Web Development Tools

Web development is changing so rapidly that it is becoming increasingly important for web developers to stay on their toes, especially when it comes to learning new techniques and programming languages. This is especially important for those who would like to develop websites that attract a large amount of traffic. It is important to know what you need in order to adapt to the changes that occur every day. Web developers’ today focus on being more productive, and having the knowledge of some incredible web development tools in use will help a lot in achieving their goals. These will also keep you informed, and help you become the kind of developer needed in these modern times:

1. Web application frameworks

Web application frameworks
These software are specifically designed to aid in web development, and to make the process of creating websites easier for web developers. The software offers full support for web services, web resources and web APIs. These frameworks are important as they automate some of the processes that are associated with common activities in web development, making work much easier for web developers. Some of the available web development frameworks are ASP.NET, JavaEE, WebObjects, web2py, OpenACS, among others.

2. Collaboration tools

Collaboration Tools
For teams that work remotely, there is always a need to stay in touch, to collaborate and become more productive. There are various tools available that could help a team of developers working on the same project to streamline their development workflow to achieve the set goals as a team. Some of these tools include Slack, Trello, Asana, Jira among others.

3. Local Dev Environments

Local Dev Environments
A quick local dev environment may be launched depending on the operating system or computer you are using. There are a variety of free utilities that package Apache, MySQL and others together. This is the fastest way to test something on your local computer. Some of these utilities have portable versions for convenience. Local Dev environments include MAMP, Laragon, XAMPP, and Vagrant among others.

4. Frontend frameworks

Frontend Frameworks
These are basically a package of files and folders like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript among others. Frontend frameworks usually have ready components, which a developer can use when working on his projects. Most of these components can easily be modified and adjusted to fit the current needs of the developer. The most common front-end framework is Bootstrap.

5. Icons

Icons
These are important for web developers, especially front-end developers because they form a crucial part of web development. There are a number of icons that you can use for your projects, and most of them are free. Examples of icons are Font Awesome, Icon Monster, Icons8, IconFinder among others.

6. Website speed test tools

Website Speed Test Tools
Website speed is an important factor that greatly determines its success. Websites that load faster are preferred by the majority of internet users. In addition, they can get a higher SEO ranking, which might lead to higher conversion rates and improve user experience. There are many tools that web developers can use to test for their website speed to ensure that their websites have short loading times at all times. Some of these tools are website speed test, WebPage Test, Pingdom, etc.

7. Diff Checkers

Diff Checkers
These are important because they help web developers to compare the differences between files and combine the changes that have been made. You can do this from CLI, though it is also good to see a visual arrangement. Examples in this category include Diffcheker and Beyond Compare.

8. Databases

Databases
A database is basically a collection of information that has been stored so that it can be retrieved, managed and even updated from time to time. Some of the databases available for web developers include MySQL, MariaDB, MongoDB, Redis among others.

9. Web development newsletters

Web Development Newsletters
Why take out a newsletter subscription when you can take advantage of these tools to save on time and energy. The tools pick the best web development and performance topics so you will not have to do it yourself.

10. Task runners and package managers

Task runners and package managers
These are crucial because they help automate your workflow. For instance, you can create a task and then automate the minification of JavaScript. You can also build and combine tasks to help speed up development time using task managers.

On the other hand, package managers are important because they keep a track of all the packages that you use in order to ensure that they are up to date, and that they are of the specific version that you need. Examples are Grunt, Gulp, npm, among others.

11 . Text and Code editors

Text and Code editors
These serve as great time savers. They can help you to greatly increase your speed and take charge of your web development. These tools make the web developer more efficient when taking notes or writing a markdown. Some amazing editors areAtom, Notepad++, Vim, Brackets among others.

12. Inspiration

Inspiration
Inspiration is something that everyone needs at one time or another, web developers included. One of the things that web developers can do is to check out what other developers are doing as a source of your inspiration. You get inspired in the end and you can learn new ides to use on your next projects. What you need are tools like CodePen and Dribble.

13. Languages

Languages
There is a programming language behind every web development tool. Programming languages are designed to be a bridge between developers and programmers and computers, and help programmers create the programs that we use every day. Some of the most popular programming languages include PHP, NodeJS, Python, Ruby among others.

14. Code sharing/ experimenting tools

Code sharing - experimenting tools
Sometimes you need help with coding and it always helps to have someone else cross check your work, in case there are more efficient ways to write the program. During this time, code sharing platforms help. The benefits of code sharing are indescribable, especially when you use platforms such as Slack.

15. GIT clients

Git Client
This is a source code management system that can be used for software and web development for revision control. It is useful for developers working in a team to avoid chaos and ensure that things are tested to that your website is working properly while it is live.

Web development tools are everything that you need for successful web development. Therefore, knowing some of the best tools that are available to you is good as it will ensure the ease of your web development.