There are many many different areas web developers need to cover. First you need to find the perfect text editor, set up a local environment, find a database management tool and then find a great FTP application. And for many of us out there freelancing, we have less of a budget to work with. So here's 10 cheap or free web development tools for Windows and OS X.
Code Editing
TextMate
TextMate is my personal favourite. It is a text editor but has some essential functionality such as line numbers, code highlighting, bundles for completing repetitive tasks and a neat project draw. The project draw deserves a special mention; when you open a folder or create a project in TextMate you get a neat project draw with all the files and folders listed inside. This has to be my favourite feature of TextMate since it is so easy to see all the files in my projects, I never lose anything. At only €48.75 and 15% off if you're a student, it's a tidy sum for a powerful application.
Espresso
Espresso, the new web development tool for OS X is currently in public beta, but is available for pre-order for €59.95. Espresso has a neat sidebar which shows all files and folders clearly with indenting of folders. There is also a sweet integrated preview, which makes it easier to preview sites as you only need to switch inside the application. The best thing about Espresso though is uploading to a site. There are 3 tools, update, merge and mirror. "Update" uploads all the files you have changed locally to the live server; "Merge" merges the files locally and on the server; and "Mirrors" mirrors everything on the server to your local disk and vice versa. This would be the selling point for me, and when Espresso comes out of Beta I may just buy a license.
Notepad++
Notepad++ is a text editor for Windows that comes with code highlighting features and line numbers, much like TextMate. You can open multiple files in one window with tabs, there's a save all function allowing you to save all the open documents in one click. Notepad++ is free and open source, meaning you can dig deep into the files and see what's happening, if you wanted to.
PHP Designer
PHP Designer is a brilliant tool that I could not live without on my Windows machine. It comes complete with code highlighting, line numbers, code exploration, code completion, live error detection, integration with the PHP manual and more. There is a free 21-day trial so you can try it out, and if you find it's the application for you, it's €69 (approx $87) commercially or @39 (approx $49) for personal use.
Local Server Environment
MAMP
If you're developing for the web on a mac, this application is a must. MAMP is a package which installs Apache, PHP and MySQL on your mac; best of all, it doesn't mess with the built in Apache configuration that comes with Leopard. I find this an indispensible application for a few reasons. First, it installs PHPMyAdmin which I love for many reasons; and second, it's quick to install. Just run the installer and you're done, no messing with the terminal like when you install each separately. The best bit? It's free. There is a paid version which gets you virtual hosts, dyndns and more.
Wampserver
Wampserver is just like MAMP in that it is a package by where running just one installer gets you PHP and MySQL and PHPMyAdmin on your system. This windows application is free and it runs great, has a number of configurations available and overall is a sound application to run a local environment.
XAMPP
XAMPP is a Windows, Linux and Mac OS X solution for running a local development environment. Prior to this article I hadn't known this, so it would be ideal for those of you who use more than one operating system on a regular basis. When I had a windows PC I used this and could not fault it at all.
Database Management
Sequel Pro
I have Sequel Pro on installed on my mac. It is a small and easy to use application once you get to grips with it. It has a sleek user interface and its in well with all my other OS X apps. The best part about Sequel Pro is that it's free, you can't complain about something if it's free, right? There is also a donate page which I encourage people to use if they use the app on a regular basis.
FTP
FileZilla
FileZilla is a free cross platform FTP solution. FilaZilla supports FTP, FTPS and SFTP and resume transferring large files bigger than 4 GB. You are able to configure the transfer speeds; and there is also a powerful site manager, especially useful if you have a number of websites with different FTP locations. FilaZilla also has a donate page which you can use if the application makes your life easier.
FireFTP
Ok, so not technically an application, it's what I use on my mac. FireFTP is by far the best FireFox addon I have installed, it gets used nearly every day and it copes well when uploaded a wordpress site. Best of all it's free! It supports SSL,TLS, and SFTP file compression, proxy support and file hashing amongst other things. As with Sequel Pro a donate page exists which I urge you to use if you use this app regularly, it helps the developers and half of the proceeds go to helps orphanages in Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina and in Vukovar, Croatia.
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User Comments
( ADD YOURS )Muhammad Adnan March 16th
fantastic apps !
( )great share ….
Manji March 16th
Hey, where is Coda?
( )Evan Lecklider March 16th
Seriously. Coda really is an excellent tool. I use it for the SVN integration and built-in terminal.
( )shane sponagle March 16th
I think Coda is too expensive for the shoestring developer
Danny Murphy March 16th
I agree coda is the all in one tool for ftp svn and handcoding working with both local and webserver files. I think it is one of the most used piece of software I own.
Derek Fernholz March 17th
Coda is too expensive? Espresso (when out) will be, €59.95, that’s close to $80USD. Coda is $99USD. Just saying. And for all it does and how well it does it, I’d say it is well worth the extra $20USD.
//my $.02
Alex McCabe March 16th
Awesome. I use xampp myself and have been looking for a replacement to filezilla. It’s annoying me. I will give that a try later. Thank you!
( )Neil Sweeney March 16th
skEdit (http://www.skti.org/skedit/) is a great tool I use for writing code. It allows you to work locally and remotely on (S)FTP and has a lot of great features for $35.
( )Gaya March 16th
I use Eclipse as my PHP IDE. Works nice if you use PDT.
( )Not as lightweight, but it has nice plugins, like RSE for Remote System development.
David Singer March 16th
You might want to try Aptana. Its Eclipse based but I think it has an edge over PDT. I used to use PDT.
( )Pablo March 16th
Eclipse and Netbeans are great for Webdevelopment. Both are free!
If you are into desktop development, I recommend an IDE for C++ called Qt. It was developed by Nokia. The code created by Qt is portable to any platform.
ec March 17th
I agree, Aptana is a great IDE / plugin for Eclipse. I use it for PHP development, and I used to write Java in Eclipse. It has clear advantages over the standard PDT with plugins.
crysfel March 17th
i use MyEclipse and i love it!! im a java developer and myeclipse works good
( )insic March 16th
NetBeans 6.5, WAMP, WinSCP / FireFTP this three is my buddies.
( )Meshach March 16th
I use
Komodo Edit 5, WAMP & FireFTP/FileZilla
( )w1sh March 16th
I use
Women, & Beat/Them.
GeoEgo March 19th
These are three of my favorites as well. Along with Notepad++, these are just about all that I use for development.
( )Alex Stomp March 25th
I use:
- Adobe Dreamweaver CS4
- XAMPP
- FireFTP
lowell April 22nd
uh oh. no version control?
( )Wayne Helpard March 16th
Never used most of them as I always develop ASP.NET web apps using Visual Studio but I might try Notepad++ for some upcoming stuff.
BTW, is there anyway to get WAMP Server 2.0 to run side by side with IIS 7 easily? I need both local development environments and I don’t really want to set up a second machine.
I was hoping for some switch to toggle each environment on and off.
( )adam March 16th
pretty sure you could just change the port apache runs on or the port IIS runs on.
( )Rob March 16th
I use IIS7 for old ClassicASP development and WAMP for my php work, they run side by side seamlessly, you shouldnt encounter any problems at all, just be sure to change your port number in the WAMP setup for localhost.
( )Fodor March 20th
In the xampp folder (c:\xampp\apache\conf) edit the httpd.conf file…
At the “Listen” part of the file there is a small guide how to take it on another port. I take it on 8081 (IIS is on 8080)..
I write this row:
Listen 8081
After i can reach xampp on http://127.0.0.1:8081/
( )Mark March 16th
a sql manager http://www.heidisql.com/
( )Fahmi March 16th
I use transmit for FTP. Its cool !
( )Brandon Martinez March 16th
What about Cyberduck? That’s hard to beat!
( )Braam March 16th
And besides that, it’s free. How’s that for a shoestring budget?
( )adrian March 23rd
Agreed. Cyberduck is my go to ftp client.
Daryn St. Pierre March 24th
Cyberduck is the best free Mac-based FTP app I’ve come across.. Nothing I’ve found beats it, except maybe Transmit (but Transmit is $29.95).
( )saurabh shah March 16th
notepad++ , FileZilla is my fav. .. nice list anyways….
( )Felipe Diesel March 16th
I like Filezilla, but I am using another FTP client: Cyberduck [http://cyberduck.ch/]. This software is more Mac friendly and is amazing.
( )Morten Najbjerg March 16th
Transmit for FTP – it’s cheap and it’s the best.
Komodo Edit is also a great open source underdog editor.
( )Patternhead March 16th
Notepad++ is my fav win editor. Heven’t tried PHP designer but might take a look at that. Thanks for sharing.
( )lowert March 16th
Awesome article! Thanks for posting
( )Kevin W March 16th
Does no one else use CuteFTP? I love it
( )Andy Gongea March 16th
An alternative to Wampserver is EasyPHP.
On the code side – Notepad++ rules
( )Derek Organ March 16th
Nice list.
One I defo recommend.
Editplus, supprised no one else mentioned it. In college everyone used it for all coding.
( )Chukki March 16th
What about Coda for OS X? It’s much better than espresso and textmate…more features and a much cleaner interface…
( )thejw23 March 16th
Windows:
community edition is freeware.
( )Database Management – SQLYog is PERFECT
Code Editing – PSPad is also very, very handy text editor.
Rob March 16th
For database management I would add HeidiSQL (formerly MySQL-Front) for Windows users. It is easily one of one of the best GUIs around for databases and it’s also free.
( )Martin Majling - 23psd.com March 16th
PSPad is hard programmer tool for fast development from Jan Fiala.
PSPad is metalanguage, with support many coding language, html, css, php, xml, c++, js and more .
PSPad is FREE and have more than 1 000 000 downloads and more awards from computer magazines…
its equivalent to TextMate on mac (but have more futures)
( )Martin Majling - 23psd.com March 16th
sorry the link is http://www.pspad.com/en/screenshot.htm
( )Thibaut De Saint Florent March 16th
What’s about coda ?
( )rafaelrrp March 16th
I use Text Mate and Mamp for mac!
( )Rick March 16th
Not just for developers on a shoestring. Really. Some of these apps mentioned are used by firms and big movers too so don’t let the title deceive you (especially for things like Textmate)
( )Adam Griffiths March 16th
Hey Rick,
When I wrote this I wasn’t trying to say that these are only for developers, just that they are useful, and cheap or free. I know these are used by desingers, especially the FTP apps. I know of many companies who use TextMate too, it’s just a great app.
Thanks.
( )guile March 16th
MAC : Coda (IDE)/ MAMP / Sequel Pro / Transmit (ftp)
( )PC : Notepad++ / XAMP / Filezilla (ftp)
Chris Simpson March 16th
seconded! good choices :]
also tried netbeans 6.5 recently for PC, which is winning me over.
( )SX March 16th
I already use all the windows programs mentioned. I can’t afford a mac. Your missing Linux programs which is free as in free coffee or tea in my case.
( )Sid March 16th
Try Aptana – makes it easy to sync your files between local and server. And if you’re into cloud stuff, their integrated cloud offering is quite interesting.
( )Isaac Gonzalez March 16th
I would recommend Aptana over Eclipse.
( )Martyn March 16th
Great list, I have used text mate and its a neat little program even though I tend to use Dreamweaver the majority of the time. I was wondering however, what is everyone’s preferred FTP? I have used Cyberduck but wondered if anyone prefers the ones above instead.
( )FiNeX March 16th
On GNU/Linux a great combo is using KDE apps like Kate (wonderful text editor) and konqueror (web browser, ftp client, file browser, all in one application). Those tools allows to develop and commit changes very quickly on FTP servers for example.
( )Kate can open/write remote files easily and the password management is done by the KDE enviroment itself.
Simon Zimmermann March 16th
What about linux options. imo you only list a dozen mac/win32 apps.
( )james March 16th
“There is also a donate page which I encourage people to sue if they use the app on a regular basis.”
THAT’S MEAN!
( )Jeff March 16th
What about Aptana? It has built-in FTP, SVN, iPhone, Adobe Air, great app. Oh yeah, it’s free too. You can buy the pro version if so inclined. We use this at our shop all day. Great app for PC, MAC and *NIX.
( )Timothy March 16th
When it comes to text editing I am a fan of SciTE.
( )freshapps March 16th
I really recommend jEdit – a multi-platform text editor. With plugins SVN, CVS, FTP, SSH, Tomcat … Support.
( )Wade Jackman March 16th
Great assortment.
I’d like to drop another vote for cyberduck.
( )Matt H March 16th
How could you leave out Coda?
http://www.panic.com/coda/
( )Mountain/\Ash March 16th
I agree; I use Coda for quick on-server edits and file transfers, but I still haven’t found any thing better than SkEdit for front-end development
( )michaelb March 16th
skedit and coda should make baby
Chukki March 16th
Coda, Coda, Coda!
It’s really the best…i use it at work and at home. I really love it…
( )flanders March 17th
CODA rocks! that is the best Editor on MAC
Marcio B D A March 16th
Me too: Notepad++ / XAMPP / Filezilla
( )naspinski March 16th
I think forgetting Visual Web Developer Express is a glaring ommission here, it is nearly as full featured as Visual Studio (in web mode) and completely free. It is a great html/css editor (arguably the best) and it is easily (along with VS) the best for Asp.Net applications.
Maybe it was forgotten because MS is not ‘cool’, but it is a superior tool and surely deserves to be on the list.
In addition, for MSSQL users, the Express version of SQL Management Studio is free and it is also an amazing tool for database interaction.
All Express (read: free) software is available here: http://www.microsoft.com/express/
( )mark March 16th
I agree with its easily one of the best enviroments and its free. The only problem is most of the hosting costs a little bit more but I think its worth it
( )Marc March 16th
Decent list. I have to admit I hate FireFTP though, SmartFTP seems the best I’ve used , well worth the tiny fee IMO.
I would also add that I prefer Wamp to Xampp, it seems to run far better on W7.
( )Charles Shada March 16th
If you’re a developer working on a MySQL based project, you may want to check out the MySQL GUI Tools over at:
http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/gui-tools/5.0.html
They’re free, powerful, available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, and are extremely handy. It includes the Query Browser, Administrator, and Migration Toolkit. You can also try out Workbench which is a great little visual database designer.
( )Charles Shada March 16th
Don’t forget about the MySQL GUI Tools for those working on a MySQL project. They’re free, powerful, available for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux, and are extremely handy. You can get them at:
http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/
It includes the Query Browser, Administrator, and Migration Toolkit. Plus they offer MySQL Workbench which is a nifty little visual database designer.
( )Nico March 16th
I use notepad++ and FireFTP, excellent tools!
( )Randy March 16th
Nice list. So much great free stuff out there from Xenocode(I use for Safari on pc), IE tester, Inkscape, Gimp…
Love my Notepad++
( )Al March 16th
I love WebDrive. Allows you to “mount” an ftp as a local drive on your computer
( )Markus March 16th
Is there any decent alternatives for Sequel Pro for Windows?
( )Rijalul Fikri March 16th
Why don’t anyone mention about appserv.
( )I myself use this for my webdevelopment. It includes PHP+MySQL+Apache.
dorian March 16th
xampp notepad++ cuteftp uTorrent
( )Taylor Satula March 16th
I don’t know why Flow FTP isn’t here
( )http://extendmac.com/flow/
Probably the best FTP out there.
Good looking too
Eric March 16th
Thanks for the list. I am trying out Sequel Pro now.
( )Sean Nieuwoudt March 16th
I have to admit, PHPDesigner is probably one of the best PHP IDE’s for windows.
Textmate is cool too
Sequel Pro is awesome!
( )Jem March 16th
SmartFTP is probably one of the most attractive and well built FTP clients I’ve used, but I’m a strong believer in not paying for general utilities like FTP clients …which is why I don’t use it!
Filezilla works just great.
Anyone on windows looking for a good editor should check out the windows equivalent for TextMate called e-texteditor.
( )Sarah March 16th
Have you tried CodeLobster PHP Edition ( http://www.codelobster.com/ ) its a free PHP IDE, complete with a debugger, code highlighting, autocomplete for PHP, HTML, CSS and SQL. The main program is free, with paid for options for various frameworks such as Drupal and wordpress.
Its so much more ligtweight than eclipse or Aptana.
( )Ben March 16th
Cool apps – but you might want to change the wording under the app Sequel Pro, it says: “There is also a donate page which I encourage people to sue if they use the app on a regular basis.” – shouldn’t that be “use” not “sue” ??
( )Sean March 16th
great article. thanks
( )Janckos March 16th
Excelente lista, gracias.
( )Mark Sanborn March 16th
Textmate is slow compared to Vim and you have to buy overpriced hardware to even use it…
Save yourself the money and develop in Linux,
http://www.nixtutor.com/linux/web-developing-in-linux/
( )celebrus March 18th
Vim is kinda hard to get used to. gedit, however, is very extensible, and can be extended into a very nice code editor.
( )Rodo March 16th
Emacs and Vim are available for Windows, Mac and Linux, and they’re both free!
( )Adam Griffiths March 16th
It’s great to see so many recommendations for applications. There are so many I just couldn’t put them all in, and tried to cater for both operating systems and the different categories.
I’m glad this has opened some of your eyes to new applications.
Thanks.
( )elysianChaos March 16th
Eclipse PDT/PSPAD/Filezilla
( )Jorge March 16th
I use Notepad++, Xampp(Wamp sometimes) and Filezilla, but i’m still trying to find an amazing code editor, not fully satisfied with N++.
( )Amy March 16th
I use MAMP and Coda at work as Im on a mac… and at home I use XXAMP and nusphere as I have windows there!
Nusphere is by far the best code editing program I have ever used… although I like coda’s simplicity.
( )Wicky March 16th
Hmmm, very surprised to Espresso but not Coda. Sponsored article?
I’ve used just about every editor I could get my hands on and reckon if Coda had code folding it would be the best thing out there for Mac’s.
I dunno, this seems like the same old stuff… and very incomplete.
( )Adam Griffiths March 16th
No this isn’t sponsored at all. These apps are in this list because they’re useful for developers with a small or no budget for their tools. I didn’t say it was an exhaustive list as that would be a bore to read. Just 10 simple and efficient tools for developers.
( )Nina Morena March 16th
I started off using FireFTP because of its placement in Firefox but I started using Filezilla because of the ftp server for one of my dedicated servers. I use it on both my Mac & PC.
Coda is pretty sweet considering it is not as robust as Dreamweaver.
Wamp is probably one of the best tools to have as a developer or anything comparable.
I’ll try Notepad ++ for Windows. I think I am stuck with Dreamweaver for the autotext and some of my script shortcuts.
Great read! I’ll share.
( )Bryan Kwon March 16th
I use TextMate, MAMP, FileZilla, and like others said, I have to say Coda is great as well as others that aren’t listed here..
( )Gavin March 16th
Big, big fan of FileZilla, best free Ftp Client out there
( )Amir March 16th
Notepad++ is fantastic editor *****
( )Stefan March 16th
Notepad++ and XAMPP
My favourites on Windows!
( )michael March 16th
my favs are Notepad++, sometimes aptana or dreamweaver cs3
php developer seems to be fine. i like the debuggin in aptana, it’s great.
( )Christian Molina March 16th
Notepad++ is my favorite
( )Shibs March 16th
OS X – Coda, MAMP, Sequel Pro (altho I’m looking for a better alternative I find it to be a bit buggy), FireFTP.
Windows – Notepad ++, WAMP, SQLYog, FireFTP.
( )Wicky March 16th
Somebody suggested SQLbuddy to me the other day, might be worth a look.
( )lowert March 16th
For programming, I use Coda, I think it’s the best tool to make a website easily.
( )Coda rules!
Ian B March 16th
I feel like I’ve seen 10 of these lists in the past week. All of them listed pretty much the same applications. Please NetTuts… don’t make yourself like every other blog and post these unoriginal lists.
( )rimanere March 16th
Notepad++ is my favorite editor. It comes with an FTP plugin “FTP_synchronizeA” that allows you to modify files on your server. You can also add code snippets to avoid typing repetitive text through a plugin called “Quick Text”; which you can download @
( )http://sourceforge.net/projects/quicktext/
AliasP March 16th
I’ve really come around to liking Notepad++ in the last month. I used to use Dreamweaver CS3. The greatest drawback to that was it loaded up a bit slow on my computer, and that I became dependent on the language libraries to fill in bits of code for me.
With Np++, it loads up lightning fast, allows for comparative side-by-side editing if I’m following a tutorial or mimicking a previous script or what have you, and it helps me to re-learn the languages the correct way.
As far as FTP, I’ve stuck with AceFTP3 Free for several years and don’t plan to change. I tried Filezilla for maybe a day and then uninstalled, just didn’t appeal to me.
For SQL Manager, I agree with previous posters that they actual MySQL GUI tools rock, as well as the use of the freeware Navicat Lite.
Cheers!
( )AliasP March 16th
Also, might I offer a suggestion to the Article Author or moderators to reword the Sequel Pro text? I really don’t think you want to encourage users to “sue” if they use the app on a regular basis. Though most of us may know what was meant, it’s still something that I’d recommend fixing.
– “There is also a donate page which I encourage people to sue if they use the app on a regular basis.” –
( )B. Ackles March 16th
lol…;)
Gerard March 16th
You have PHP Designer but not Eclipse PDT which is not only Free but Far superior.
( )Michael March 16th
Eclipse, Aptana, etc are all decent but they all run on Java – which is slow and absolute garbage.
( )Rigoberto P. March 17th
That wouldn’t be a fair or entirely accurate statement.
B. Ackles March 16th
Thanks for the tip on Sequel Pro.
Does anyone know about a Mac App as an abstraction for Amazon Web Services?
( )Rick March 16th
It’s nice to see phpDesigner get a mention, it’s got some of the best features around and mostly seems to go unnoticed.
I also throw up another vote for SmartFTP… especially it’s ‘Sync Navigation’ feature and queue support. It’s a shame they just changed their license
( )Michael March 16th
BBEdit, XAMPP and Transmit on my mac. TextWrangler is free and a great editor for most, I have a TextMate license and used to swear by it, but BBEdit won me back. Looking forward to TextMate 2.0 though.
( )Pachito86 March 16th
My setup on Llinux machine:
( )Aptana + Filezilla + Firefox with Firebug + XAMPP
Moksha Solutions March 16th
All App are PHP related, no help for asp.net or coldfusion
i think much of the post are here for PHP / Mysql no help for ASP.net programmers, only 1 Article for ASP.net
thanks for sharing
( )Pablo March 16th
I use Appserv to install a Wamp platform. It installs all that you need for PHP and MySQL development in just a few clicks.
Appserv includes: Apache, the PHP modules, MySQL and PHPmyAdmin. Add to that a tool like Netbeans and you are ready to rock!
( )Anton Agestam March 16th
This is great! I’ll bookmark this. (Y)
( )Tommy Brunn March 16th
Where are all the Linux applications, if I may ask? I tend to use gedit or Bluefish when developing in Linux, but there are dozens of other free applications out there.
( )SavvyFx March 16th
WinSCP definitely deserves a mention. It’s support of live editing with Notepad++ makes remote bug fixing a simple task.
( )John March 23rd
I use the same pair too. Recommended.
( )mufti March 16th
Nice list I use Appserve, filezila, sqlyog, zend studio
( )Tommy M March 16th
phpDesigner is BLOATED. Fillazilla is a horrible FTP program. It doesn’t auto refresh, and simple tasks such as overwriting is convoluted.
( )Jarryd March 16th
For those of you who like TextMate, e Text Editor is the windows equivilant. It’s brilliant: SVN, remote file editing, autocomplete, snippets, history, multiple highlighting etc.
Filezilla is a great FTP client. I’ve used others and they just don’t cut it for me, although I might see how FireFTP goes (Firefox already is slow enough
).
XAMPP > Wamp imo.
( )larowlan March 16th
I also recommend Komodo Edit from Active State. It runs on xul runner so should work on any platform supported by Firefox. Nice code highlighting, snippets, line numbers, folding. Best of all – its free
( )Dwainehead March 19th
I agree about Komodo edit, compaired to some of the others it’s got enough without trying to take care of the whole enchalada…..
I also use server2go on windows it let’s me keep my whole development on my flash stick and for a small donation the mac guys can get a copy…
( )paul March 16th
Hey I know this may not qualify as ’shoestring’ but does anyone actually use dreamweaver any more?
( )I abandoned a year ago. I used it when I first started out before I knew about php, jquery, wordpress (cms’s in general) and databases. Anyone here still using it?
Prabhjeet Singh March 16th
ok ! This is FANTASTIC article.
( )Tycho March 17th
I’m a real fan of using Smultron with Cyberduck as they play nicely together esp for remote editing, for large Projects I use Netbeans 6.5
And best of all, all three of them are Free.
( )Adrian Westlake March 17th
I have just transferred from JEdit to Notepad ++ and very impressed. I use Zend for more PHP projects, but it isnt great for CSS development. Aptana is OK, but a bit too heavyweight for most purposes.
( )Adrian Westlake March 17th
I use Dreamweaver only for HTML emails which have to be developed in old school tables. Dreamweaver is ideal for that. To be fair it is also a pretty good code editor, its just a shame you get all the other crap with it.
( )Jeraldo March 17th
Oh men… Too bad Sequel Pro is only for Mac. You guys know any good free database management tool for Windows. I have PhpMyAdmin but I use the command prompt and do CLI when I use MySQL I think its cool. Anyways, any recommendation guys?
( )Ryan Ellison March 17th
No one likes / uses Dreamweaver? LOL Wonder why….(sarcasm)
( )AliasP March 17th
Well personally, I like it mainly for the game of Pong it allows me to play.
( )Check it – http://www.eeggs.com/items/49730.html
Ammar Yousuf March 17th
How about some source control apps, like SVNx? I use that all the time and it’s great!
( )K March 17th
Somehow, “shoestring budget” and “on a mac” are pretty close to being an oxymoron in my book… but then again… so is Starbucks…
( )Steve Nelson March 17th
I’ve been exploring Zembly at http://www.zembly.com which is web-based social development environment for social applications.
( )Ruan Carlos March 17th
I prefer Eclipse PDT + Aptana for developer PHP.
( )And Management Studio for Sql Server
Emily March 17th
Didn’t see them mentioned above, but I like Arachnophilia for text editing and Fugu for FTP.
( )Rick March 17th
good list but I would like to see Coda on it
( )Ricardo March 18th
A list for those devs who look at the shoestring and think “Spaghetti diner”:
1. OS: Ubuntu
2. Code editing: Screem
3. Picture editing: Gimp
4. Vector editing: Inkscape
5. Video editing/conversion: Avidemux
6. Audio editing: Jokosher
7. Local server environment: Apache + PHP + MySQL
8. Database stuff: MySQL Navigator
9. FTP: Filezilla
10. Font stuff: Fontforge
What’s the best about this? It’s all free. It either comes with the OS preinstalled or is just a couple clicks away.
( )mufti March 18th
Anybody using vim?
( )Dave Woodward March 18th
If you’re on less than a shoestring budget, i.e. 0 budget, you might as well learn to use the command line. All of these tools and more are available to you for free.
My personal favorites are ssh, scp, and emacs. Most dynamic programming languages also come with interactive consoles now-days too. Add in some command line documentation lookup (like ri for ruby), and you don’t have to spend any money at all!
A warning: the command line does not have pretty gradients, and is pretty unfriendly to the mouse. But mice are for Photoshop (or Fireworks, or GIMP).
( )Emon March 19th
I use TextMate, FireFtp, MAMP @ Office as OSX leopard
( )and E-text Editor, FireFtp, WAMP @ home.
Biffy March 20th
Coda is awesome
Built in file browser, FTP support and SVN support
I’ve never found it easier to make websites – including large web applications
( )Kenneth Bryhl March 20th
Nice list
But im missing Coda (as said) and Transmit (live coding incl).
( )Edward de Leau March 25th
just the things I use after switching to different tools the past 20 years:
* multiedit for ALL my editing purposes, i like to right click a html tag and just click the parameters in but its also enterprise ready which comes in handy in all kinds of demanding projects
( )* total commander for ftp since it also does ftp next to file-compares. directory compares and a whole lot more
Mikayel March 27th
As a local server environment i’m using Denwer.ru . It’s russian package, and that might be the only minus for russian non-speaking fellows. What I like about this piece it’s a completely portable. You can have your server environment running from usb stick.
( )Mikayel March 27th
And forgot to say, it also allows to have multiple projects in an easy way. It automatically creates virtual hostnames for the project’s domain and sub-domains depending on file structure.
( )Pieter Vriesacker March 29th
The argumentaton of why textmate is good for example is so stupid that i didn’t bother reading the rest of the article, you can’t say you like textmate for it’s drawER, about every text editot has a sidebar with project files in it.
( )There’s so many other great features about the app.
adormitu April 5th
what about KomodoEdit? It has syntax highlight and code completion for almost any vastly used format out there (php, html, css, javascript, perl, python, etc)…
( )WORDPRESSGALA April 22nd
Eclipse is the best to develop in any language!
( )Carl - Web Courses Bangkok Instructor April 26th
These are some great tools, but I would like to have seen a good CSS editing tool…even something like Web Developer Toolbar for Firefox is a great addition to a developers toolbox.
( )Brandon April 27th
Going to add to the Coda train. Coda!!!!
( )Future IDE August 8th
Komodo Edit is an amazing Application, just hands down the best IDE on the market for web development, and free to boot. Don’t forget SQLYog on Windows side (every SQL GUI on OSX is awful in comparison) for MySQL development.
Filezilla has improved, probably the best free FTP client for OSX — be nice if a company developed a Dreamweaver style FTP client for OSX, but must be a difficult task if it hasn’t come to market after all these years…
Still, the perfect developer IDE I have yet to come across. If there was an IDE that provided multi-language auto-completion regardless of file type or whether or not one is typing within a string a la:
$var = “$some-other-var $yet-another-var”;
or
$sql = “SELECT * FROM table-name WHERE field-name = ‘$some-id’”;
an IDE that could do all that, auto-completing HTML, PHP (objects, variables, methods, etc.), and SQL (table names, column names, etc.), I would pay a couple grand for that, you’d be flying through your projects ;–))
( )Future IDE August 8th
seems to be stripping out the html from my $var example — point is a string with embedded anything, html, php, mysql, etc., all intelligently auto-completed
( )piker September 24th
XAMPP + PHP WebPage Edytor + FileZilla
now XAMPP + inType (snippets) + FireFTP
probably in future NetBeans 6.7
( )