Know all about the Top 10 IDEs for Web Development

Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) are the tools that are extremely important when it comes to coding. In today’s market, you’d find an enormous number of IDEs that serve different purposes. As a result, it gets really confusing to select one IDE that will serve all your requirements. So if you are a Web Development enthusiast, here is an article that brings to you the Top 10 IDEs for Web Development.

Top 10 IDEs for Web Development

1. Visual Studio Code
2. PhpStorm
3. Atom
4. Pycharm
5. NetBeans
6. WebStorm
7. SublimeText
8. Brackets
9. IntelliJ IDEA
10. RJ TextEd

Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code is a source code editor that was developed by Microsoft. VS Code comes under the MIT license and was ranked the most popular developer environment tool by Stack Overflow in 2019. 

Features

• Provides a built-in Command-line Interface or CLI 
• Enables Git integration that allows adding, pulling or pushing changes to remote Git repositories
• Has rich API for effective debugging
• VS Code has a feature called LiveShare that allows users to share their VS Code instances
• You can open multiple editors within the same project
• Has an integrated terminal
• Features can be enhanced using plugins as well

PhpStorm

PHPstrom is a cross-platform IDE for PHP developed by JetBrains. It is licensed under commercial proprietary software and is written in Java. 

Features

• Provides a smart PHP code editor that performs code completion, syntax highlighting, error checking, etc
• Code inceptions are present that verify your code as and how you type
• Allows you to easily navigate through your code 
• Supports Zero-configuration debugging makes it really easy to debug your program
• PHPUnit tests can be developed and executed immediately from directories, files or classes
• Supports all the cutting edge web development technologies which are HTML5, CSS, SASS, SCSS, LESS, etc
• Provides tools that enable database support

Atom

Atom is an open-source IDE built using web technologies. Atom is based on the Electron framework which is built by GitHub which in turn is written in CoffeeScript and Less.

Features: 

• Enables support for third-party packages and themes so as to format the editor
• Atom’s APM allows installation and management of packages
• Provides support for a number of languages other than Python such as C, C++, Java, HTML, etc
• Exception reporting package
• Allows cross-platform editing, smart autocompletion, etc

Pycharm

Developed by Czech company JetBrains, PyCharm is an IDE specific to Python. PyCharm is a cross-platform IDE. Therefore, users may download any of the Windows, Mac, or Linux versions depending on their requirements. PyCharm is considered to be one of the best IDEs for Python.

Features: 

• Provides smart code compilation, error highlighting, quick-fixes, etc
• Allows automatic code refactoring and has very good navigation capabilities
• Specialized project views allowing quick switching between files
• Facilitates Web Development along with Django, Flask, and web2py
• PyCharm is equipped with more than 1000 plug-ins, so programmers can write their own plug-ins to extend its features
• It provides two versions for download, the Community version which is free, and the paid Professional version

NetBeans

NetBeans is a cross-platform Java IDE. It allows you to develop applications from modules which basically are a set of modular software components. Licensed under the Apache license 2, this IDE provides support to many other languages such as PHP, C, C++, JavaScript, etc. 

Features

• Provides very efficient Project management through different views and multiple windows
• Helps you write bug-free code through  static analysis tools such as FindBug 
• Provides great community provided plugins
• Allows rapid UI application development through editors and drag-and-drop tools
• Fast and smart coding is enabled by matching brackets, indenting lines, code highlighting, etc

WebStorm

Referred to as the smartest JavaScript IDE, WebStorm is one of the best cross-platform IDEs for web development. Developed by JetBrains, this IDE provides the full power of the modern JavaScript ecosystem. 

Features

• Webstrom provides advanced coding assistance for modern web development frameworks such as Angular, React, Vuejs, etc
• It also provides coding assistance for mobile development languages like React Native, PhoneGap, Cordova, etc
• Server-side development can be done using Node js
• Has the ability to analyze your project in order to provide the best code compilation results
• You can jump to any method, function or variables by just a single click
• Has a built-in client-side and Node.js debugger that works with chrome
• You can run your tests inside the IDE itself as WebStrom has been integrated with Karma, Protractor, Mocha, and Jest
• Provides project templates such as  Express or Web starter kit 
• Apart from all that, this IDE is highly customizable and you can alter it easily to suit your preferences

Sublime Text

Sublime-Text is a cross-platform IDE developed in C++ and Python. In addition to Python, it provides support for other languages as well. The features of this IDE can be enhanced using plug-ins.

Features:

• “Goto Anything” feature that allows quick access to files,  symbols or lines
• Its command palette  provides robust matching for keyboard invocations
• Python-based plugin API
• Allows simultaneous editing
• Preferences can be made project-specific

Brackets

Brackets is a very powerful, open-source text editor for web development. It is basically designed for web designers and front-end developers created by Adobe Systems. Licensed under MIT, Brackets is free software that is built using JavaScript, HTML, and CSS.

Features:

• It is Cross-platform and Extensible
• Brackets allow Collaborative editing through which multiple developers can work on the same project simultaneously
• Supports various backend programming languages like Java, C, Python, etc
• It provides a number of functions for text selection
• Provides security by making sure that the application and does not allow third-party packages or plugins for unapproved access
• Allows enhanced functionality through plugins and integrations
• It also provides general features that are syntax highlighting, auto-completion, find and replace, code folding, etc

IntelliJ IDEA

IntellijIdea is a Java-specific IDE written in Java and Kotlin. It is developed by JetBrains and the Community version is licensed under Apache 2 whereas the Ultimate version comes under Trialware. You can use any of these but, for full-fledged web development, you will need to make use of the Ultimate. 

Features:

• Smart completion: Assists you by providing a list of relevant symbols 
• Chain Completion: This feature lists out suggestions that are applicable via getters or functions
• Lets the user utilize the static methods through static completion  
• Analyses data flow when it offers compilation variants to predict possible runtime symbol type
• Provides coding assistance from languages to expressions and string literals
• This IDE detects duplicate code fragments and will inform you if there is any

RJ TextEd

RJ TextEd is a Windows freeware text and source code editor. It is Developed by Rickard Johansson and was released as Freeware software. 

Features

• Can handle both Ascii and Binary files
• Provides code folding, auto-completion, sorting, etc
• Provides advanced color hints that allow conversion between color formats
• Supports Unicode and ANSI code page detection.
• HTML code can be validated, formatted and repaired
• Has a document map

This brings us to the end of this blog on ‘Top 10 IDEs for Web Development’. I hope you have gained profitable knowledge from the same. It would be great if you could provide your feedback and let us know which IDE is your personal favorite and why.