When comparing phpDesigner vs CodeLite IDE, the Slant community recommends phpDesigner for most people. In the question“What are the best IDEs or editors for PHP?” phpDesigner is ranked 16th while CodeLite IDE is ranked 23rd. The most important reason people chose phpDesigner is:
phpDesigner checks for errors as code is written showing the actual PHP error messges. Code does not need to be run to find missing braces or semicolons.
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Pros
Pro Live error checking
phpDesigner checks for errors as code is written showing the actual PHP error messges. Code does not need to be run to find missing braces or semicolons.
Pro Xdebug support
Xdebug is a PHP extension that adds debugging and profiling capabilities.
Pro Has a free 30-day trial
Pro PHP & JS frameworks support
Includes support for PHP frameworks such as Zend, CodeIgniter, Yii and Symfony and JavaScript libraries such as jQuery, ExtJS, Yui, Dojo. MooTools and Prototype.
Pro Git and SVN integration
Pro Advanced support for all popular framework
Including Laravel, WordPress, Drupal, jQuery, Bootstrap and so on
Pro Modest memory footprint
CodeLite takes up about 50 MB when loaded into memory with a workspace opened.
Pro Open source and free
CodeLite is licensed under GPL with source code available on GitHub.
Pro Extensive plugin support
Git, SFTP, Subversion, and many more plugins are fully supported in CodeLite IDE.
Pro Rapid development cycle
CodeLite is actively developed with activity almost daily on Github.
Pro Workspace view reminiscent of File Explorer
The workspace view, unlike other IDEs, is a reflection of the actual directory structure on the file system (with user filters applied).
Pro Excellent Node.js debugger
This makes fixing issues more efficiently and debugging code less painful.
Pro Intelligent code completion
Cons
Con Not free
Not free!
Con SFTP support is somewhat lacking
Socket timeouts aren't handled well and sometimes result in an inability to save remote work.
Con Small development team
The development team consists of one person, Michael Pham, and further development relies solely on his continued interest in the project.
Con Bland UI
The UI is fairly boring and has limited customization options. There is a dark theme available; however it only applies to the editor. The surrounding windows and borders remain light. You can see a collection of screenshots here.