As a developer, it is always fascinating to know about new and latest tools which can help you enhance your development process. You can not only save your time and energy but also come up with an advanced set of features and functionalities. There are several tools which should be part of your arsenal to overcome the complex development requirements from clients. Depending on the type of your development process, there are several aspects where you must be looking for testing, designing and development tools. But most of the developers are unaware of such tools available in the market. So, we have compiled a list of free web development tools which are essential for most of the developers to speed up and enhance the development.
Web Designing Tools
If you are looking for tools which can help you fine tune the designing aspect of your web development process, then these are some of the most favorite designing tools for Web Developers across the globe.
WhatFont
For an instance, you visited some website, and it has the most attractive font style, but you are unable to identify it, then which tool can help you find it. ‘WhatFont’ has been designed to help you inspect the elements of the font. It is compatible with the Google API as well as TypeKit. While using the WhatFont tool, you need to understand that it can detect the fonts in text only, fonts used in images cannot be determined by the tool. This tool is currently the most popular tool for finding fonts. Available for free of cost, small to large companies can make optimum use of it for a lifetime.
QuirkTools
The simple and easy to use QuirkTool helps you in designing as well as testing websites. It has a range of features to create wireframes and sitemaps for the testing website in smart devices. It is important for all the developers to ensure that the website they create for themselves or clients is responsive and compatible to be accessed in all device types. You can enable or disable scrolling as well as rotate screens to test all types of use cases. If you are thinking that this tool is going to cost you a lot, then to your surprise, it is available for free of cost.
Web Building Tools
Building tools are very essential for automating tedious tasks like compiling SASS into CSS or LESS into CSS, image optimization, web server launch, linking codes and more. Some of the popular tools are mentioned below for terminal and graphical user interface.
Gulp
The Gulp tool is developed using Node.js and it is helpful in building the projects. With the help of this tool, you can test servers and preview changes as and when you make changes. As Gulp is an open source tool, it is free of cost and small to large businesses can make optimum use of it. It offers many features including the compilation of SASS, Stylus, CoffeeScript, and much more. It has detailed tutorials and documentation for easy learning and understanding of writing and testing codes.
Prepros
For those who are looking for a comprehensive tool for project testing, a compilation of SASS, Stylus, etc., then Prepros is the best tool. It has both free and paid versions, so you can use the free version as long as you want and then shift to the paid version. This tool is very helpful in enhancing and streamlining the development.
Web Testing Tools
As there are several options for the code editors, you also have many browsers, devices, and users for testing the website or applications you develop. Most of the developers have multiple testing tools to ensure that they deliver a bug-free and errorless application or website. To offer the best experience to your clients and users, use the best testing tools given below.
Google’s Pagespeed Insight
If you are looking for a comprehensive testing tool which helps you in evaluating the page speed of your website then Google’s Page Speed Insights offers the best features. It helps in enhancing the user experience on various devices and desktops. Based on the score determined by the tool for your website pages, CSS, JS and images, you can make required changes and enhance the quality. This tool is easy to use and configure, ideal for website which are facing slow loading issues.
Browserstack
With the help of this online tool, you will be able to easily test your applications or website pages on a plethora of devices and browsers. Just select a browser or device using this tool, and you will see that it actually creates a virtual machine which does the entire testing, specifically for website or application. For first 30 minutes the service is absolutely free, but later you need to pay.
Code Editing Tools
There is a wide range of options when you check out the options for code editors. Some are small, compact and lightweight, while some offer a complete suite of features for testing or compiling tasks.
Sublime
Most of you must have heard and used Sublime code editor. It is one of the most popular tools which come with advanced features and plugin support. This tool is available free of cost for a certain period of time, then you will be asked to purchase the software.
Atom
Just like Sublime, Atom is another popular tool which is famous among the developer community across the globe. Developers love Atom tool because it offers the flexibility to customize it as per your requirements. There are several themes and add-ons which can be used to enhance your development process.
These are some of the tools which we have compiled based on our experience and research. We would love to know any additional tips or suggestion you have regarding this post. If we have missed any point(s) in this, then please do comment and let us know.