7 Essential Web Development Tools for Beginners

As technology evolves, there is no denying that today’s web development tools have allowed us to improve our workflow and create responsive websites. Not to mention that it also allows us to collaborate, regardless of our location.

However, the increasing number of available web development tools in the market can be daunting. Which tool would best serve your purpose?

In this post, we have listed down seven essential web development tools that beginners need to know:

1. Sublime Text

Sublime Text is a popular web dev tool. It is a first-rate code editor that features an efficient, robust, and a well-designed interface. In fact, it can help you build websites using languages that you could name.

Its user-friendly interface is less distracting compared with other editors, allowing you to focus on your project more. It also has an automatic phrase completion feature that lets you complete any operation that you want.

Sublime Text also boasts a cross-platform editor, that you can use whether you are on Windows, Mac, or Linux. Add to that its custom GUI toolkit.

But what makes Sublime Text popular is its wide array of keyboard shortcuts. It allows you to perform simultaneous editing, which then lets you make interactive changes to multiple selected areas.

It also comes with quick navigation to files, symbols, and lines. After all, those small actions can add up if you are working for more than 8 hours per day on your editor.

2. Adobe Dreamweaver

If you do not have a vast knowledge of coding but would like to dabble in web development, then Adobe Dreamweaver is your friend.

This website authoring program for Windows and Mac allows you to easily create a working website using the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) Platform. All you need to do is just drag and drop website modules or elements.

Adobe Dreamweaver also features Code validation, accessibility checks, and file manager. However, having knowledge in HTML and CSS can give you an edge in developing websites using Adobe Dreamweaver.

Nonetheless, it is a novice-friendly web development tool that can let you bypass hard coding to build a basic website.

3. FileOptimizer / ImageOptim

FileOptimizer for Windows or ImageOptim for Mac is designed to help you optimize images for your web dev project.

At Sytian Productions Web Design Philippines, we always believe that too many images and animations are the culprits of a slow loading website. If left unattended, it can negatively affect your website’s user experience, search engine ranking, and business revenue.

Thus, it is important to have web dev tools that can help you compress and optimize images on your website.

Both web dev tools are simple and easy to use, and it allows you to compress your images. That way, you can save space on your device. The only difference is that ImageOptim puts your files into a compressed folder, while FileOptimizer compresses the original file itself.

4. XAMPP / WAMP

XAMPP and WAMP perform the same function. They store and maintain website databases.

It is an efficient tool in editing your database from a local server. However, you will need either of the two in order to run the majority of known Content Management Systems. That’s because you cannot run any PHP, JavaScript, or JQuery code without XAMPP or WAMP.

Another caveat is that installing either XAMPP or WAMP can get tricky, especially if you made a mistake. Therefore, you might need to exhaust your resources to solve some errors you might encounter.

5. Chrome Developer Tools

Google Chrome comes with a built-in developer tool that lets you do the following:

• Edit your HTML and CSS in real-time
• Debug your JavaScript
• View a thorough performance analysis of your website

Simply put, you can access the inner workings of your web application.

The Chrome Developer Tools also comes with a bevy of network tools that helps you optimize your web page’s loading times. It also lets you understand how your browser interacts with your web app at any given moment.

What’s cool about Chrome Developer Tools is that it is also available for Safari!

6. GitHub

Every web developer had screwed up their project one way or another. You can prevent those nightmares from happening to you when you have GitHub.

It is a version control system (VCS) that allows you to view the changes you made on your project. It also lets you revert your project’s previous version, making your web dev mistake a thing of the past.

Created by Linus Torvald, GitHub also features a community of rich open-source environment, which makes it easy for you to collaborate. You can write codes and work with other developers, as well as track the changes you made on your website without losing everything.

It also boasts bug tracking, feature requests, task management, and a wiki resource for your every project.

7. Sass

As a beginner, you need to know that CSS usually requires a repetition of hard codes. However, a code needs to be DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself) so as not to be time-consuming.

That said, you need web dev tools, such as Sass, that allows you to save time when working on a project.

First appeared in 2016, Sass is a CSS pre-processor that can help you write and future-proof easy-to-maintain codes. It also allows you to reduce the number of times that you need to write code, making it DRY.

It features a combination of variables, nesting, and mixins that can render simple CSS when compiled. Thus, it produces a DRY and readable stylesheet.

The only catch is that it takes a while for a beginner to learn the ropes of Sass.

The web development tools mentioned above can help you get started with your project. Did we miss any novice-friendly tools? Let us know in the comments!