Website development has made a marvelous journey of evolution ever since the advent of the Internet. From displaying static content to flashing dynamic banners, websites today are powered with an extensive range of technologies to make them look contemporarily ravishing. Today, it is about the proper selection of technologies from the miscellaneous ecosystems including front-end frameworks, back-end frameworks, code editors, testing tools and thousands of extensions and plug-ins.
With the evolution of web development tools, the role of a web developer has evolved today. A modern web developer is quintessentially a jack of all trades. He/she has to know how to make the interface work, how to maintain the loading time while incorporating all required designing elements and at the same time to make it SEO-friendly.
Fortunately, website developers have some handy tools at hand. Their toolbox is filled with the right tools. But some just happen to be used a lot more than the others. So here, we bring you the names of the six most extensively used web development tools which are greatly preferred for creation of modern websites.
List of Best Web Development Tools
1) Chrome DevTools
Chrome happens to be a developer’s favourite platform particularly because of its smooth interface, learning ease and of course, Chrome DevTools. A survey report of W3Counter shows that Chrome holds almost 70.5% of the web browser market share. Now Chrome DevTools is a set of web development tools which are built directly into Google Chrome. With DevTools, a developer can view and edit the DOM and also edit and change a page’s CSS.
It also becomes easy to diagnose and resolve problems as it provides debugging for JavaScript. This proves effective in building websites faster and better but DevTools can be used on a single browser only. Other impressive features include inspection of Network Activity, simulation of mobile devices with Device Mode, and console, sources, performance, application and network panels. All the panels feature a separate set of tools with which developers can work on different functions and inspect various elements of web development.
2) Bootstrap
Bootstrap is web developers’ power pack which they use when they have to build fast, feature-rich and responsive websites. It is open source and its front-end toolkit features Sass variables, comprehensive set of prebuilt components, and responsive grid system along with productive JavaScript plug-ins. Another great feature of Bootstrap is its collection of customizable themes. Since most of the themes are created on the extended frameworks of Bootstrap, they come packed with rich components and plug-ins and powerful website crafting tools.
Bootstrap has an easy configuration process and offers full customization. Developers can also include Bootstrap’s source files in any project with some famous package managers including npm, Ruby Gems, Composer and yarn. However, regardless of the package manager, using Bootstrap with a package manager will need a Sass compiler and Autoprefixer.
3) InVision Cloud
InVision Cloud is a powerful prototyping tool and is used for designing and delivering memorable user experiences. One of the exclusive things about InVision Cloud is that it features more than 100 powerful templates from some of the tech giants including Microsoft, Moday.com and American Express. Its feature called Freehand provides an intuitive, real-time collaborative environment which is stuffed with prebuilt tools like smart widgets, designing files, task managers, Mode Dashboard and Kanban Dashboard.
The other noticeable thing about InVision is its integration with highly productive tools including Adobe Photoshop, Sketch, Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Google Docs. For good web designers, InVision can become their happy place where they can convert all their beautifully imagined designs into visible sites.
4) GitHub
The largest source code host, an Internet hosting provider and a powerful website building tool in itself – GitHub is another absolute favourite of website developers because of its resourcefulness and enriching features including full customization, multi-browser support, real-time collaboration and advanced security systems. Whether you want to develop, collaborate or automate, GitHub allows you to perform all sorts of development actions.
GitHub provides four package plans which can be availed by individuals, development teams and enterprises depending upon the features they want and their budget convenience. GitHub also offers the facility to deploy it as a self-hosted platform or cloud-hosted platform.
5) Grunt
This JavaScript task runner is written in Node.js. It is favoured by developers for performing common automation tasks. Basically include compilation, linting and unit testing. Its distribution is through npm and houses over 5000 plug-ins within its ecosystem. It is preferred for its minimal efforts, high degree of customization. Its capability to define and run custom tasks via command-line interface.
Grunt offers the flexibility of modifying and extending functions to cater to their specific requirements. This task runner is advantageous to developers because of its consistency and efficiency. The Pre-defined plug-ins and provision to let developers add and publish their own plug-ins to npm. Grunt is used by some of the most famous web app including Twitter, Walmart, Opera, Adobe Systems and Mozilla.
6) Sketch
When it comes to UX and UI designing, Sketch emerges as a winner. This vector graphics editor won the Apple Design Award in 2012. Though Sketch is primarily used for macOS. Sketch can also be used for other operating systems via its web application. However, as it is mostly used for development on macOS. Using it with other platforms might require involvement of third-party software. Starting from individuals to large enterprises, Sketch has pricing plans for everyone.
Its designer toolkit has a pretty powerful native macOS editor with a flexible vector editing facility. Artboards, customizable grids, variable fonts and support for OpenType features and easy-to-use resizing tools. Recently, it has added tools for real-time collaboration and prototyping. Furthermore, it also has provision for converting static images and texts into dynamic designs.
Take Away
The list of web development tools and platforms is apparently quite long. This is certainly not restricted to the above six. Sass, WordPress, CodePen, Visual Studio Code and AngularJS are also tough competitors in the war of web development tools. But the above ones find themselves in higher position as each of them have carved a niche place for themselves. The selection, however, is largely based on the type of project one will be working on.
But, if you want to be more accurate and specific in your choice, then you can go on to hire expertise from any best web application development company with ample experience and expertise. Hiring a good development firm will also prove cost-effective. since most platforms offer premium features for their priced packages. The most firms invest in these package plans. it helps them get the best out of these web development tools.
