What are the best free IDE for web developers?

Question

3

Options
Considered

8

User
Recs.

Apr 5, 2020

Last
Updated

Here’s the Deal

3 Options Considered

Best free IDE for web developers	Price	Cross Platform	Multi Language Support
-- NetBeans IDE	-	-	-
-- Visual Studio Code	FREE	Yes	Yes
-- PhpStorm	-	Yes	Yes

See Full List

I Recommend...

Built By the Slant team

Find the best product instantly.

Lustre recommends the best products at their lowest prices – right on Amazon.

4.7 star rating

Add to Chrome

Try it now - it's free

score 4 · Answer 1

NetBeans IDE

Top Pro

Cross-platform

NetBeans is a free, GPL-licensed IDE. It can run on any computer with a Java virtual machine. If a computer has a Java virtual machine (JVM), Netbeans can run on it. Netbeans can, therefore, run on a variety of operating systems such as Windows, *nix, and Mac OS. See More

Top Con

IDE can't support several lenguajes in a single file

It feels like code suggestions and highlights don't deeply understand your needs. For example, if you're in a PHP file, you only get code support for PHP language, despite you probably need HTML or SQL support within the same file. (This fact has been categorized as high priority in the development webpage since long ago, but hasn't been improved yet). See More

Top Pro

Multiple revision control system integration

Top Pro

Fantastic Maven support

NetBeans has out-of-the-box support for Maven (NetBeans 6.7 and newer), which includes a repository browser. See More

Top Pro

Good support for integrated Database e Servers (E.g. Tomcat)

Top Pro

Easy to learn

Very easy to learn, unlike e.g. Eclipse (which is probably the most flexible). See More

Top Pro

Take less memory

Top Pro

Customizable theme

Top Pro

Good refactoring

See All

Built by Slant

Find the best product
instantly.

Stop wasting time searching endlessly. Lustre recommends the best products at their lowest prices – right on Amazon.

4.7 star rating

Add to Chrome - It's Free Try now - it's free

score 2 · Answer 2

Visual Studio Code

Top Pro

Extendable through plug-ins

Visual Studio Code comes fairly complete out of the box, but there are many plug-ins available to extend its functionality. See More

Specs

Cross Platform:Yes

Multi Language Support:Yes

Auto Complete:Yes

Bracket Matching:Yes

See All Specs

Top Pro

High fidelity C# plugin

The Omnisharp plugin is very powerful providing full sln, csproj, and project.json support. See More

Top Pro

Good support for new Emmet syntax

Top Pro

It has gotten really good

All it takes is one stop for all the features many people need. See More

Top Pro

Fast and powerful

VS-Code has the speed of Sublime and the power of WebStorm. Perhaps this is the best software that Microsoft has ever created. See More

Top Pro

Huge community behind it

The ease of getting assistance and finding tutorials is increasing as the community grows. See More

Top Pro

Custom snippets support

Snippets are templates that will insert text for you and adapt it to their context, and in VSC they are highly customizable. See More

Top Pro

Active development

It's really nice to see how the code editor evolves. Every month there is a new version with great communication of new features and changes. See More

Top Pro

Libre/open source

Released under the MIT License. See More

Top Pro

ESLint integration

ESLint integrates great. You can define your rules trough .eslintrc.* as usual and vs code will autofix your code on save. So your code is always in style. See More

Top Pro

Integrated task runners

Task runners display lists of available tasks and performing these tasks is as simple as a click of the mouse. See More

Top Pro

Extensions (aka plugins) are written in JavaScript

Extensions are written in either Typescript or JavaScript. See More

Top Pro

Updated frequently

There's a new release of Visual Studio Code every month. If you are one of the insiders then releases are daily. See More

Top Pro

Great performance

For a 'wrapped' web-based application, Visual Studio Code performs very well. See More

Top Pro

Integrated terminal

There's no need to press alt+tab to go to a terminal: it is directly integrated into the editor. Shift+~ is a handy hotkey to toggle the integrated terminal. See More

Top Pro

Ready to use out of the box

You don't need to configure and add plugins before being productive. However, you can add plugins if needed but for the basics you're well covered. See More

Top Pro

Integrated debugging

VSC includes debugging tools for Node.js, TypeScript, and JavaScript. See More

Top Pro

Embedded Git control

Visual Studio Code has integrated Git control, guaranteeing speed, data integrity, and support for distributed, non-linear workflows. See More

Top Pro

TypeScript integration

There is very solid TypeScript integration in Visual Studio Code. Both are developed by Microsoft and VSC itself is written in TypeScript. See More

Top Pro

JavaScript IntelliSense support

JavaScript IntelliSense allows Visual Studio Code to provide you with useful hints and auto-completion features while you code. See More

Top Pro

JS typechecking

It leverages TypeScript compiler functionality to statically type check JS (type inference, JSDoc types) with "javascript.implicitProjectConfig.checkJs": true option. See More

Top Pro

Python support

Excellent Python plugin, originally created by Don Jayamanne, now hired by Microsoft to extend and maintain the extension. See More

Top Pro

Support RTL languages

It supports pretty web rtl languages like arabic languages when most of other editors don't support it. See More

Top Pro

Inline definition picking and usages finding

These features allow you to have a glance at code without opening it as a whole in a separate tab. Moreover, editing is allowed. See More

See All

score 1 · Answer 3

PhpStorm

Top Con

Pricey

Currently costs £78 but does not seem to offer much more than some free counterparts. See More

Top Pro

Task/Context functionality

Similar to Eclipse Mylyn: you can create tasks or retrieve them from your ticketing system, and each task keeps its own context (opened files, modifications, etc.). See More

Specs

Cross Platform:Yes

Multi Language Support:Yes

Auto Complete:Yes

Bracket Matching:Yes

See All Specs

Top Con

Interface is cluttered

Top Pro

Responsive core developers

Top Con

Sometimes buggy

Index gets corrupt which results in errors in syntax presentation, code validation and auto-completion. Version-control system sometimes stops working, occasionally freezes in big files See More

Top Pro

Regular updates for fixes and new features

PhpStorm is clearly being developed continually, which gives confidence that it will be available for some time and is not abandonware. See More

Top Con

Slow performance

A very slow indexing, many memory leaks, large projects after some time will be very slow, opening large files like 10mb can even break IDE. See More

Top Pro

It comes with Testing RESTful Web Services

Save time of building your own or integrating libraries for testing RESTful Web Services. PHPStorm enables you to test endpoints without leaving your workspace or disrupting your workflow . You can code your endpoints in one window and test it immediately from another window. See More

Top Con

Proprietary

It is not free software (free as in freedom). See More

Top Pro

Emmet integrated

Top Con

Resource exhaustive

It often maxes out even 4 cores, not to mention several hundred MBs of RSS with a single small project opened. See More

Top Pro

Templating support

Supports Twig and Laravel's Blade (among others). Technically the later is part of a framework which Phpstorm supports but I've seen IDEs (e.g. Netbeans) with Laravel support but no blade support so it does deserve a notable mention. See More

Top Pro

Code Refactoring

Quickly rename classes, methods, and variables used across multiple files in the project. See More

Top Pro

Integrated Vagrant support

It recognizes Vagrantfile and allows full control from the IDE. See More

Top Pro

Zero latency typing

Type codes with pleasure. Delay of visual feedback on a computer display has an important effect on typist's behavior and satisfaction, as cited here. See More

Top Pro

Lots of plugins

Lots of plugins from JetBrains and the community are available, from useful things like support for Docker, Vagrant, Angular, Vue.js and more useless (but fun) like a nyan cat progress bar. See More

Top Pro

Has built-in console and SSH clients

This allows execution of needed commands without switching to other windows. It also keeps track of what's happening right in the IDE, which is especially good with Vagrant, because you can connect to a VM in a single click. See More

Top Pro

Integrated Git GUI support

Allows users to manage their repositories directly from the IDE with a GUI which lets you do all Git commands. See More

Top Pro

Plugins allow futureproofing and customization

Active development work on plugins is always a plus, as it can extend the use of the IDE. See More

Top Pro

Auto-sync with remote folders

It allows monitoring code and sync the files that need to be changed with a remote server. This works more efficiently than libnotify and faster than vagrant auto rsync. See More

Top Pro

Phar package recognition

Phar support allows running complete applications out of .phar files. See More

Top Pro

Database view

The database tab, while not perfect, provides all the tools you need for daily usage. You always have your DB overview on the side (you can hide it when not needed). See More

Top Pro

External command support

Ability to setup custom external commands, which is something inherited from eclipse and found lacking on netbeans. See More

Top Pro

Built-in debugger

Has built in support for Xdebug including remote debugging. See More

Top Pro

Inspections of all kinds

Not just for PHP, HTML and JavaScript, but especially good is SQL inspection and auto-completion of tables and fields. You can see at a glance, that your DB structure is in sync with your code. See More

Top Pro

PHPDoc support

PHPDoc is a documentation generator. It allows automatically generating documentation from specifically formatted comments. See More

Top Pro

Supports various PHP frameworks

Supports Symfony2 (including Twig and Doctrine), Yii frameworks, and Laravel. See More

Top Pro

Intelligent code completion

PhpStorm has two types of autocompletion: structural completion and word expansion. Structural autocompletion makes predictions based on its understanding of PHP, while the latter tries to predict the word currently being typed based on previously typed words. Word expansion also works in comments and docstrings and it's similar to vim's omnicompletion. Both types of autocompletion work extremely well, have little to no problems and are quite fast even when loading suggestions on the go. See More

See All

What are the best free IDE for web developers?

3 Options Considered

NetBeans IDE

My Recommendation for NetBeans IDE

My Recommendation for NetBeans IDE

Cross-platform

IDE can't support several lenguajes in a single file

Multiple revision control system integration

Fantastic Maven support

Good support for integrated Database e Servers (E.g. Tomcat)

Easy to learn

Take less memory

Customizable theme

Good refactoring

Visual Studio Code

My Recommendation for Visual Studio Code

My Recommendation for Visual Studio Code

Extendable through plug-ins

High fidelity C# plugin

Good support for new Emmet syntax

It has gotten really good

Fast and powerful

Huge community behind it

Custom snippets support

Active development

Libre/open source

ESLint integration

Integrated task runners

Extensions (aka plugins) are written in JavaScript

Updated frequently

Great performance

Integrated terminal

Ready to use out of the box

Integrated debugging

Embedded Git control

TypeScript integration

JavaScript IntelliSense support

JS typechecking

Python support

Support RTL languages

Inline definition picking and usages finding

PhpStorm

My Recommendation for PhpStorm

My Recommendation for PhpStorm

Pricey

Task/Context functionality

Interface is cluttered

Responsive core developers

Sometimes buggy

Regular updates for fixes and new features

Slow performance

It comes with Testing RESTful Web Services

Proprietary

Emmet integrated

Resource exhaustive

Templating support

Code Refactoring

Integrated Vagrant support

Zero latency typing

Lots of plugins

Has built-in console and SSH clients

Integrated Git GUI support

Plugins allow futureproofing and customization

Auto-sync with remote folders

Phar package recognition

Database view

External command support

Built-in debugger

Inspections of all kinds

PHPDoc support

Supports various PHP frameworks

Intelligent code completion

Don't see your favorite option? Add it.

One sec!