There are several PHP IDEs available today. If you want to get into programming and coding PHP, then you need to choose the right IDE that will help you ease and perform the development and programming and development of your applications.
Hence, I made a list of the best PHP IDEs for your programming needs.
Komodo Edit Best Free
What We Like
- Extensible through plug-ins.
- Customizable appearance.
- Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
- Excellent for XML editing.
What We Don’t Like
- No WYSIWYG editor.
- Not the best editor for beginners.
There are two versions of Komodo: Komodo Edit and Komodo IDE. Edit is open source and free to download. It’s a trimmed-down version of IDE.
Komodo Edit includes many great features for HTML and CSS development. Additionally, it allows you to add extensions for more language support or other helpful features, such as special characters.
Komodo doesn’t shine as the best HTML editor. Still, it’s great for the price, especially if you build in XML, where it truly excels.
Apache NetBeans Free
What We Like
- Version control functionality.
- Customizable appearance.
- Specialized for Java.
What We Don’t Like
- Takes some time to learn.
- Consumes a lot of system resources while running.
- Can be slow to execute commands.
Apache NetBeans features a Java IDE that can help you build robust web applications.
Like most IDEs, Apache NetBeans has a steep learning curve because it doesn’t often work in the same way as other web editors. Once you get used to it, however, you’ll find it very useful.
The IDE’s version control feature and developer collaboration features are especially useful for people working in large development environments. If you write Java and web pages, this is a great tool.
Cloud 9 IDE
Cloud 9 IDE is an online service provided by Amazon for writing, running, and debugging the code. You can work together with the team and can share your code easily.
Features:
- Auto-completion and guidance for the code.
- Step-through debugging.
- Helps in building serverless applications.
Supported Platforms: Cloud-based
Supported Languages: Node.js, JavaScript, Python, PHP, Ruby, Go, and C++.
Cost Details: Price depends on usage. It starts at $1.85 per month.
Official website: Cloud 9
GNU Emacs (FREE)
GNU Emacs is a stable and well-established code editor that has been on the market since 1985. It was primarily created for the GNU operating system, but it supports many other OSs as well. Emacs’ design and functionality are both fully customizable using the Emacs Lisp scripting language.
Support
- Supported operating systems: Windows, Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris
- License: GNU GPL vs 3
- Source code: https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs.git
- Supported languages: Lisp, PHP, Python, Ruby, Java, JavaScript, Scala, Perl, and many others
Emacs supports a multitude of programming languages, including HTML and CSS, but it’s typically not used by frontend developers. This is not saying that Emacs is not recommended for you if you are looking for both a frontend and PHP editor. However, note that it has a steeper learning curve than most of the other editors in this list.
In addition to its awesome features, using Emacs certainly has a coolness factor in the programmer community due to the expertise you need to use it, and it even appears in popular culture, such as the Tron: Legacy and Social Network movies.
Best features:
- open source package repository to extend the editor
- built-in documentation
- additional functionalities such as debugger UI, project planner, IRC client, calendar, and others
- content-aware editing modes
- full Unicode-support
- customizable both via the command line (using Emacs Lisp) and a graphical UI
Notepad++ (FREE)
Notepad++ is an oldie but goldie source code editor for Windows operating systems. It was created as a replacement for Notepad, the default text editor that comes pre-installed with Windows operating systems. Notepad++ adds multiple features to the very basic Notepad editor, therefore it quickly became popular among developers working on Windows machines.
Support
- Supported operating systems: Windows
- License: GNU GPL vs 2
- Source code: https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus
- Supported languages: HTML, CSS, XML, YAML, JavaScript, CoffeeScript, PHP, SQL, Perl, Python, C, C++, and more
It comes with syntax highlighting capabilities for almost 80 programming languages. It’s easy to install, works out of the box, and has important editing functionality such as split view, multiple document interface, undo/redo functionality, and more. So if you need a free PHP editor for Windows that’s easy to use and loads fast, Notepad++ is worth a look.
Best features:
- supports many different character sets
- extensible via plugins
- open source plugins are available for both 32-bit and 64-bit systems
- style configuration options and pre-designed themes
- editing features such as code folding, autocompletion, intelligent code completion, syntax checking, and others
Brackets (FREE)
Brackets is an open source code editor created and maintained by Adobe. As many of Adobe’s products, it primarily focuses on frontend development, but it supports several backend languages as well, including PHP. It has become popular for its inline editing feature for CSS that lets you see all the selectors belonging to a specific CSS rule.
Support
- Supported operating systems: Windows, Linux, macOS
- License: MIT License
- Source code: https://github.com/adobe/brackets
- Supported languages: HTML, CSS, LESS, SCSS, Sass, JavaScript, PHP, Java, Python, Perl, Ruby, C, C++, VBScript, and more
If you do both frontend and backend development, Brackets can be the ideal PHP editor for you — especially if you also work with CSS preprocessors, such as Sass and LESS. That being said, Brackets is not the most advanced PHP editor in this list, but it’s free, lightweight, and easy to use.
Brackets has an extension registry as well, however, it doesn’t have as many extensions as Atom or Visual Studio Code.
Best features:
- #inline editing (for CSS)
- custom themes are available via the Brackets Extension Registry
- support for CSS preprocessors, including quick edit and live highlight functionalitiesvertical and horizontal split view
- live preview using a real-time connection with your web browser
- lightweight (written in JavaScript)
Atom (FREE)
Atom is the “hackable text editor for the 21st century”, according to its slogan. Originally, it was GitHub’s internal tool that later they made open source, but the project is still maintained by GitHub. It’s called hackable because you can customize every single aspect of the editor interface, such as the UI and syntax theme, key bindings, formatting, global and language-specific settings, and more.
Support
- Supported operating systems: Windows, Linux, macOS, FreeBSD
- License: MIT License
- Source code: https://github.com/atom/atom
- Supported languages: PHP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Java, C, C#, Objective C, Perl, Python, Ruby, Go, XML, and more
In addition to the functionality of the core editor, you can download almost 9,000 packages that allow you to add basically any feature you need. To configure Atom as a PHP editor, you can add PHP-specific packages for debugging, refactoring, annotations, linting, and other development-related tasks.
Best features:
- easy-to-access command palette
- extensibility
- real-time code collaboration (with the in-house-built Teletype package)
- direct Git and GitHub integration (with the in-house-built GitHub package)
- customizable UI with 3,000+ open source Atom themes
- syntax highlighting and smart autocompletion
- file system browsing and multiple panes
- advanced find and replace tool
- integrated package manager (called apm)
jEdit (FREE)
jEdit is a cross-platform source code editor written for the Java Virtual Machine, so it runs on any operating system that has the Java runtime environment installed. Its goal is to provide programmers with an editor that can be installed and set up as fast and effortlessly as possible. jEdit has syntax highlighting modes for more than 200 programming languages.
Support
- Supported operating systems: Windows, macOS, Linux, BSD
- License: GNU GPL vs 2
- Source code: https://sourceforge.net/p/jedit/svn/HEAD/tree/
- Supported languages: HTML, CSS, XML, JavaScript, CoffeeScript, .htaccess, PHP, SQL, Perl, Python, Java, Scala, and more
Even though jEdit is a stable tool, you’ll find more fancy PHP editors on this list. However, it’s still worth a try if you need an easy-to-use free PHP editor that runs out of the box. Plus, it can be a great choice, too, if you find a jEdit plugin that can help you with your work — it has some cool ones, including support for version control other than Git and project and file management tools (however, check the age of the plugins, as some haven’t been updated for many years).
Best features:
- multiple and rectangular selections
- macros can be recorded from user actions
- supports for Unicode and 160+ character encodings
- powerful search and replace tool
- extensible via plugins
- unlimited undo/redo functionality
- copy and paste via unlimited clipboards
- any number of editor windows can be open at the same time
TextMate
TextMate is an advanced source code editor for the macOS operating system. As it has been designed specifically for Mac, it integrates with the underlying Unix shell, therefore you can write custom actions in any programming language that works with the Unix Standard Streams (stdin and stdout).
Support
- Supported operating systems: macOS
- License: GNU GPL vs 3
- Source code: https://github.com/textmate/textmate
- Supported languages: HTML, Markdown, CSS, XML, JavaScript, PHP, SQL, Perl, Python, Java, and more
To make customization easy and straightforward, TextMate utilizes an extensible bundle system. A TextMate bundle can include language syntaxes, code snippets, macros, commands, templates, workflows, and more. You can manage bundles with the help of a handy bundle editor.
The first version of TextMate was proprietary software you had to buy a license for. However, the current version, TextMate 2.0, has been open sourced under the GPLv3+ license, so you can download it for free (however, TextMate’s license policy page mentions that they ‘may charge for updates after 2.0’). If you are looking for a (currently) free PHP editor that runs natively on Mac devices, TextMate 2 is definitely worth a look.
Best features:
- easy-to-manage code snippets
- foldable code blocks, indented soft wrap, multiple carets, multiple tabs, and more
- scoped settings
- bundle editor
- custom themes
- live HTML/Markdown preview
- powerful search tool
- clipboard history
Conclusion
So if you are a Mac or windows user, then finding a good php development tool can be frustrating. In this post i will review the top php development tools for mac users by categories.