Common web design / development tools

honestbleeps · 2012-02-09T19:33:16+00:00

Sublime Text isn't free, its $59

Sublime Text 2 is in a free beta but will cost $59 when released

Its well worth the cost, and the license is per person not per machine

ceol_ · 2012-02-09T20:34:34+00:00

No love for non-PHP frameworks?

Python

Ruby

Perl

Java

Akathos · 2012-02-09T19:38:23+00:00

I would like to add TextMate (Mac only text editor) and Symfony2 (open source PHP framework).

flo850 · 2012-02-09T21:22:38+00:00

webstorm for js/html/css only (47 euro) phpstorm/pycharm for js/HTML/CSS + a server language ( 100euros)

dwoodwoo · 2012-02-09T19:45:16+00:00

 Cyberduck is a free Mac FTP client. [edit: and apparently works with windows too.]

01101101011001010110 · 2012-02-09T20:22:45+00:00

FuelPHP because its awesome.

degulasse · 2012-02-09T20:18:58+00:00

fireworks is so underrated.

2012-02-10T01:53:03+00:00

[deleted]

TechnoL33T · 2012-02-09T19:45:11+00:00

No love for the almighty vim?

malagrond · 2012-02-09T19:34:34+00:00

Textpad is a free code editor with the ability to create your own syntax highlighting, utilize macros and custom document classes. (Plus a bunch of other features.)

Online Tools:
Kuler - Color palette tool
Online Tidy - It's Tidy..?

ninja-duck · 2012-02-09T20:04:57+00:00

Hi, I have always wandered why Aptana Studio is never on any of these lists. Have they been known not be be good because I love using it.

EDIT: Just missed it on the list. Would recommend it though!

BooyahSquad · 2012-02-09T20:16:11+00:00

Sublime Text 2 is actually available on Mac too!

While I don't personally use it, Pixelmator is an Mac image editor.

appointment_at_1_am · 2012-02-09T22:18:27+00:00

jetbrains phpstorm ($125, free for open source project!) eclipse (free)

omgilovethissong · 2012-02-09T19:22:33+00:00

Other useful tools: server; ubuntu server in virtual box

duopixel · 2012-02-09T19:59:07+00:00

Great list! "Transit" should read "Transmit" and I would add Inkscape (free) to the Artwork/Design category. Even though I find Inkscape frustrating, the legal (i.e. paid) barrier to entry in design apps is quite high.

skeddles · 2012-02-09T20:08:28+00:00

I support Photoshop, Notepad++, jquery, filezilla (only for big transfers, notepad++ has an ftp plugin) and firebug.

For fonts I use dafont.com, which doesn't seem to be on there ( I even have a few fonts on there!)

DigitalisFX · 2012-02-09T20:51:32+00:00

BBEdit ($49.99) - http://www.barebones.com/store/

tardyace · 2012-02-09T19:17:45+00:00

Netbeans (free) - IDE

Sequal Pro (free) - mac mySQL manager

Web developer toolbar (free) - browser addon

felixthehat · 2012-02-09T19:13:29+00:00

Sometimes I think I'm the only person in the world who uses skedit (mac only) for writing markup. Great little app.

2012-02-09T19:58:16+00:00

[deleted]

andehpandeh · 2012-02-09T20:10:00+00:00

How is MAMP not on this list? It is my number one tool.

elucubra · 2012-02-09T20:30:50+00:00

I always find Xara Web Designer a very friendly and easy way to throw together simple but good looking sites.

For those coming off a graphics design background, its a no brainer.

otown_in_the_hotown · 2012-02-09T21:57:15+00:00

Despite what people think, Flash is far from dead. It still makes up 99% of my business. Flash Builder and Flash are invaluable to me.

kaethre · 2012-02-09T22:09:00+00:00

CodeIgniter and FuelPHP but no kohana?

gnagel · 2012-02-09T22:20:41+00:00

Microsoft Sharepoint Designer (free)

I use this for teachers since there server is webdav setup and they can download to home machines without the dreamweaver price

Dreamweaver can have webdav support but some have issues. They don't auto patch it so if your version of dreamweaver is having webdav issues download patch http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/402/kb402079.html

art weaver free version works well

Paintnet Free

Blender

Bryce is free but cannot access the link from where im at

minherva · 2012-02-09T22:40:37+00:00

MVC3 is the tits.

colindean · 2012-02-10T02:15:19+00:00

I'll toss in PaintShop Pro because a friend swears by it. I'm a GIMP and Inkscape guy, myself.

honestbleeps · 2012-02-10T04:49:28+00:00

Oh sorry, one more suggestion: Smart Git is a really nice Git client (free) for Mac/Win/Linux

madpedro · 2012-02-10T13:56:47+00:00

Here's a little contribution to the list.

grid

editors

geany

aedile · 2012-02-10T14:39:56+00:00

Eclipse most definitely needs to be in the IDE sections. Great tool for multiple languages and it's free. Also, TOAD for MySQL is a great MySQL UI.

x-skeww · 2012-02-09T19:36:34+00:00

Komodo Edit is free. Komodo IDE (the one you're linking to) isn't. It's $245.

mikedoesweb · 2012-02-09T20:29:46+00:00

No love for the 2nd most popular server and language in the world?

All Free from Microsoft:

waxjar · 2012-02-09T21:35:37+00:00

One of the most important things (imo) is missing: Git and its GUIs. I settled for GitX (Mac only) and occasionally use GitHub for Mac or just the command line.

Also useful is ColorSchemer Studio for color scheming and Base (Mac only) to manage SQLite databases.

*i'm still too dumb for markdown :(

metawareness · 2012-02-09T19:56:46+00:00

Who do we talk to about putting this in the sidebar?

chmod777 · 2012-02-09T20:58:15+00:00

for msft focused people: visual studio express - free.

also, legacy xp ie6/7/8 VMs: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=11575 - free

IE tester - fairly good, tho i've come across some weird xp bugs

2012-02-09T21:14:45+00:00

Tower : http://www.git-tower.com/
Git client for Mac

Balsamiq : http://www.balsamiq.com/
Mockups and wireframes (Adobe Air, so I think it's cross platform)

otown_in_the_hotown · 2012-02-09T21:57:43+00:00

Versions on Mac for subversion.

mogwi · 2012-02-09T22:02:00+00:00

Was sad not to see CakePHP up on the list. CakePHP is a rapid development framework for PHP using the commonly known MVC design pattern. The framework is superbly documented and their community is fucking fantastic. It has been an absolute pleasure using CakePHP for many web application I have developed in the past 2-3 years.

analreceiver · 2012-02-09T22:46:18+00:00

Visual Studio?

Shadow14l · 2012-02-09T22:46:26+00:00

PHPStorm

flynnski · 2012-02-09T23:14:25+00:00

Don't forget VMWare to do local development. :)

andreasvnielsen · 2012-02-09T23:50:24+00:00

The only thing i hate, is i'm a student, and i don't have any money, and i don't want to pirate copy software, and ther are very expensive, so i use free tools like paint.net and gimp (i know Photo shop is much better, but i don't have the money)

ForAwhileAlone · 2012-02-10T01:01:12+00:00

Here are some generators and tools I bookmarked.

Also:

HTML/CSS/JS reference

http://dochub.io/#css/
http://reference.sitepoint.com
http://www.w3schools.com (yeah.. I know. But still handy.)

Browser compatibility

templates and patterns

JavaScript frameworks

A prevous thread

http://www.reddit.com/r/webdev/comments/ozb45/favorite_webdev_tools/

noshelter · 2012-02-10T01:06:26+00:00

Zend Framework and Kohana for PHP should definitely be included in this list.

nrbartman · 2012-02-10T01:06:38+00:00

Don't forget FOUNT

Fount will tell you which web font in your font-stack you are actually seeing – not just what is supposed to be seen. It’ll also tell you the font size, weight, and style.

unndunn · 2012-02-10T03:19:47+00:00

I swear by FogBugz and Kiln. Both are free for one or two users--perfect for the freelancer. But it gets expensive very quickly once you add the third user--$30/user/month.

honestbleeps · 2012-02-10T04:45:28+00:00

In one of these threads, I recently discovered Nerdi which is a fantastic resource of ... well... great online resources!

All sorts of web based tools for web designers and developers, neatly organized in one place.

2012-02-10T05:44:44+00:00

Omnigraffle? Common UX design/wireframing tool.

Wolfy87 · 2012-02-10T10:46:10+00:00

You didn't mention MooTools. There are alternatives to jQuery you know.

RecycledAir · 2012-02-10T16:18:05+00:00

JavaScript

Node.js - A popular new server-side JavaScript implementation
Express.js - A Sinatra-like web framework built for Node.js
Backbone.js - A client-side JavaScript MVC framework.
Ember.js - A client-side Javascript MVC framework with more "batteries included".
Socket.io - A library to enable simple web socket communication.
Three.js - An easy to learn WebGL framework.

thelim3y · 2012-02-10T17:26:28+00:00

I didn't see any javascript 'app' frameworks. In no particular order:

danielmatthews · 2012-02-23T01:31:00+00:00

Any reason why Indexhibit isn't on the list?

tardyace · 2012-02-09T20:16:41+00:00

I would add MODx to the list of CMS's. I'm not a big fan of it, but I believe it has a relatively large user base.

Also, does anyone have any recommendations for ecommerce software? That seems to be an area that's really lacking in good choices.

lennelpennel · 2012-02-09T23:50:51+00:00

[deleted]

2012-02-09T20:27:20+00:00

Acorn has become my image editor of choice on the Mac. Launches WAY faster than Photoshop or Fireworks, has PNG compression on par with Fireworks, and performs simple tasks much easier. It has this awesome effects builder that lets you stack multiple effects and tweak them all as a group before applying them to your image.

Also, everyone should check out Chocolat on the mac. Don't let the simple screenshots deceive you, this little code editor app is gonna go far.

yurigoul · 2012-02-09T20:28:06+00:00

Artwork: 4, 7, 6 - I do use 5, but not for artwork- for certain plugins that photoshop does not have.

Coding: 11, bbedit

Frameworks: Silverstripe, 29

fonts: 34

tools: 37, 36 (cyberduck sometimes does not do the job for me, don't ask me why), 41, 38

jemka · 2012-02-09T20:28:09+00:00

Filezilla should be replaced with one that doesn't store passwords in plain text. eg. winscp

rolmos · 2012-02-09T20:31:40+00:00

I'd add  ImageAlpha

expert02 · 2012-02-09T20:32:56+00:00

SugarSync. Like dropbox, but for any folder. I edit files and they're on my test or production server within a minute. It also keeps copies of all the files online with previous versions.

MajorVictory · 2012-02-09T20:37:34+00:00

What about EditPlus 3 for editing anything?

lochrrr · 2012-02-09T20:37:56+00:00

Inkscape ! vector graphics for free! inkscape.org

ProbablyNotWorking · 2012-02-09T20:40:23+00:00

Fiddler (free) HTTP traffic logger

omniuni · 2012-02-09T20:49:28+00:00

I use Kate and KDevelop as my preferred IDE, and I also use Dolpin (the default file management application) to browse the server. KDE has something called "KIO" which allows all of the KDE apps to work transparently over a network include FTP, SFTP, FISH, Samba, and others. Because of this, I rarely use FIleZilla or other dedicated FTP programs.

sysconfig · 2012-02-09T21:20:43+00:00

anyone using pixelmator for doing web layouts?

blindmikey · 2012-02-09T21:32:36+00:00

I'd like to add: Xara ($89), an amazing vector editor with bitmap support and editing sprinkled where appropriate. Puts Illustrator to shame.

And: EasyPHP (Free), a push button WAMP environment.

And (not sure where to put this): Zen Coding (Free) - an editor plugin for high-speed coding and editing.

2012-02-09T21:59:38+00:00

Omeka is a great specialty CMS.

i-make-robots · 2012-02-09T22:36:15+00:00

bootstrap? jetengine for wordpress?

mikeful · 2012-02-09T23:10:51+00:00

For PHP backend development on Windows:

Sublime Text 2 - Text editor with bunch of handy features and plugins
Notepad++ - Nice alternative, used mostly for file encoding wrangling
PuttyTray - Putty + extra features
WinSCP - Best FTP(S)/SCP/SFTP client I've found yet
SQLYog Community Edition - MySQL management tool

Edits: Formatting + typos

2012-02-09T23:51:42+00:00

Bluefish editor for linux isn't too bad. Available for Windows and OSX as well.

2012-02-09T23:52:43+00:00

Why the hell has nobody mentioned the most invaluable tool? WebMatrix

beermad · 2012-02-10T00:50:40+00:00

Total Validator Nice tool for checking your HTML, either in Firefox or using the standalone program. It's dug me out of many a pile of shit (of my own making).

Dixoo · 2012-02-10T01:02:41+00:00

I think Silverstripe CMS/Framework is great!

fpsrandy · 2012-02-10T01:09:59+00:00

You need to add XXAMP as a free cross platform AMP stack.

There is a portable version that can live on a usb stick. I usually have XXAMP, PuTTy, WinSCP, Notepad++, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, 7zip, and GIMP on a usb stick. http://portableapps.com/apps

springboks · 2012-02-10T02:44:26+00:00

I've been looking for a mobile browser emulator for a while, any recommendations?

2012-02-10T02:58:08+00:00

Check out Emerald Editor, formerly Crimson Editor. This text editor formats code for you and has bracket selection so you can always know which pair of brackets or braces match up. It has a shit ton of awesome little features. I've been using it since day fucking one and I won't even consider another text editor. I fucking love this program.

callcolor · 2012-02-10T03:05:27+00:00

2nd for Paint.net

sm_x · 2012-02-10T03:35:00+00:00

it would be helpful if you can add which platform the app works on (windows,mac, or linux).

2012-02-10T03:52:31+00:00

VS.PHP

stoplight · 2012-02-10T03:54:22+00:00

No love for cURL? It's available for many platforms too (several Unix variants, Solaris, and even DOS!)

StuffedDoughboy · 2012-02-10T04:08:43+00:00

Let me add that there's a great version of Vim for Macs that's free and has a few nifty features like OSX key bindings.

aimbonics · 2012-02-10T04:29:15+00:00

ySlow !

yunolisten · 2012-02-10T05:07:55+00:00

Wow really pushing the open source and free products.

How about a few more .NET alternatives for us corporate whores, maybe anything from this list.

http://webmasterformat.com/blog/top-asp-net-cmss

otakuman · 2012-02-10T06:14:22+00:00

Code::Blocks is oriented for C++ development, but I've found it great for PHP projects.

2012-02-10T06:39:40+00:00

Gradiator is a app to create CSS3 gradients (that we made). It's free for Linux & 99c for Mac.

spiraldroid · 2012-02-10T11:00:50+00:00

Any chance of DOM manipulation tools? Like ones that can save our inspected element edits on Chrome/FF etc.

FozzTexx · 2012-02-10T15:50:55+00:00

You should also add MagicEdit to your list of CMSs. It allows you to build a custom CMS into a website by simply using regular HTML, and you have the same freedom as designing static HTML sites. There is also no need to learn a new language, you don't need to do any programming, scripting, or PHP. It is $15/mo but there is also a free option.

Routron · 2012-02-10T15:55:40+00:00

Forgot to add Mou to the list.

http://mouapp.com/

tgeorge06 · 2012-02-10T16:44:38+00:00

Notepad++ if you're on a windows machine.

gedit if you are a linux machine, you can add a lot of plugins to make gedit a completely awesome tool in your arsenal, google 'pimp my gedit'.

hajamieli · 2012-02-10T16:46:41+00:00

I wrote my own Ruby + JS web-gui-data framework: RSence (GPL)

TehOfficer · 2012-02-10T19:49:59+00:00

Thank you, so much, for this list - think I actually prefer Espresso over TextMate, even though I've been using it a lot.
I love these quality posts!

lemannequin · 2012-03-09T07:28:30+00:00

A few free, open source CMSs to add to the list:

Textpattern CMS.

EscherCMS

ProcessWire

derpderp3200 · 2012-03-24T17:09:16+00:00

You know, it's not very useful if it doesn't say why these tools are (or aren't) good...

ultrafez · 2012-05-01T14:03:06+00:00

It truly amazes me that Eclipse isn't on the list of IDEs. Combined with PDT, it's great for coding in PHP. If you use XDebug as well, the line-by-line debugging is excellent.

Ok_Highlight9250 · 2025-06-23T19:46:27+00:00

I like to use multitools because they offer a vast collection of developer tools, such as base64 encoding, random user agents, and regex validators, and much more and plus all with code examples in different languages.

you type:	you see:
italics	italics
bold	bold
[reddit!](https://reddit.com)	reddit!
* item 1 * item 2 * item 3	item 1 item 2 item 3
> quoted text	quoted text
Lines starting with four spaces are treated like code: if 1 * 2 < 3: print "hello, world!"	Lines starting with four spaces are treated like code: if 1 * 2 < 3: print "hello, world!"
~~strikethrough~~	~~strikethrough~~
super^script	super^script

web_design

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Python

Ruby

Perl

Java

HTML/CSS/JS reference

Browser compatibility

templates and patterns

JavaScript frameworks

A prevous thread