Last week we looked at 22 Neat Editors for Windows. But sometimes, a code editor simply isn’t enough, especially when you’re working with things like databases and classes. Which IDE will you prefer? Hopefully you’ll find it below!
Instead of sticking with Windows applications, I’ve opened it up to all three major platforms: Windows, Mac, and Linux. There are a few IDEs here that will only run on one OS, but you’ll find that most have a version for all three.
Windows IDEs
Visual Web Developer
- Free
Visual Web Developer is basically a stripped down version of Visual Studio, with only the web development tools in place. It has the same great project management and database tools that VS has, only it costs $299 less. This app is aimed at beginners, so you can get starter kits along with it, and there’s a great Beginning Developer Learning Center online.
phpDesigner
- 75€ (~$105)
www.phpeditors.com gave phpDesigner a 5 star rating, saying it was a “super fast PHP IDE with many features.” To back this up, phpDesigner offers support for PHP debugging and profiling; It also supports all standard web languages, and offers TortoiseSVN support, and live error detection for PHP, HTML, and CSS. A code snippets library and built-in PHP manual for beginners only sweeten this pot.
PHPEdit
- 179€ (~$248)
PHPEdit is a pretty good PHP IDE; it offers the debugging (even a Firefox debugging plug-in) and database support (easy query building and data visualizing) that you would expect, along with time-saving keyboard templates that allow you to quickly set up your PHP code structure. With PHPEdit, it’s pretty easy to connect to a server and use all the features, including auto-suggestion and -completion, with remote files: PHPEdit takes care of all the downloading and uploading for you.
Visual Studio 2008
- $299 (Standard Edition)
Visual Studio is basically the industry standard for writing .NET code, but it’s also good for web development. It’s strong point is ASP .NET (obviously), but it’s pretty good with traditional web languages, offering extensive “IntelliSense” (code completion) for HTML, CSS and JavaScript. There’s no native PHP support, but there is a plug-in of sorts that can add it (Rumour has it that VS 2010 will support PHP). The code debugger is amazing if you’re using ASP .NET, and now you can debug JavaScript as well. Visual Studio has so many more powerful features; it’s a good product for anyone who uses ASP .NET.
Expression Web
- $299
Expression Web is a pretty neat application. It offers tons of CSS support, turning creating and applying your styles into a graphical experience. Of course, if you prefer writing code, it has the IntelliSense of Visual Studio for CSS, as well as HTML. As you’d expect, there is ASP.NET support, but there’s also PHP support. Another neat feature: Expression Web takes note of which doctype you’re using and lets you know if you’re not keeping the rules; it’s basically built-in, real-time (X)HTML validation.
Bonus: Recently, Microsoft came out with Expression Web SuperPreview, a tool that helps you preveiw your websites in multiple versions of Internet Explorer without having to install them all. You can check out your site in IE6, IE8 or IE8 in compatibility mode, or you can compare a live site to an image. The neatest part is that you can overlay two versions to see inconsistencies.
PhpEd
- $299
PhpEd comes with built in PHP, HTML, and CSS validators. It has code completion for those languages as well; and of course, there’s PHP debugging and profiling. PhpEd has one innovative feature that I haven’t seen before: dynamic syntax highlighting. Imagine a scenario where you have multiple languages in the same file (not really plausible coding, but understandable with HTML and PHP at least): if dynamic syntax highlighting is on, only the language your cursor is on with be highlighted; all the other code will appear as normal text.
Mac IDEs
Coda
- $99
Coda may be the best IDE for the Mac, and it’s one of the few IDEs created with the sole intent of web development. Its concept of sites is pretty neat, and you can remotely edit files on almost any server. With the ability to collaborate on file with anyone in the world, and a clips repository for frequently typed snippets, Coda really looks promising. By the time you have a Javascript console, Dom inspector, CSS editor, and built-in terminal, you’re looking at an application that would make me consider switching to a Mac.
CSSEdit
- 59.95€ (~$78)
An IDE for CSS? That’s right, and an amazingly slick one at that. With built in validation, “Milestones” (Code versioning), and a really neat selector builder, writing CSS is a snap with CSSEdit. And then there are tools that let you inspect other websites to see how it’s done. This tool is great for both CSS newbies and veterans.
Linux IDEs
BlueFish
- Free
Bluefish aims to be a light and clean IDE for linux users. It offers project support, as well as the ability to access remote files on almost any server. It has very robust search and replace, code completion for HTML and XML, and a function reference browser for PHP, CSS, Python, and HTML.
Integrate external programs such as make, lint, weblint, xmllint, tidy, javac, or your own program or script to handle advanced text processing or error detection. Integrate external filters of your liking, pipe your document (or just the current selected text) through sort, sed, awk or any custom script.
Windows and Mac IDEs
Dreamweaver CS4
- $399
For those who love the other Creative Suite applications, Adobe’s Dreamweaver will be perfect; it integrates very well with PhotoShop. It’s a great editor for JavaScript, offering code hints and JS framework integration. It offers interesting CSS support: you create CSS rules and Dreamweaver explains how it will fit in with other rules. Then, Live View enables you to preview your coding without leaving the program. Dreamweaver may also win the asthetic beauty contest in today’s roundup . . . at least for Windows!
Windows, Mac, & Linux IDEs
Eclipse
- Free
Eclipse is a very powerful IDE, that can do almost all things programming through its plugins. I downloaded Eclipse with the PHP Development Tools, which may be a good idea if you don’t already have Eclipse. This offers PHP debugging, as well as syntax highlighing and some code completion. Eclispe can also support JavaServer Pages, and using a CVS repository.
Aptana Studio
- Free
Aptana Studio could be described as Eclipse for web development only. It’s available as either a standalone app or as a plug-in for Eclipse, and it claims to be “The Leading IDE for Web App Development.”
With plug-ins, you can have support PHP, Ruby on Rails, Java, and more. It also has support for Libraries like jQuery, Prototype, YUI, and others, making your development process easier. SQL database tools, JavaScript debugging, it’s all there; the only thing I dislike about Aptana is that it takes forever to open on my computer; no, it’s not the computer: I can open two instances of Visual Studio in the time it takes Aptana to open. Aptana (the company) also offers hosting for your projects, so if you use that service, the IDE ties those services in perfectly.
Netbeans
- Free
This open-source IDE is a sweet deal: whether you’re developing in PHP, Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, or something else, you’ll find rich editing features, as well as support for FTP and MySQL. At least with PHP, it offers light on-the-go debugging, alerting you to errors as you type. Netbeans also has a nice code navigator, and offers code completion and integrated documentation for frameworks like jQuery and Mootools.
Nvu
- Free
Nvu (pronouced N-view for “a new view”) markets itself as a free alternative to programs like Dreamweaver and Expression Web. It’s aimed at beginners and offers a strong WYSIWYG editor, but you can definitely hand-code. For advanced users, Nvu can be extended with “a dash of JavaScript.”
Spket IDE
- $29.90 (free for non-commercial use)
Spket claims to be especially for RIA development. It offers code completion for Javascript and Flex, not to mention support for a number of JavaScript libraries. It has a content outline view that will let you examine the logical structure of your scripts. It also includes features for Silverlight development, including XAML completion and code completion for JavaScript based on the Silverlight Object Model. Then, there’s support for SVG and XUL.
IntlliJ IDEA
- $249 (Personal Edition)
Although IntelliJ IDEA is primarily aimed at Java developers, it has support for a lot of technologies used on the web, from HTML to JavaScript, Flex, and SQL. It offers JavaScript debugging and refactoring, as well as code completion and a structure view. Similar features are available for Flex developers as well. For (X)HTML, IntelliJ IDEA has code inspection that will alert you to browser compatibility errors, and apparently even direct you to a www.quirksmode.org bug report for more information.
Komodo IDE
- $295
Komodo IDE is a made especially for “dynamic languages and open technologies.” Besides the standard web languages—HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, and so on—it also supports Ruby, python, Tcl, and more. It’s got a solid editor, with code tips and a bit of auto-completion. The debugger works well, and the program is extensible; there’s even a pretty neat snippets feature that helps you keep your code well documented and a regular expression tester.
Note: I overlooked Komodo IDE’s free little sister, Komodo Edit in last week’s roundup. This was unintentional, as I hadn’t really seen it before. From the comments and what I’ve seen, it looks like a pretty good code editor, so I’m going to have to check it out!
Zend Studio
- $399
Zend Studio is an Eclipse plug-in, but it’s really an IDE in itself. It’s aimed mainly at PHP development (with an obvious focus on the Zend Framework), and it’s got a ton of features. It offers real time error detection, and plenty of database support, (S)FTP, local and server debugging, code refactoring, and source code control options . Of course, it also supports JavaScript and HTML with syntax highlighting and code assist.
Extra
While researching for this article, I found an interesting article: “Seven great PHP IDEs compared“; although the main part of the article looks at a few PHP IDEs, I found the section “What is an IDE?” rather interesting.
That’s It!
Like last week, I might have left out your favourite IDEs. If I did, let me know! If not, which IDE do you use?
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yep thats really great for us, who using Linux for official work in office due to security reason, thanks buddy…
Casper
Nice post, Netbeans is my personal favorite.
I’m now using Eclipse and satisfy with this. Before, I used Aptana, Komodo, NetBeans, but I don’t like them very much.
I switch between Coda and Espresso. Espresso has a few really nice features, like code folding and the element list highlights the whole element including any text, making it easier to comment out parts for testing/debugging, which I prefer over Coda’s way of doing it, which just puts the cursor at the beginning of the element. I like Coda’s ability to split windows though (not sure if that’s possible in Espresso as documentation/tutorials are a little thin on the ground right now.).
If I could merge them I’d have my ideal IDE.
Where’s the love for Flux 2 by theescapers?
The best one in the list which covers pretty much every one of the top 10 or so languages is Eclipse. C#, PHP, Python, HTML/JS/CSS, Ruby on Rails, Java, C/C++, Hakell, etc… You just simply need to download the plugin which can be done within Eclipse.
Like Aptana for front-end, PHP, Ruby on Rails or Rails development? Just download it’s Eclipse plugin. You ask, “well hey, why would I download the plugin when I can just download the stand-alone?”. Simple, because you lose most of the ability to extend it as much as you would with Eclipse because it cuts out key dependencies most plugins need.
Although, yes it is hefty and the interface can feel a little clunky at times, but IDEs are supposed to be because they integrate many apps to provide a unified development interface.
Regardless, what is best for some in not best for all. But that’s my $0.02…
Coda is the only answer here..
…another great tool for windows (perhaps not a full blown IDE) is WeBuilder http://www.blumentals.net/webuilder/
Yes it is a full blown IDE, and I use it ever since I startet developing with PHP.
The NVU screen shot does NOT show NVU but a newer version of Bluefish. The Bluefish screen shot shows an old version. And, like some others already said, the display manager which is responsible to draw the GUI elements on a Linux desktop is quite ugly. Bluefish on a KDE desktop looks much better.
great article, still don’t know for sure what an “IDE” is, have no idea what those letters stand for.
perhaps someone can explain.
Al
Sorry about that! IDE stands for “Integrated Development Environment.” For more information, you can check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_development_environment
thanks Andrew
Al
Hi,
one question…
Can I Use Coda with 1 License on more than 1 Mac? My iMac and my MacBook for example.
I think you can. One of the guys from Panic did a talk about Coda, and he said that they monitor serial keys, so they don’t mind if you register a couple of times, but if one serial starts going crazy they block it…
Hi,
you left out Zend Studio 5.5 which is also very popular due to projects, remove projects support, db, svn, debuging etc.
No love for FlashDevelop? http://www.flashdevelop.org/
I started using it because it’s far superior to the Flash IDE when it comes to writing ActionScript but it’s also good for writing (X)HTML, CSS, JavaScript and XML with useful features like auto-completion and syntax highlighting etc. Most days I don’t need to open any other editor to get my work done!
Windows-only but it’s free and open source, which is nice.
Do you know Slickedit? Very nice and powerfull IDE. Maybe in a futur selection.
I use BlueFish – it’s great!
Love the post.
Polls section would be great.
My favorite “IDE” , book, magazine ….
HD
How about Webuilder2008? That’s what I’m using and I think its positively awesome.
For PHP development i found phpDesigner the best IDE on windows. But for complete wed development PHP,CSS, Javascript etc Netbeans is the best of all.
Since I switched to the mac a few months ago, I’ve been using netbeans. I like most things about netbeans, but the only reason I keep looking for alternatives is because I find that netbeans consumes a great deal of memory (usually over 250MB in my case).
On windows I settled for a great PHP editor called PSPad (http://www.pspad.com). PSPad uses less than 30MB of memory and it has code completion, object navigator and many other nice features. Best of all, it’s FREE. If I can find something like PSPad for the mac, I would be very happy.
If I use Mac I go for Coda, But I am using PC, so dreamweaver is the best
It supports CSS, PHP, JS, FTB, which I use often, and it has the slickest and most customizable UI in the PC software market.
VS.Php is a great PHP editor for Windows. It extends Visual Studio to do PHP development.
http://www.jcxsoftware.com/
IntelliJ Idea is probably the best Java IDE out there unfortantely its pricy, Net Beans can be a free alternative because it adopted many of Ideas features. For .NET developers I can advice ReSharper plugin (made by same company as Idea), which is a port of many of Ideas features to .Net platform
Thanks for your posting & greetings from Germany.
so far, Coda serve me enough of everything.
I love NetBeans, but i guess it could be faster (and thus better) as it could be a standalone application instead of running under java virtual machine.
Komodo is my favortie ide, but I do use geany because it’s quick to load for qucik edits, and it is available on all platforms. Nvu is cross platform and it’s brother kompoZer http://kompozer.sourceforge.net/ but I wouldn’t call either one an “ide” like komodo eclipse or aptana, if that’s the case you need to start adding coffeecup html and hot dog, 2 of the probably oldest web development environements around today still. I think I started editing html on hot dog 1.0
after all we are talking nettuts not just php or js development….
nice and interresting article, man.
allthough i have to say comparing vs2008 with phped and eclipse with nvu is kinda… there are worlds between them…
Macrabbit CSSEdit 2 is only 29.95€ (about $42 US currently). Nice article however! Seeing some apps I used while I was completely on the Linux platform, although I now develop on Mac as well.
netbeans is the best IDE for mac. Take a look at the nightly built.
coda is to expensive
To be honest, look at some of the others. $99 is not that much compared to several hundred especially when it’s a great program which is updated frequently and has such great features that you could spend much more money on to get in a mixture of different programs.
I agree.
I meant that I agree with Isaac…
$99 isn’t very much if it saves you time and you are making money doing web design.
Surprised not to see JEdit (http://www.jedit.org) in there. I’ve used it for years and keep coming back to it after I try other things. It always used to be highly regarded. Doesn’t seem to be a great deal of activity with it at the moment, though.
Thanks !! I just learn the difference between text editor and IDE.
I’ve been looking for cross platform IDEs. This is a great article.
Keep em coming.
I use bluefish on linux and I like it. But when I need something really hard, then I use Scite.
I am coding almost exclusively in Netbeans (Mac user). Its really hard to switch over to differnet IDE after you get used to it.
I like app based on Eclipse like netbean, flex builder and etc but the thing that make me dont like is the update is to slow(very slow) for all app that based on Eclipse
I’m used Komodo IDE for free, rarely tsWebEditor and sometimes if I need to do it quickly (without any start-ups process) I’ll used Notepad Plus-Plus or Notepad (yes I know it isn’t an IDE at all
).
Eclipse or Netbeans? I don’t know why, but I really dislike any JAVA IDE. It load slowly in my laptop; even if I really like tons of features that offered by them.
Komodo IDE is not a Free Editor, Komodo Editor is the one Free…..
have more read….
http://blog.eyoosuf.com/resources/best-php-ide-and-editors-to-boost-up-your-day-to-day-coding/
I tried already a bunch. All of them have great details, but too many lacks.
After all, I have to say that Visual Studio is the most complete option. But not perfect. I hope the 2010 version brings support to PHP, thats the only thing I miss.
I tried Codelobster PHP Edition and now I work in it.
It’s the best IDE if taken all round. Besides of standard highlighting and autocomplete for РНР, HTML, CSS and JavaScript it has pair tag highlighting, easy navigation through tags, preview in all browsers, hot keys for marking tags’ content, attributes and its value.
Tolltips for images in code should be also noted, as the ability of navigation through the links with Ctrl-key holding.
It also includes special HTML code inspector, that allows to compare visible element with the lines of code, that are in charge of it (as in FireBug).
There also are plug-ins for Drupal, Joomla, WordPress, Smarty and JQuery.