, debugging, refactoring
- integrated terminal
- live share for pair programming (with extension)
Conclusion
PhpStorm is the best php development tools available at the moment. It is simple to use and cost-free. You can easily use this tool for designing different applications like for creating E-Commerce sites, Social Networking, Blogs, Development of Mobile Applications, etc.