What are the best IDE for PHP?

Question

4

Options
Considered

18

User
Recs.

May 25, 2021

Last
Updated

Here’s the Deal

4 Options Considered

Best IDE for PHP	Price	Multi Language Support	Auto Complete
-- PhpStorm	89	Yes	Yes
-- VS Code	Free	-	-
-- NetBeans	-	Yes	Yes
-- SpaceVim	FREE	-	-

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score 9 · Answer 1

PhpStorm

Top Pro

PHPDoc support

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

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

Велимир Мајсторов's Experience

Really the best IDE i ever use for PHP (also for Java). See More

Specs

Multi Language Support:Yes

Top Pro

Built-in debugger

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

Top Con

Pricey

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

Top Pro

Code Refactoring

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

Top Con

Proprietary

It is not free software (free as in freedom). 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 Con

Bloated

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

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

Top Pro

Supports various PHP frameworks

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

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

Excellent search tools

Especially the "find in path" feature that displays both results and file preview! 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

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

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

Top Pro

Emmet integrated

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 Pro

Integrated Vagrant support

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

Top Pro

Responsive core developers

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

Phar package recognition

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

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 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

See All

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score 1 · Answer 2

VS Code

Top Pro

Cross platform

VS code is an electron app and can therefore run on windows, mac and linux alike. See More

Top Con

Electron

It's an electron app. That means the usual bugs can, did and probably will happen. In its early days it was stressing the CPU because of the cursor refresh rate. No joke. See More

Top Pro

Fast

Fast to open, fast to close, easy on the CPU and RAM. See More

Top Con

A bit barebones at times

Even all its addons can't hide the fact that many things are just a bit inconvenient at times. Its stylish but nested interface takes more time to get used to than some of its competitors. See More

Top Pro

Lots of Addons

Probably for every usecase, there is an addon. And they are easily installed. See More

Top Pro

Ease of use

See All

score 5 · Answer 3

NetBeans

Top Pro

Free, open source, and 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. Being open source means that developers can contribute changes to the code to have the IDE better serve them. See More

Top Con

Development has stalled dramatically

It went down from two releases a year with minor bug-fix releases to one release and no fixes. There seem to be fewer features added per release as well. There is no activity in the plugin community. See More

Richelly Italo's Experience

It's very simple. See More

Specs

Multi Language Support:Yes

Top Pro

Frameworks support

Supports Symfony1, Symfony2,Yii2 & Zend frameworks. See More

Top Con

Slows down occasionally

The Netbeans IDE is known to take a large memory as compared to other lighter IDE's available on the market. Slowdowns can decrease productivity and cause frustration. See More

Top Pro

FTP/SFTP synchronization

Supports synchronization with projects stored remotely through FTP or SFTP. See More

Top Pro

Best for PHP, HTML5 apps development

Top Pro

PHPstan support

Supports static code analysis with phpstan. See More

Top Pro

Nette framework support

Built-in nette framework support. See More

Top Pro

Supports community plugins

NetBeans can be extended beyond the basic tool that you get out of the box through community made custom plugins. See More

Top Pro

Composer commands inside IDE

The most used composer commands can be done directly from IDE. See More

Top Pro

Git commits/local diff comparison is best

Top Pro

Supports Twig templates

NetBeans provides code completion and documentation for all Twig elements. See More

Top Pro

PHPUnit support

PHPUnit is a testing framework. You can create test classes, run and see the code coverage directly from IDE interface. See More

See All

score 2 · Answer 4

SpaceVim

Top Pro

Hundreds of packages nicely organized in configuration layers

Specs

Supported platforms:Windows; macOS; Linux

Top Pro

Beautiful GUI

Top Pro

Mnemonic key bindings

See All

What are the best IDE for PHP?

4 Options Considered

PhpStorm

My Recommendation for PhpStorm

My Recommendation for PhpStorm

PHPDoc support

Resource exhaustive

Built-in debugger

Pricey

Code Refactoring

Proprietary

Lots of plugins

Bloated

Inspections of all kinds

Intelligent code completion

Supports various PHP frameworks

Has built-in console and SSH clients

Templating support

Excellent search tools

Database view

Auto-sync with remote folders

Task/Context functionality

Emmet integrated

Regular updates for fixes and new features

Integrated Vagrant support

Responsive core developers

Integrated Git GUI support

Plugins allow futureproofing and customization

Phar package recognition

External command support

It comes with Testing RESTful Web Services

Zero latency typing

VS Code

My Recommendation for VS Code

My Recommendation for VS Code

Cross platform

Electron

Fast

A bit barebones at times

Lots of Addons

Ease of use

NetBeans

My Recommendation for NetBeans

My Recommendation for NetBeans

Free, open source, and cross-platform

Development has stalled dramatically

Frameworks support

Slows down occasionally

FTP/SFTP synchronization

Best for PHP, HTML5 apps development

PHPstan support

Nette framework support

Supports community plugins

Composer commands inside IDE

Git commits/local diff comparison is best

Supports Twig templates

PHPUnit support

SpaceVim

My Recommendation for SpaceVim

My Recommendation for SpaceVim

Hundreds of packages nicely organized in configuration layers

Beautiful GUI

Mnemonic key bindings

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