I’m sure some of you guys are searching for the best code editor for web development. I’m also sure that you faced some difficulties finding one, right? Well, it turns out that there are plenty of editors out there and all of them offer something special.
To help you make the choice, I took 6 most popular editors on the market nowadays and decided to test their performance in 6 different areas.
Light Table
Light Table is a reactive work surface for the creation and exploration of apps or programs. It’s a quite unique web development IDE based on a simple idea that people need a real work surface to code on rather than just using an editor.
With Light Table, you can move things around, keep clutter down, bring information to the places you need it most etc. In addition to that, Light Table is a standalone app and you can run it just like any other editor you have been using so far.
Here are the guiding principles of this cool web development IDE:
- You don’t have to look for documentation
- Files are not the best representation of code, just a convenient serialization
- Editors can be anywhere and show you anything – not just text
- Trying is encouraged – changes produce instantaneous results
- We can shine some light on related bits of code
NetBeans
NetBeans is high on the list for the best web development IDE because it is easy to use and it lets you develop cool desktop, mobile, and web apps in no time. It works equally as good with JavaScript, HTML5, PHP, C/C++ etc. It is a free JavaScript IDE and a great HTML5 IDE for your day-to-day use.
This web development IDE comes with cool code analyzing and editing tools compatible with the latest Java 8 technologies. This makes NetBeans 8.1 one of the best if not the best JavaScript editor.
It is also a great AngularJS IDE as well as a fantastic tool for working with Node.js, Knockout.js etc. In addition to all that, it is available in a variety of languages including English, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Russian, and Simplified Chinese.
As mentioned earlier, NetBeans supports a wide range of programming languages, but if you want the coolest web development IDE for your projects, we recommend downloading the HTML5/JavaScript built installation from the download page.
As NetBeans IDE is a massive package, configuring the environment, setting up the debugger, deploying and executing an app could be tricky when you’re just getting started – this short NetBeans crash course will help you to get started.
Brackets
Brackets is the best web IDE if you are looking for an editor that understands web design. It comes with a great set of visual tools, such as website form creators or other, preprocessor supports and it has been created by web designers for web designers.
Another great thing about this web development IDE is the fact that it is open source and completely free of charge. In addition to that, it has a big and passionate community which is always there to help.
Here are some of the Bracket’s useful and unique features:
- Inline Editors: you can simply open a window into the code you care about most instead of jumping between file tabs.
- Live Preview: allows you to get a real-time connection to your browser; whenever you make changes to HTML and CSS, you immediately see the changes on the screen
- Preprocessor Support: allows you to use Quick Edit and Live Highlight with your LESS and SCSS files which will make working with them much easier than usually
To get started with Brackets quickly make sure to watch this short 40-minute set of tutorials.
Komodo Edit
Komodo Edit is the free and Open-Source counterpart of Komodo IDE (paid software). It is a great JavaScript IDE free of charge with a bunch of new integrations that will allow you to get your favorite frameworks, languages, and tools in one cross-platform web development IDE.
While there is a paid version of this JS IDE, you will get a bunch of cool features with the JavaScript editor free version as well. Here are some of them:
- Customizable UI including split view and multi-window editing
- Version control integration for Bazaar, CVS, Git, Mercurial, Perforce and Subversion
- Python and PHP code profiling
- Convenient code collaboration for multi-user editing
- Deploy to the cloud thanks to Stackato PaaS
- Graphical debugging for NodeJS, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, and Tcl
- Autocomplete and refactoring
- Consistent performance across Mac, Linux and Windows platforms
- Many add-ons allow a high level of customization
However, we have to mention that there have been some complaints about the free version not enabling all of the features.
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Atom by Github
Atom by Github is the best editor for JavaScript if you are looking for something customizable and easy to use. It has a built-in package manager for installing new packages or start creating your own within this cool tool.
Atom comes pre-installed with four UI and eight syntax themes in a variety of colors. The rich and supportive community also creates cool themes for everybody to use so you might find what you’re looking for there.
Here are some of the Atom’s best features:
- It works across different operating systems such as OS X, Windows, or Linux
- Find, preview, and replace text as you type in a file or across all your projects.
- Easily browse and open a single file, a whole project, or multiple projects in one window.
Atom is a desktop app built with HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and Node.js integration. It runs on Electron, a framework for building cross-platform apps using web technologies. It is definitely a web development IDE worth checking out if you are looking for JavaScript development tools and best HTML IDE.
This 2-hour set of video tutorials by Ray Villalobos helps to quickly onboard to all Atom’s features, including advanced ones like Atom Teletype, integration with Github and others.
SUBLIME TEXT 3
Sublime is a top IDE and one of the best JavaScript editors available for free. It is currently available on Windows, Mac, and Linux. It is fast and flexible and it will do everything one should expect from the best IDE for website development.
Many users, even ones that work with Sublime for many years, do not realize that it can actually be configured as a fully-featured IDE, with features like code autocompletion, using snippets and macros, etc. This 2-hour video course will help both beginners and advanced users to tweak Sublime the way that would work best for them.
NOTEPAD++
Notepad++ is an opensource IDE and one of the top free IDEs written in C++. It supports over 50 languages and while it is not far from being the best IDE for Windows, you have to keep in mind that it is available for Windows only.
PyCharm
While PyCharm isn’t exactly the best free JavaScript IDE, the paid Professional Edition is definitely worth checking out if you are looking for a reliable web development IDE for Python programmers.
That being said, Python is not the only language PyCharm supports. In fact, it works great with pretty much all the popular languages and frameworks out there including AngularJS, Coffee Script, CSS, Python, HTML, JavaScript, Node.js, Python, TypeScript and template languages.
Here are the key features:
- Compatible with Windows, Linux, and Mac OS
- Comes with Django IDE
- Easy to integrate with Git, Mercurial, and SVN
- Customizable interface with VIM emulation
- JavaScript, Python and Django debuggers
- Supports Google App Engine
However, we have to mention that the users sometimes complain about PyCharm having certain bugs, such as the autocomplete feature occasionally not working.
If you’re just starting your Python learning path, this 2-hour video course by Bruce Van Horn, a Senior Python developer, which combines a quickstart guide both for PyCharm and Python as a language itself, could be a worthwhile time investment. The course covers PyCharm installation, integrating it with Git, SQL systems, configuring the debugger, etc. – in parallel explaining the Python basics as well.
IntelliJ IDEA
IntelliJ IDEA is a great web development IDE that offers several plans. There is a free community version but if you want to take advantage of all the Java Script development tools it has to offer, you should consider checking out the paid-for Ultimate Edition. It might actually be worth your while.
IntelliJ IDEA is a great CSS IDE, but it also supports a wide variety of programming languages such as AngularJS, CoffeeScript, HTML, JS, LESS, Node JS, PHP, Python, Ruby, Sass, TypeScript, and more.
The most important features include:
- Extensive database editor and UML designer
- Supports multiple build systems
- Test runner UI
- Code coverage
- Git integration
- Supports Google App Engine, Grails, GWT, Hibernate, Java EE, OSGi, Play, Spring, Struts, and more
- Deployment and debugging tools for most application servers
- Intelligent text editors for HTML, CSS, and Java
- Integrated version control
- AIR Mobile supports Android and iOS devices
However, keep in mind that while it might be the best JS editor, IntelliJ comes with a pretty steep learning curve so it is probably not the best option for absolute beginners.
RubyMine
RubyMine is a premium web development IDE and while you will be able to get a free trial, this IDE isn’t free of charge. However, if you are a Ruby enthusiast, it is definitely worth checking out.
That being said, Ruby isn’t the only programming language this IDE supports. It also supports CoffeeScript, CSS, HAML, HTML, JavaScript, LESS etc.
Notable features include:
- Code snippets, autocomplete and automatic refactoring
- Project tree allows for quick code analysis
- Rails Models Diagram
- Rails Project View
- RubyMotion allows for the iOS development
- Stack support includes Bundler, pik, rbenv, RVM and more
- JavaScript, CoffeeScript and Ruby debuggers
- Integration with CVS, Git, Mercurial, Perforce and Subversion
- Bundled keyboard schemes
- Code inspections for possible errors
Note: Keep in mind that you need at least 4GB of RAM for RubyMine to run smoothly.
PHPStorm
PHPStorm is another IDE developed by JetBrains. It is the best coding environment for web developers that work with PHP Frameworks like WordPress, Symfony, Laravel, Zend Framework, Drupal, Magento, Yii, and others.
It is renowned for its Visual Debugger that has zero-configuration and provides detailed insight into everything that happens in your code and application.
The user interface is very attractive and simple to use and it enables the use of cutting-edge front-end technologies like CSS, HTML5, JavaScript, Emmet, TypeScript, CoffeeScript, Sass, Less, Stylus, and others.
Among the features you can use for PHP coding are:
- Compatible with Windows, Linux, and Mac OS
- Automatic code completion
- Error highlighting
- Remote deployment
- Databases/SQL
- HTML and CSS Editor
- JavaScript Editor
- Command-line tools
- Smart code navigator
- Refactoring and debugging tools
- Docker
- REST Client
- Composer
- Unit testing
Thanks to the Version Control Systems integration, you can easily perform many routine tasks. It has intelligent coding assistance that will automatically take care of your code and check if it is okay while you type.
Additionally, you can refactor your code using reliable options for moving, renaming, deleting, extracting methods, manipulating variables, pushing members up, pulling members down and many other refactorings. With the language-specific refactorings, you can make project-wide changes safely undo them with just a few clicks.
Conclusion
Atom is a free and open-source text and source code editor developed by GitHub. It is built using web technologies it is highly extensible via JavaScript. It has a similar user interface to Sublime Text 3. Atom was released in 2015 by GitHub software engineer Ben Newsham, who envisioned a project that would bring together a range of packages from the language’s community under a single package manager.