10 Best IDE for Web Development 2020

I know how it feels to be a software or a web developer. It is a great fun. Doesn’t matter if you are a professional web developer or a newbie, in web development you always find something new to learn with new advancements in web technologies every now and then.

Editing HTML and CSS code can be done with nothing but a simple text editor. However, if you’d like to take your programming skills to the next level, it’s worth looking into an integrated development environment or IDE.

The IDEs listed here can be useful for both professional as well as new developers as these IDEs come with some unique features that make programming tasks somewhat easy and quick. The ones listed here will offer many features that will enhance your programming experiences like automation, visualization, and customization

 Visual Studio Code

Deemed the best JavaScript IDE for Windows, Mac, and Linux by TMS Outsource and voted the most popular in a 2018 survey by the State of JS, Visual Studio Code is a powerful source code editor that comes with a range of tools for JavaScript development. The IDE comes with built-in support for JavaScript, TypeScript, and Node.js. It also has plenty of extensions for other languages (such as C++, C#, Python, and PHP). Developed by Windows, Visual Studio Code is great for new programmers as it explains everything from HTML tags to syntax and error handling.

Features:

• Syntax highlighting
• Autocomplete with IntelliSense based on variable types
• Function definitions
• Imported modules
• The ability to debug code from the
• Custom hotkeys
• Templates and boilerplates
• Integrating with GitHub
• Intellisense, which provides smart completions based on variable types
• Customizable themes

Brackets

Created for web designers by web designers (FWDBWD?), Brackets is a powerful, but lightweight editor that comes with a set of great visual tools and preprocessor supports that allow for easy designing in the browser. The open-source project is free of charge and has a thriving community that is always there to lend a hand. The iDE offers live HTML, CSS, and JavaScript coding and supports programming in Perl, Ruby, Java, Python, and many other languages.

Features:

• Inline editors
• Live preview
• Split view
• Preprocessor Support
• Quick edit and Live Highlight with LESS and SCSS files
• Easy to use UI
• Integration with Theseus (an open-source JavaScript debugger)
• Fast automatic code completion feature
• Plenty of useful extensions available (e.g Autoprefixer, code-folding, markdown preview, smart highlighting, and snippets)

 NetBeans

NetBeans is a free, easy-to-use IDE that works well with JavaScript, HTML, PHP, C, and C++. As well as supporting a number of different programming languages, it also is available in English, Brazillian Portuguese, Japanese, Russian, and Simplified Chinese. NetBeans isn’t ideal for those just starting programming, as the package can be tricky to set up.

Features include:

• Line indentation
• Word and bracket matching
• Source code highlighting
• Code refactoring
• Coding tips, templates, and generators available
• Modifiable workspace

Atom by GitHub

Atom is a fantastic IDE for JavaScript programming. Because it’s created by GitHub, it means that there is a thriving community to turn to if you run into any issues. It works with Mac, Windows, and Linux and ships with a package manager for installing new packages. The app is highly customizable, but can also be used well without configuring or customizing anything.

Features:

• Find, preview, and replace text as you type in a file across all projects
• Easily browse and open files and projects in one window
• Teletype tool – enables collaboration with other developers from within the editor
• Very customizable/hackable
• Package manager

 Sublime Text 3

Sublime Text 3 is a flexible, free IDE for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It supports a number of different programming and markup languages, including Python, C, HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. The interface is known to be clutter-free and fast.

Features:

• Code autocompletion – snippets and macros
• Can be tweaked to boost productivity
• Enhanced pane management
• Go to definition
• Go to symbol
• Multiple selections
• Command palette
• Split editing
• Instant project switch
• Customizable key bindings, menus, snippets, and more

 PyCharm

PyCharm is a decent free IDE for web development in a number of languages, including Python, CSS, HTML, JavaScript, Node.js, and more. The IDE is compatible with Mac, Windows, and Linux and has a paid sister software you can purchase if you’d like something more reliable. According to some users, the free version of PyCharm can be buggy, especially the autocomplete feature.

Features:

• Easy integration with Git, Mercurial, and SVN
• Customizable interface with VIM emulation
• JavaScript, Python, and Django debuggers,
• Supports Google App Engine

 

. IntelliJ IDEA

IntelliJ IDEA is a Java-centric IDE that is designed to maximize productivity. One of the best features of this IDE is its ability to automatically add handy tools that are relevant to the context. As well as supporting Java languages, it supports HTML, PHP, Python, Ruby, and more. It’s free but has a paid counterpart with a fuller suite of development tools.

Features:

• Test runner UI
• Code coverage
• Git integration
• Supports multiple build systems
• Extensive database editor and UML designer
• Supports Google App Engine, Grails, GWT
• Deployment and debugging tools for most application servers
• Intelligent text editors for HTML, CSS, and Java
• Integrated version control
• Automates repetitive programming tasks
• Advanced code completion
• Built-in static code analyzers

 PHPStorm

PHPStorm is a great coding environment for those who work with PHP frameworks like WordPress, Drupal, Magento, and others. It has an interface that is both great to look at and easy-to-use. It’s compatible with Mac, Windows, and Linux and supports a number of different front-end programming languages like HTML5, CSS, JavaScript and more. The IDE can be customized with themes and extensions to enhance your programming experience.

Features

• Visual debugger
• Automatic code completion
• Error highlighting
• Remote deployment
• Databases/SQL
• HTML, CSS, and JavaScript editor
• Command-line tools
• Smart code navigator
• Refactoring and debugging tools
• Docker
• REST Client
• Composer
• Unit testing

 Webstorm

Webstorm is a slick IDE that’s feature-rich and user-friendly. It’s designed to produce state-of-the-art web apps and supports languages like HTML, JavaScript, CSS, React, and more. The IDE is compatible with Mac, Windows, and Linux.

Features:

• Intelligent code completion
• Multi-line todos
• Automatic refactoring
• Debugger
• Syntax error detection
• Unit testing
• Integration with VCS
• Cross-platform features
• Powerful navigation
• Parameter hints
• Seamless tool integration
• Git integration

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.

Features:

• 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

There are many free web development IDE available that you should probably test and find out the one that works for you the best. Choosing the right web development IDE comes to a lot of different factors. You will never go back to plain text editors once you experience these IDE. Hopefully, you will find just the right one for your next web development project.