With this list of 10 best web development blogs, with a treat of best YouTube channels and podcasts, you’ll be able to stay up to date with the latest web standards on all fronts — front end, back end, as well as UX/UI design, and every other branch pertaining to the web development services.

Your experience doesn’t matter; if you’re a code newbie looking for new skills or you’re a veteran in the coding world looking for latest news, new standards or solutions to unconventional problems, this list is still for you. And even if you’re neither, and you simply want to discover all the things web development is about, stay on this page and read on!

Top 9 blogs for web developers.

1. A List Apart

Main Topics: Code, Content, Design, Industry & Business, Process, User Experience

Audience: Front end Developers, Project Managers, UX/UI Designers, Graphic Designers, Content Creators

A List Apart is a webzine that’s been active for 23 years now, with a focus on web design and development, web content and its meaning, best practices and standards of modern web. Most of the content consists of opinion articles, ranging from future trends to environmental impact of IT and career advice. That’s why this site is wonderful for people who are not involved directly with web development — they can prepare themselves for better teamwork, understand common practices and be able to spot frauds during recruitment.

The articles are of the highest quality. They do invite writers to submit their pieces, but they’re all diligently checked over, reviewed, and edited. It’s not easy to submit a guest post, but they promise that it’s very rewarding. So you can expect to find articles from other IT professionals, keen on sharing their coding expertise.

A List Apart doesn’t stop at blogging. They also organise An Event Apart, a conference in San Francisco (which you can also join online) that’s known for being informative, educational, as well as inspirational. For some, it’s an event you can’t miss, especially since the invited speakers are well–known industry leaders.

And if you’re looking for knowledge condensed in one place, check out their book: A Book Apart, for those who design, write, and code. 

2. Codrops

Main Topics: Tutorials, Resources, Code, Design, User Experience

Audience: Front end Developers, UX/UI Designers

Codrops is a fantastic source for front end developers, full of inspiration, useful tutorials, free resources that we all love, and articles with practical advice.

Their tutorials are long and comprehensive, and easy to follow through. They have plenty of embedded images, experimental videos, and lines of code shown in action. So if you want to learn fancy tricks, from creating infinite circular galleries to kinetic typography and glitch effects, this is your go–to site. Just like when you need inspiration: Codrops regularly posts Inspirational Websites Roundup, UI Interactions & Animations Roundup, and many others to spark your creativity.

If you’re not experienced enough to jump straight into tutorials and want to start with the CSS basics, there’s a CSS Reference library with the most important properties and information for you. All for free!

And if you want to know what’s happening in the tech world, check out their Collective, bundles of posts highlighting the latest news and resources.

For non–coding people, it’s a good site to see what can be done, and what the possibilities are.

3. CSS Author 

Main Topics: Resources, Design, Content, User Experience

Audience: Front end Developers, UX/UI Designers, Graphic Designers, Content Creators

CSS Author is a front end coding blog that’s a goldmine of resources for web developers and web designers alike, with occasional publications useful for graphic designers and content writers as well. It has a staggering amount of “freebies”: you can find mockups, icons, and templates for WordPress and CMS, such as Magento or Drupal, etc. They’re all available for personal and commercial use.

This site acts as a good place to find free libraries, plugins, bootstraps, and tools for developers working with HTML, CSS, Java Script, jQuery, PHP.

4. CSS–Tricks 

Main Topics: Tutorials, Resources, Code, User Experience

Audience: Front end Developers, UX/UI Designers

CSS–Tricks is a site you can count on to be constantly posting, sometimes even several times a day. They focus on CSS, HTML, and Java Script in the form of tutorials, guides, tricks, and articles. They range from animation, typography, accessibility, web performance, serverless, and many more. And if you’d rather watch a video than read — there’s more than 200 video posts to choose from.

When it comes to resources, there’s an Almanac with CSS Selectors and CSS Properties with lots of examples and demos. If you’d like some concrete knowledge in one place, the author of the site, Chris Coyier, has two books that are available to MVP Supporters.

5. David Walsh

Main Topics: Tips and Guides, Code, Mobile Development, User Experience

Audience: Full–Stack Developers, UX/UI Designers, Content Creators

David Walsh is a personal blog, run by a professional senior full stack engineer

working for MetaMask, who also used to work for Mozilla for eight years. So you can be sure that the guy knows what he’s talking about.

Besides tips and guides mostly on JavaScript (React, Node.js, jQuery), HTML5, CSS3, you can also find sneak peeks into a life in a web development industry, some career advice, and even interviews with other experienced developers. He’s a firm believer that practice triumphs over theory, and that experiments are a worthy pursuit. This approach has resulted in almost 83,000 followers on Twitter.

If you want to discover what a successful web developer needs to make an impact, following David’s blog is a good choice. Especially since new articles just keep on coming, even though the blog has been up for more than a decade.

There’s also some advice on technical SEO, so Content Creators should definitely take a closer look.

6. Dev.to

Main Topics: Tutorials, Code, Graphic Design, Content, User Experience, Industry & Business, Career Advice

Audience: Full–Stack Developers, UX/UI Designers, Graphic Designers, Content Creators, Project Managers

Dev.to isn’t really a blog and more of a community of software developers, but we couldn’t not mention it.

On the contrary to all the previous blogs, anyone can contribute to dev.to. All the posts published on the feed are tagged for easier navigation, and it’s easy to notice the popularity of Java Script, React.Js, Python, CSS, HTML, Node.js, PHP, Vue.js, and Ruby. There’s also a lot of content for beginners, as well as posts centered around career, testing, machine learning, and security, among others.

If you like podcasts, dev.to has hundreds of them, along with videos in the form of practical tutorials, guides, tips, and useful tricks. You can also find full blog posts that are often cross shared in places like Medium or Hacker Noon. And if you have trouble understanding a concept, you can ask the community to explain it to you “like you’re five years old”. It works wonders and is great even for non–tech people.

7. Joel on Software

Main Topics: Software Development, Project Management, Industry & Business, Career Advice

Audience: Software developers, Tech Leads, Project Managers, Recruiters, CEOs, Startup Founders

Joel on Software is another personal blog of an accomplished software engineer, Joel Spolsky, a creator of the project management software Trello and a Stack Exchange network. He shares his perspective not only on software development itself, but also on business, project management, recruitment, and getting started in the tech field, served with practical advice on career.

When it comes to the blog, which has been online for over a decade, it has more than 1000 useful articles. Anyone can find valuable content for themselves, from developers and tech leads to project managers, CEOs, and recruiters. Part of that knowledge has been captured into five books, available on Amazon.

8. SitePoint

Main Topics: Code, Web Application Development, Graphic Design, User Experience, Industry

Audience: Full–Stack Developers, UI/UX Designers, Entrepreneurs

SitePoint is bursting with books, online courses, and tech talks on topics of Java Script, HTML, CSS, PHP, Python, WordPress, Design & UX, App Development. The library is curated by the experts in web design and web development, so you can trust their input.

This web development blog focuses on a much wider range of subjects. You can learn more about the next wave of web technologies, such as Deno, Eleventy, Gatsby, Rust, WebAssembly, and many others. Reading the blog also ensures that you’re staying up to date with the future of the web and the state of the technology industry.

Not only web developers will benefit from paying attention to this blog, but designers as well. If you want to master Adobe XD, Figma or Sketch, along with any other similar programs, check out their materials. And even those that only want to polish their skills with Notion, Airtable, Obsidian, and other productivity tools, should also take a look.

It’s also a good place for people looking for a web development job or who want to advance their already prospering career. You can find articles full of advice for juniors and seniors alike, along with current job listings for remote positions.

And lastly, if you have questions that are still left unanswered after perusing the blog’s content, you can easily ask the community.

9. Smashing Magazine

Main Topics: Code, Mobile App Development, User Experience, Graphic Design

Audience: Full–Stack Developers, Mobile Developers, UX/UI Designers, Graphic Designers

Smashing Magazine is an online magazine of the highest quality, geared towards professional web designers and developers, offering them practical and useful content to improve their skills.

Their goal is to support the virtual community of the coding world with news on the latest web technologies, from app development, responsive web design to accessibility and usability, among many others.

New articles are published several times a week on a wide variety of topics, to keep front end developers, designers, animators, and illustrators more than satisfied. And of course, you can find articles to keep up with the latest trends and opinion articles as food for thought, along with productivity tips

Besides the articles, you can also jump right into guides, books, and online workshops. Not all of them are for free — to access them, you need to buy a membership. There are three levels: for $3, $5 and $9 a month or $30, $50 and $90 a year.

Don’t forget to check out this site’s podcasts. “The Smashing Podcast” runs around 1 hour each, so be prepared to gain a lot of new insight.

Smashing Magazine also takes care to post current job openings and present–day conferences.

Searching For Knowledge Beyond Blogs

Nowadays, blogging sites are not the only source of knowledge that’s worthy of our notice. Several times we’ve mentioned videos and podcasts, that’s why it would have been remiss of us not to list our favourites.

Youtube Channels

freeCodeCamp

FreeCodeCamp is a non–profit organization, supported by donors, with a mission to help people become developers for free. Besides a youtube channel, they run their own site with even more resources, and they also organize study group sessions around the world. They even offer certifications to give you an easier start in the industry.

FreeCodeCamp is perfect for self–learners. You can find there long and comprehensive courses for beginners on Python, SQL, Java Script, C++, C, Penetration Testing, HTML, Data Structure, React, HTML5, CSS3, Django, PHP, APIs, Laravel, and many more. Some of them even last for 15 hours.

TraversyMedia

Traversy Media is perfect for people who already know some basics and wish to learn something new in a quick manner without delving too deeply into each concept. Offered courses last from 20 minutes to 2 hours, with the more comprehensive ones available on Udemy. HTML, CSS, JavaScript, React, Async.js, Laravel, Rust, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, and many more — they’re all waiting to be learned and mastered while building projects from scratch.

The Net Ninja

If you prefer your courses divided into small, digestible parts, look up The Net Ninja. It’s perfect for beginners who want to learn bits and pieces on the run or in between other tasks. The overall tone is light and fun, due to the enthusiastic nature of the host, who is also very thorough and methodical in his approach.

You can choose what to learn next from over 1000 tutorials, that delve into Java Script, Firebase, Flutter, HTML & CSS, Laravel, MongoDB, Node.js, PHP, React, Vue.js, and many more. You can find both beginner and advanced material, so better keep a close eye on this channel.

Fireship

If you’re even more pressed for time, look up Fireship, a channel created by Jeff Delaney on the topic of building web applications of highest quality fast. His longest series is called “100 Seconds of Code”, which is straight to the point while being very informative. It’s perfect for those who want to grasp various concepts quickly before delving into them, or for those who simply want a reminder.

Besides that, you can find out more about development tools, pro tips, productivity tips, 15–25 minutes beginner guides, both for front end and back end, from Java Script to API and cloud infrastructure.

Coding Tech

If you’d like to take a step back from tutorials and to find out what’s happening during tech conferences without attending any, go to Coding Tech. They partner with many different conferences around the world and have their explicit permission to publish videos on youtube. Among their partners are ConFoo, JavaScriptLA, Pixels Camp, PyData, React Amsterdam, You Gotta Love Frontend, and many others. So if you want to stay on top of trends in the tech world, gain some valuable career tips while developing your hard and soft skills, subscribe without further delay.

Podcasts

JavaScript Talks / Conferences as Podcasts

JavaScript Talks was created with accessibility in mind. To bring conferences to those, who cannot attend them themselves, who can’t watch the videos due to visual impairment, or who simply don’t have the time to sit down and press play. It’s also a solution to those who lack a proper internet connection for one reason or another.

Thanks to this initiative, many people around the world can get access to Java Script conference talks, discover what’s new and, of course, to learn.

JS Party: JavaScript, CSS, Web Development

JS Party is a weekly podcast with a heavy focus on Java Script, but including as well Go, Ruby, Python, Node.js, and others. Besides talking about all things code, they also have episodes on developer’s culture, startups, sustainability, web development tools, and many others.

This podcast is well known for being informative (each episode lasts for an hour), yet at the same time, entertaining. With lots of banter involved.

React Talks

Interested in React? Then React Talks are perfect for you, with over 100 episodes, 1 hour long each. Every episode has a new guest invited to share their experience and expertise with React, from starting their career to leading some exciting projects to analyzing the newest and upcoming trends. If you like hearing stories concerning the web development world, listen to this one.

Syntax — Tasty Web Development Treats

Syntax is a podcast created by Full–Stack Developers Wes Bos and Scott Tolinski. It’s updated several times a month and each episode tends to last anywhere from 20 to 60 minutes. It’s well known for being fun, knowledgeable, and suited for both beginners and more experienced developers, improving their soft and hard skills.

Besides talking about their own experience as developers and dishing out career and portfolio tips, they explain Java Script and its frameworks, additionally venturing into HTML, CSS, Deno, development tools, freelancing, and many more.

Web Rush

Web Rush is another weekly JavaScript–centric podcast, run by John Papa, Ward Bell, Craig Shoemaker, and Dan Wahlin. They invite guests to share their stories of web development, challenges they’ve faced and the solutions they came up with. It’s full of practical advice and hands–on approach, making people excited to experiment on their own.

So if you’re curious about Google Maps behind the scenes, developing apps and themes for Shopify, or how to get started as a developer, check out this podcast.

Key Takeaways

Following a web development blog — still a necessity

Minimal commitment in website design won’t cut it. You need to stay up to date, which may seem like a challenge in the field that just keeps growing and changing. And if you’re not a web developer, but a graphic designer or a content creator, or an owner of your own website, it’s good to be aware of what’s happening on that front. This way you’ll create better content, by knowing what’s possible, what are the restrictions of web design, and what doesn’t work well in the long run.

And if you’re at the point of your coding journey where you can call yourself a professional, consider setting up your own web development blog or at least contributing to one. It’s a great way of giving back to the community and helping out those who are just starting. If you’re worried about creating competition for yourself, don’t — keep in mind the ongoing shortage of IT professionals that threatens the entire field and contribute to a better world instead.

The Nature of Software Development Projects

The first issue concerning software development projects is the fact that many of them are unique. So unless you’re developing the exact same software over and over again, the parameters differ too much to use them as a one stable point of reference.

The second issue concerns the rapid evolution of technology. We don’t even have to go back 50 years for comparison — it’s enough to see how much has changed just in the last decade. Software development has no choice but to reflect that in the form of constant new programming languages, frameworks, libraries, and tools.

On top of that, clients’ needs along with market demands change as well. Suddenly, the websites have to be SEO friendly, their mobile versions need to be top–notch to satisfy the constantly raising market share of mobile devices, and web apps need to be restricted to one single page, following the example of Facebook and many other successful projects.

Also, it will be beneficial to follow mobile SEO strategies to enhance user experience and improve mobile conversion.

It’s a lot. Each project has the potential to bring something new, and the proposed solutions can’t always be based on experience gained by the years of delivering different software. That’s what makes software development’s estimations so difficult — there’s simply too much uncertainty and novelty to be able to properly assess each project.

That’s also the reason why being an optimist doesn’t pay off. Assuming that everything will go well with no delays, that there won’t be any bugs to fix or last–minute changes, is naive. By thinking of the worst–case scenarios, you can predict many issues and prepare for them in advance — for example, by adding time buffers in recognition of sick leaves developers might have to take.

To properly and masterfully manage all those unknown variables, Steve McConnel, an expert in software engineering and project management, introduced a concept known as the Cone of Uncertainty. It’s a model describing the level of uncertainty throughout the whole project — at the start, the level of uncertainty is huge. The more time passes though, the more data you gather and therefore, the more you know. And so the challenge lies in achieving that level of knowledge as fast as possible.

Software Development Project Plan

Software development plan describes what needs to be done and how in a clear, concise manner, so that the whole team knows their roles and responsibilities, but with enough flexibility to reflect the tumultuous nature of software development.

Instead of having one strict deadline for the whole project, it’s divided into smaller parts instead, and the success rate is measured by milestones. Depending on the type of Software Development Life Cycle, the whole process will include iterations, revisions, and feedback. So even though it may seem chaotic at first, the whole team, as well as stakeholders, will know the state of the project at all times.

How does the software development lifecycle differ from the software development plan? The former is a specific roadmap, describing all the steps and their order necessary to complete the project, while the latter focuses on explaining the scope of the project and all its circumstances. In short, a software development plan explains what will be done and why, while a software development lifecycle explains how it will be done.

Now that we got all that out of the way, let’s move on to the phases that will ensure a proper software development plan everyone can rely on.

Defining The Problem

The first phase starts the moment the client contacts a software house. During the first talks, besides deciding on terms of cooperation, the client should say:

• What software project do they want exactly,
• What problem it should solve,
• What demand it’s answering,
• What business objectives or specific goals hide behind that decision,
• What will be the criteria of project success.

The software house’s responsibility is to discern whether the project matches the business decisions.

Think of it that way — the client doesn’t come with a project idea, they come with a problem. The vendor doesn’t deliver a project: it delivers a solution. If the solution doesn’t solve the client’s problem, it’s a waste of money. Period.

Finding The Solution

This phase focuses on discovering what can be done to fix the problem and how. And also, whether it’s possible to do so in the first place with the client’s budget, time limit, and other restrictions. That’s within the vendor’s responsibility to figure out, with the client’s help.

Here’s a time for settling on the project’s scope. Besides focusing on the how, it also has to be decided with what — when it comes to tools, languages, resources — and who — when it comes to the members of the software development team, any external groups whose help is needed, and who will be the project manager.

When all of the above has been decided, it’s easier to give a rough estimate of the budget and first deadlines.

Perfecting The Idea

Before digging into details, it’s important to decide on the essential features of the software project (usually via workshops). All the nonessential features should be categorized as “nice–to–haves” to ensure the right order of priorities. If your software project looks modern and sleek, but doesn’t serve its intended purpose, it’s a failure.

Only then you can start creating all the wireframes, user stories, and prototypes. Due to that, you can check if everyone’s on the same page, deal with any misunderstandings or dispel any doubts, as well as assess the risk. This part is also crucial to collect all the feedback you possibly can — mainly from the stakeholders and project team members.

At this point, a final estimation is possible: the scope of the project, the timeline, budget, and so on. There are still uncertain variables in play though: while the scope of the cone of uncertainty is smaller at this stage, it’s still significant enough.

Preparing The Environment

Once the whole scope of the project is known and understood by all, it has to be broken down into smaller phases that end with milestones. A good example of this is sprint, frequently used in agile development, which is a small time–boxed period with set tasks to complete. Sprint is repeated as many times as it’s necessary, till the project’s completion.

This approach ensures constant revision of what’s been done and what’s still left to do, making it easier to control and manage. Those frequent progress checks are also more convenient for stakeholders, who are kept in the loop throughout the whole project.

The biggest upside of creating such a project schedule is its flexibility. It’s easier to implement any change requests, catch glaring mistakes quickly, and to improve the software development process itself at any moment. Most importantly, it makes it simpler to check whether the product delivers significant value to the end–users.

Execution

Once everything on the project organization side is complete, it’s time for the developers to bring the idea to life. It’s also a good moment to set quality assurance in place, if it hasn’t been yet, to simultaneously fix bugs and any other reported issues. Additionally, you can also include User Acceptance Testing (if that’s applicable to your circumstances) or even involve your client in the final testing stages.

Delivering The Answer

At this point, software projects should be done with optional last–minute tasks and bug fixes left to do. But this stage should mostly focus on the release of the product and all the supporting processes surrounding it. Those can be: connecting the domain, activating the website’s certificates, adding payment features, and so on.

See also: How to Buy a Domain Name

All the results should be observed and analyzed, gathering feedback from users and responding to it. Especially if the product is in its beta version, it’s important to check how the users interact with the software, whether it serves its purpose, and if it’s up to everyone’s expectations.

The last thing left to do is the handover. The whole project needs clear and completed documentation, explaining the whole work done and the current state of the product. It ensures that in case of any future development needed, whether it’s further improvement or simple changes, the new development team will be able to jump right to work, without having to waste time to figure out the code. That’s why it’s also necessary for the code to be fairly clean and straightforward.

Common Mistakes In Software Development Planning

Since we know now how to construct a good software development project plan, it’s also proper to know what to avoid. The pitfalls tend to happen on both sides, on the client’s side as well as the vendor’s. Here’s a brief description of what can negatively influence the whole collaboration:

Client’s Perspective

• Lack of understanding and knowledge of software development process that leads to unrealistic expectations,
• Demanding drastic changes halfway through the project that go against initial principles,
• Not being clear enough on the requirements, needs, and goals,
• Too many people in decisive roles wanting different things and trying to answer the question of how to resolve the problem instead of sharing common goals.

Software Development Company’s Perspective

• Overpromising while overestimating capabilities and experience while not taking into account uncertainties,
• Bad communication with developers on the sales’ department side,
• Bad internal communication between team members,
• Putting up a wall between the client and the development team (often in the form of unnecessary middlemen),
• Not including any buffer in the schedule for fixes, unexpected issues, holidays, and sick leave,
• Neglecting to carry out tests with end–users before the release.

Key Takeaways

A good software development plan should include answers to the following questions:

1. What problem does your client want to solve?
2. What business results does the client expect?
3. What can be done to resolve the client’s problem?
4. Is it possible to resolve the problem within the client’s means?
5. How can it be resolved?
6. What resources are needed to resolve the problem?
7. How will the development process look like?
8. How will the project’s progress be measured?
9. Was risk assessment conducted?

In this article, we’ll dive headfirst into the best web development tools available for developers around the world. From desktop development tools, through those available on Linux, to the ones that are meant to program apps for mobile devices. Without further ado, let’s get down to business.

Best Web Development Tools

Development tools were created to make the entire process easier and faster, but with so many of them available on the internet, it’s really hard to pick proper ones. Luckily, you don’t have to resort to only one, but instead, you can have a choice of multiple tools. In fact, you can choose as many as you like or need because your web development project is worth it.

Code Editors (IDE)

Webstorm

Webstorm, also known as IntelliJ IDEA, is a popular and famous JavaScript IDE text editor that was released two decades ago in 2001. The latest stable release of the software was published on June 1st, 2021.

What makes Webstorm such a popular software are its features. Among many, the developers can find ones like:

• Code completion – the editor analyzes the written code and suggests how it should be completed;
• Plenty of supported programming languages;
• Supports version control software like Git;
• Supports various databases like MySQL, etc.

Though bear in mind that Webstorm isn’t free software. In order to use it, you have to pay $12.90 per month or $129 annually.

JetBrains company doesn’t stop here, as they offer more code editors. It all depends on your needs. Perhaps you need a code editor for PHP? Sure, there’s PHP Storm. You’re working on an application written in Python? Take a look at PyCharm. Maybe you like to program in Ruby? There’s an editor for you also and its name is RubyMine.

Visual Studio Code Editor

Also known as VScode, Visual Studio Code is a popular cross-platform source-code editor created and maintained by Microsoft. The tool incorporates a variety of features such as GIT commands, debugging options, and other useful tools.

Visual Studio Code can be upgraded with a wide choice of free extensions. To do so, you need to browse the marketplace and choose the ones that appeal to you the most. JavaScript and Python support also goes a long way for the app. VScode supports plenty, and we really mean plenty of programming languages for free. Take a look!

All things mentioned above make VScode an ideal text editor for programming your web development projects.

Atom

GitHub’s own, Atom is yet another cross-platform code editor on the list. Released in 2014, Atom is based on Electron software and supports many web technologies, such as C and C+, JavaScript, Python, and others. It’s ideal for developing desktop web apps as they can be customized with different APIs, themes, or plugins.

Thanks to being an open source code editor, Atom differs from Sublime Text or Visual Studio Code. In this case, you may wonder, what’s the difference? Well, due to Atom being open source it can feature more extensions and is more flexible in terms of development. And it’s free!

Sublime Text

Available for Linux, Windows, and macOS, the cross-platform Sublime Text is one of the best code editors for web development, as it features plenty of interesting and useful functionalities.

Not only that, Sublime Text editor also supports many syntaxes like CSS, PHP, Python, and more. Also, the software allows simultaneous editing, i.e. editing multiple lines of code at the same time.

Since this code editor includes so many features, the best way to visualize them would be to list them:

• Command palette that uses suggestions for quicker writing along with the ability to change syntax;
• Python-based API;
• 23 themes to choose from;
• Goto anything feature for efficient changing of projects.

In fact, 71% of software professionals confirmed using Sublime Text, Atom, or a similar text editor.

Development Tools

Chrome DevTools

You probably didn’t notice, but you most likely have it already! If you’re using the Google Chrome browser, you can use the Chrome DevTools any time you want. To do so, simply click the Ctrl+Shift+I button configuration.

Working with JavaScript, Chrome Developer Tools is essentially a set of built-in tools for web developers that allows them to change styles of the page through previews, check the technical aspect of any website, or view and change the Document Object Model.

Not only that, the Chrome Developer Tools gives the web developers freedom to do things like changing color palettes and formats, oversee the performance, set JavaScript breakpoints, edit CSS or HTML, and many more!

Here are some examples of the abilities of Chrome DevTools. With it, you can:

• View and edit CSS;
• Edit and view animations;
• Run JavaScript in the console itself;
• Check and view network activity;
• Manage cookies;
• Manage local storage;
• Simulate mobile devices;
• Debug JavaScript;
• Make the website faster by optimizing it;
• And many more.

Firefox Developer Edition

For all those who aren’t fans of Google Chrome, Firefox comes to the rescue. A direct competition of Chrome DevTools, Firefox Developer Edition is a web development tool that serves a similar purpose.

Including features such as WebSocket Inspector or Multi-Line Console Editor, Firefox’s alternative browser is ideal for people who wish to use a different web development tool.

CSS Preprocessors

Sass

Before getting into details of Sass, let’s briefly mention what a CSS preprocessor is. It’s software for generating CSS from the syntax of a preprocessor. Additionally, they can help the developer write the application faster.

Developed in 2006, Sass is the most popular CSS extension language. Being an easy-to-use frontend development tool, Sass can be used with all CSS libraries. It includes features such as nesting, mixins, variables, or selector inheritance.

Sass has been supported for over a decade, not only by the creators but also by a large community of developers. What’s more, some technologies have even been created with Sass, like Bourbon or Compass.

Less

Similarly to Sass, Less (Leaner Style Sheets) is an open source preprocessor that serves the purpose of CSS language extension. It can run on both the backend and frontend.

With its release over a decade ago in 2009, Less has since become a rival to Sass, even though they both influenced each other in some ways. The extension can attribute its popularity to various functionalities like nesting, mixins, variables, and more.

What differentiates Less from Sass among many other things is that it runs its compiler via browser by using less.js.

PaaS – Platform as a Service

Docker

Docker is an open source web development tool that serves the purpose of containerization of software. All containers are lightweight and have a common ground that’s called the operating system kernel. What’s worth mentioning is that Docker uses less resources compared to virtual machines.

Docker supports only three main operating systems, i.e. Windows, Linux, and macOS. Additionally, the software works with Github!

In fact, the software is an industry standard that enables zero-downtime deployment.

Git Software

Git

Git is a free version control software used for saving, editing, storing, or deleting any part of the code. Ideal for web developers to save their code documentation in so-called repositories. Then, web developers can view and store their repositories in software such as Github.

GitLab

Created by Dmytro Zaporozhets and Valery Sizov, GitLab is a DevOps lifecycle tool that works as a Git repository. Not only that, but it also includes plenty of other functionalities like a wiki, tracking issues, and many more.

Written in Ruby and Go, GitLab is a web-based software that can help developers with their projects.

GitHub

Probably everyone has heard about GitHub at some point, even those who aren’t familiar with the IT industry. GitHub is a platform used by over 50 million users and it serves the purpose of storing open-source software.

In the past, GitHub used to charge its users for storing projects, but since Microsoft bought GitHub in 2018 for the jaw-dropping amount of $7.5 billion USD, the projects can be stored free of charge.

Additionally to storing personal projects, you can also code web apps on the platform. Unfortunately, I’m afraid that for those who aren’t fans of the cloud, I’ve got some bad news. GitHub stores all information in the cloud.

Bitbucket

Made by Atlassian, Bitbucket is yet another Git-based storage for open source repositories. Written in Python, it’s available in both free and premium versions.

The storage features a lot of useful functionalities, among them users can find ones like integration with Jira or Trello, or built-in CI/CD.

What’s more, with the premium version you can set up the two-step verification to further secure your account, or set IPs that you would like to have whitelisted.

CI/CD Tools

Github Actions

A part of the entire Github, Github Actions is designed to be responsible for the automation of the software workflow with CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment).

With support for matrix builds, different platforms, and a multitude of programming languages, Github Actions can connect every tool that you’re using to automate the process.

Not only that, the software features a plethora of available plugins that can help you with a variety of actions.

Bitbucket Pipelines

We already mentioned Bitbucket on our list, but the Bitbucket Pipelines are worth mentioning as well. It’s an integral part of the Bitbucket that’s responsible for handling CI/CD service.

Thanks to this feature, the user can build, test, or release the code automatically based on the repository’s configuration file.

Bitbucket Pipelines supports a wide range of platforms, for example, Python, Ruby, Java and JavaScript, PHP, and even more.

Jenkins Pipelines

Jenkins Pipelines is a set of plugins that serves the purpose of both implementing and integrating CD pipelines into the Jenkins program.

The software works based on the Jenkinsfile. When the user allocates it to source control, a range of benefits comes soon after, like automatic creation of a Pipeline build process with branches and pull requests, ability to review or iterate the code, and others.

Why should anyone use Jenkins Pipelines? Well, because it has a couple of advantages, like being durable or versatile. And these are not the only ones! Go ahead and see for yourself.

Project Management Tools and Communicators

Jira

One of the most used project management tools across software development companies, Jira allows the users to track the progress and plan the sprints. If you’re using the Agile/Scrum methodology, Jira is the perfect web application for it. It’s cross-platform software with a variety of options at your disposal, like Kanban boards to efficiently manage the tasks and prepare the sprints.

As you can see in the image above, Jira offers various subscription plans. Even the free plan would be enough for small teams who wish to track their progress throughout the project.

Asana

Similarly to Jira, Asana serves the purpose of a project management tool. There, the user can create new tasks and assign team members to them, create subtasks, or organize lists, and we just named a few.

Asana is a fine example of SaaS – Software as a Service with different subscription plans available. You can even register on Asana for free if you’re just starting a small project with your team. Prices grow accordingly to the needs, for example, if it’s a bigger project or an enterprise.

Trello

Trello is a very popular choice when it comes to project management tools as it’s both simple and efficient. With Trello, users can manage their own projects by creating columns and cards. Similarly to Asana, they can be grouped together in columns such as To Do, Done, etc.

Trello marked its initial release in 2011, making it a decade-year-old software that is still widely used to this day. It’s available in 21 languages and has over 50 million users.

There are three pricing options available for Trello: $0 (free version), $10 per month (billed annually, $12.50 billed monthly), and the last option depends on the number of users, but generally, it’s $17.50 per one user.

Surprisingly, the free version of Trello can still go a long way. Let’s take a look at the comparison. You can see the free version on the left, business class in the middle, and enterprise version on the right.

Additionally, Trello can be integrated with a variety of other tools, like Slack, DropBox, and many more.

Slack

Released in 2013, Slack has quickly become a communicator often used by web development companies. It features a friendly GUI (Graphical User Interface) and a structure that can be divided into channels or rooms. Not only that, but you can also make video calls, integrate it with multiple software, and many more.

The application is available on a variety of platforms, like Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, Android, or Windows Phone. It’s a really versatile tool for communication and it seems that it’ll only keep delivering.

Even though Slack is a great tool, it’s also rivaled by open source MatterMost. Which one is better? You decide.

Zoom

Zoom is yet another really popular communication tool. When it comes to video conferencing, here is your undisputed champion. Whether you’re working from home or perhaps you need to meet with a client, Zoom comes to the rescue.

Of course, there are plenty of other ways to do so, but using Zoom can not only make it more professional but can also handle higher traffic as up to 100 people can join a conference for free!

Zoom features different subscription options starting from $0 per year up to $240. Bear in mind that the free option can only host conferences or meetings for up to 40 minutes which isn’t a long time. By the way, if you’re interested in online meetings, consider also Zoom alternatives to choose the best match for your online conferences and meetings.

Backlog

If you’re tired of Jira or perhaps want a change of environment, you can easily switch to Backlog as it includes an easy-to-use Jira importer.

The tool is available in various pricing models, ranging from $0 for a free version that includes 10 slots for developers, 1 project, and 100MB of storage, to $175 per month! The latter is the most expensive option of Backlog, but it includes unlimited slots for developers or projects. Not only that, but it also has 100GB of storage, as well as Gantt charts and custom fields.

With Backlog, developers can manage their projects in an easy and efficient way. Thanks to multiple tools like task hierarchy, IP address control, or Gantt charts, Backlog has become a quite popular solution.

Package Managers

Node Package Manager

Developed by Microsoft, the Node Package Manager is a JavaScript-based web development tool for finding and installing packages for specific programming languages.

It not only makes the search for the proper package quicker but also easier as you can install it from the manager itself. That all makes the software perfect for use as your default package manager.

Yarn

Yet another manager that serves the purpose of downloading and installing packages. Yarn has been created by Facebook and received a new stable version in January of 2020, called Yarn 2. Interestingly enough, Yarn can also be used as a project manager.

What the users appreciate the most about Yarn is its speed, security, and performance.

Composer

Being the third package manager on the list, Composer is widely used among developers around the world. Written in PHP programming language, Composer runs in the command line while installing the so-called dependencies, which are essentially libraries.

Composer was released in 2012, making it yet another almost a decade-old software. What’s worth noting is that Postman was heavily inspired by another package manager mentioned on this list – NPM.

API Tools

Postman

You’ve got mail! Though it will not deliver letters, Postman is a collaboration platform for API development (Application Programming Interface). There are various ways in which you can use the software, for example, using it directly in your web development or you can even create onboarding for new developers.

The Postman web application can also conduct automated tests and simulate endpoints.

Swagger

Swagger is an open source development tool, an API builder, and a tester that was released a decade ago, in 2011. Additionally, the tool allows developers to create testing APIs and makes the frontend development easier, even before releasing the first API.

What’s more, Swagger is a tool that’s easy to understand even for rookies. Additionally, it can be easily adjusted and features a nice and crisp editor.

Frontend and Backend Web Frameworks

Web development frameworks are also considered tools so it wouldn’t be right not to mention that. We’re not going to dive into details in this article, as we already covered the subject of the frameworks on our blog.

However, what we’ll mention here are some of the frameworks that are worth taking into consideration while developing web applications:

• Node.js;
• Express;
• React library;
• Foundation;
• jQuery JavaScript library;
• Angular;
• Svelte;
• Laravel;
• Vue.

Quality Assurance Tools

BrowserStack

Founded in 2011 in India, BrowserStack is a testing platform for both mobile applications and websites, all done in the cloud.

For testing, developers can use browsers and operating systems of their choice, along with real mobile devices. What’s more, you don’t have to possess a multitude of devices to test the software on, because you can conduct the tests on virtual phones, operating systems, etc.

With over 2,000,000 registered developers from at least 135 countries, BrowserStack is a key player when it comes to testing applications.

Selenium

Selenium is an open source automated tool for conducting tests of web applications. Created in 2004 with a stable release in 2018, this testing tool allows the users to write test scripts in various programming languages, such as Node.js, Python, and many others.

Selenium is actually one the most popular testing tools on the market with over 50,000 companies using the software.

Other

Webpack

To put it in simple words, Webpack is a static module bundler designed for working with JavaScript apps. With Webpack the user can bundle the scripts, pictures, and many other things.

What the software essentially does is create dependency graphs between the files, resulting in the creation of bundles

ESLint

ESLint is a linter software made for JavaScript. Since its release in 2013, ESLint has been a popular tool for developers programming in JavaScript.

With the help of plugins, the linter can also work with TypeScript or JSX. Additionally, the tool can work across multiple platforms.

Grunt

With over 5000 plugins available, Grunt is a versatile and popular JavaScript task runner. Used by companies like Microsoft, Twitter, Opera, and others, this software can perform tasks like testing, compiling, minificating, or linting.

The tool features a functionality called Gruntfiles. What it essentially is is a file with a defined task that is run in the command-line interface.

Autoprefixer

Autoprefixer is a post CSS processor that is designed to remove vendor prefixes. In fact, you can entirely skip the prefix thing, whether to add it or remove it, as Autoprefixer will take care of everything.

Additionally, you can choose which browser you want to be supported.

Husky

Husky is a really popular package developed to work with Git hooks, that can also lint code or commit messages, and run tests.

Designed to be lightweight, it’s powered by core.hooksPath Git feature. Any project that includes the package.json file can use Husky.

Stylelint

Stylelint is a popular tool for CSS that helps developers write clear and understandable code. It’s a linter that can find and report errors and issues.

It can definitely contribute to faster development and clearer code. Featuring over 170 built-in rules, plugin support, and a constantly growing community, Stylelint can be a really useful tool.

TypeScript

Based on JavaScript, TypeScript is an open source language used for programming a wide range of applications.

TypeScript is like a direct descendant of JavaScript, with additional features like static type definitions.

Additionally, many companies decided to migrate their applications from JavaScript to TypeScript, for example, the already mentioned Slack or Airbnb.

To get to know more, check out the presentation made by Anders Hejlsberg upon TypeScript’s release.

Web Development Tools for Linux

Most of the web development tools are not only available for Windows, but also for Linux and other operating systems. All of the ones that we’ve listed in the article are available on that platform.

Well, all but one – partially. Asana’s desktop version is not available on Linux. The only way to access it on the platform would be to use the browser version.

Mobile Web Development Tools

So far we’ve listed web development tools for a variety of platforms like Windows or Linux. Now, let’s focus briefly on the mobile web development tools. Of course, some of them are cross-platform, like Slack or Zoom, therefore we’ll skip the ones we already described above.

Android Apps

Android Studio

Android Studio is the most popular IDE tool for creating apps for Google’s mobile system – Android. It has been built by the IntelliJ IDEA that we already mentioned in the article.

Available for platforms such as Windows, Linux, or macOS, the software features functionalities like Android Virtual Device (that acts as an emulator for running and debugging the apps), an intelligent code editor, APK Analyzer, lint tools, refactoring and fixes, a layout editor with vast options, and many more!

With Android Studio, developers can code applications in various languages. Some of them would be Java or C++. Additionally, the software supports extensions like Go or Kotlin.

Overall, it’s a great tool for creating Android apps.

Charles Proxy

Created by Karl von Randow, Charles Proxy is a cross-platform debugging tool that allows the user to view HTTP, HTTP/2, SSL, HTTPS traffic.

Released 19 years ago in 2002, Charles Proxy features plenty of functionalities. Among them, the user can find ones like XML/JSON/SOAP interpretation, bandwidth throttling, different sorts of debugging features, and a lot more.

Charles is a paid software that costs $50 for one license. However, you may try the software for 30 days before purchasing and see if it suits your needs.

Xcode

The last entry on our list of web development tools is Xcode. Made by Apple, Xcode is an IDE for macOS and is used for developing applications for Apple platforms, such as the mentioned macOS, iOS, watchOS, tvOS, and last but not least iPadOS.

With Xcode, developers can not only program applications, but also manage the workflow, create new requests, manage the queue, and more. Additional features include the CarPlay simulator, custom documentation, crash reports, Vim mode, and other useful features.

A really well-made tool that happens to be the most popular choice when it comes to developing iOS tools.

Key Takeaways

Almost there! Just one more stop on the road and we’re done! As you’ve seen in the article, we listed some of the most popular web development tools that developers can use during their work.

For your convenience, let’s go through these few bullet points to solidify the knowledge:

• When choosing a tool, think about your end goal, is it a big project? Or perhaps it requires only a small team?
• Think about your budget, if you don’t want to spend too much money, choose a tool that’s free or has a free trial;
• Carefully choose the tools that appeal to you and your project the most.

Conclusions

This is the end, as Adele would sing. In all seriousness though, now you should be able to tell which tool can help you with the development process.

Additionally, if you had any doubts about web development tools, we hope that they have vanished by now! Thank you and see you around next time.