Top PHP Development Tools For Efficient PHP Developers

There is no denying the fact that today any company strives hard to have its presence on the digital platform just to flourish its needs and requirements. Fortunately, we have PHP for developing websites in the development industry. The following blog post is meant to shed some limelight on PHP. Its features are the best PHP development tools to take into account.  So without any further ado, let’s just begin!

Table of Content

1. Best PHP Development Tools to Take Into Account
   • NetBeans
   • PHPStorm
   • Aptana Studio
   • Sublime Text
   • ScriptCase
   • Cloud 9
   • PHP Debugbar
   • Retrace
   • Komodo
2. Conclusion

1. Best PHP Development Tools to Take into Account

PHP is evolving at a lightning speed. And since it incorporates aspects like detailed documentation, numerous ready-to-use scripts, a huge community, and well-supported frameworks – there are no two ways about it. To make working with the programming language easier, websites and web developers have come up with some PHP development tools that increase programming efficiency. These PHP tools are here for a purpose. They act as a perfect IDE (Integrated Development Environment) where PHP developers in India can efficiently build engaging, innovative and feature-rich PHP projects.

Fortunately, the current market seems to be immensely flooded with a wide range of PHP tools that are extremely useful in PHP application development, and choosing the best one among them is a challenging task. Without any delay, let’s begin!

1. NetBeans

The name itself seems quite tech-savvy and intimidating, isn’t it? Netbeans is one of the reputable PHP tools that comes with rich features that multiple languages support. Initially used for Java development, today the current version of the tool seems pretty lightweight, faster, and supportive for PHP development services.  It includes extensions to support other programming languages like C, C++, and HTML5.

It supports the development of large-scale web apps and languages, such as Japanese, Russian, English, Brazilian Portuguese, and simplified Chinese. This open-source PHP development tool can work with almost all popular PHP frameworks, including Zend, Symfony 2, CakePHP, FuelPHP, Smarty, and WordPress. NetBeans PHP IDE (integrated development environment) offers various features specific to developing web applications with recent versions of PHP.

Code formatting and folding, smart code completion, and getter setter generation are its high-end features.

2. PHPStorm

The next PHP development tool in line is PHPStorm. As the name implies, it comprises tons of astonishing features such as code completion, code re-arranger, zero-configuration debugging, native zen coding support, and so forth. Unlike other PHP tools,

• languages supported here are – PHP, JavaScript, Visual Basic, C, C++, and C#.
• Platforms supported: Microsoft Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.

All these PHPstorms have remained a standard choice for PHP IDE or development tools. In fact, this one works well with PHP frameworks like Zend Framework, Symfony, Yii, Laravel, and CakePHP and with popular Content Management Systems (CMS) like Drupal, Magento, and WordPress. The PHP IDE ensures live editing support for major frontend technologies, such as CSS, HTML5, and JavaScript, in addition to code refactoring, unit testing, and debugging.

3. Aptana Studio

Speaking about a bunch of interesting open-source PHP development tools, we will be talking about in the post is Aptana Studio. This PHP IDE is mainly used to enhance integration with various server-side and client-side web technologies. PHP, Python, CSS3, Ruby on Rails, Ruby, and HTML5 are some of these technologies. With the help of the PHP tool, developers can not just build but also test web applications in one environment.

Setting breakpoints, controlling execution, inspecting variables, supporting the latest HTML5 specifications, Collaboration with peers via merge, pull & push actions, IDE Customization, Git Integration, and a built-in terminal are some of the core features of the PHP tool.

4. Sublime Text

This is one of the best PHP development tools. Sometimes a PHP IDE can be overkill for certain projects. Further, when developers are first learning a language, a PHP IDE can be a crutch for their learning. This sublime text editor is great for startup companies that do not have large budgets or large-capacity servers. Now let us explore why it is so great.

• Firstly, the editor enables you to do anything or go-to-anything feature. I mean you can jump to files, text, or lines instantly within the editor
• Secondly, split editing
• Thirdly, Sublime text simultaneous edits can change multiple instances of text or code together

5. ScriptCase

ScriptCase.net is one such PHP IDE that enables developers to create web applications. These applications support connections to databases and report generation. The software allows you to go from prototype to production in a matter of seconds. The cost may prohibit smaller companies from using it. Therefore, the PHP development tool is suitable for mid-sized companies.

So what does it exactly do? Well right from connecting to major database engines to generating charts including pivot tables, creating interactive reports, exporting different formats such as PDF, XLS and so more.

6. Cloud 9 

Cloud9 is a popular open-source cloud IDE that offers a development environment for various different languages like C, C++, PHP, and JavaScript. With this tool, the developers can easily start the coding with pre-configured environments and it is known as a workspace that helps in creating web apps with features like live preview and browser compatibility testing. Besides this, the PHP developers can collaborate with their team members using collaborative coding features. 

Basically, this PHP IDE has the capability to take your PHP projects from anywhere. It also provides a flawless experience for creating, executing, and debugging serverless apps. In addition to this, it also helps in sharing the app development environment with other colleagues. 

Some of the best features of Cloud9 are tabbed file management, real-time language analysis, integrated debugger, code reformatting, and a built-in image editor.

7. PHP Debugbar

PHPDebugbar is a debugger that enables the execution of any project and then it displays data from various different types of web applications. There are two main parts to this PHP development tool. It is not only for PHP language, you can match bugs for technologies like HTML and JavaScript. Besides this, PHPDebugbar is a tool that can easily inspect CSS elements, monitor a network, and check JavaScript. 

PHPDebugbar is a perfect open-source solution as it offers more features and is better than developers expect from it. If you are planning to profile data from any web application, this can be one of the best options.

Some of the best features of PHPDebugbar are monitoring of network traffic, user-friendly interface, handling AJAX requests, application config & preview config, and debugging to Debugbar.

8. Retrace

Retrace is one such PHP development tool that goes beyond standard Application Performance Monitoring (APM) to give developers all the required tools that they may need to create all in one solution. It is a tool that was originally supported only .NET and Java, but later on, it started supporting PHP. It helps in enhancing the log and error tracking. This is why it stands out from other tools. Besides this, it is a cost-effective tool that is great for team improvement, diagnosis, and more. 

With Retrace, PHP developers can get a view-related logging facility to quickly find and fix bugs or issues before the customers find them out. It also helps in identifying which part of the app stack is the obstacle. Besides, tracking and monitoring all the key applications and their server metrics is possible with Retrace. It also identifies which part of your application stack is the bottleneck and which web requests are being affected. Track and monitor all key application & server metrics.

9. Komodo

Another PHP development tool is Komodo, it was developed by ActiveState in May 2000. It is a tool that comes with a lot of features that are inherited from the Python interpreter. Komodo uses Scintilla and Mozilla as its base. And the reason behind it is that they have the capability to share many different features and also support identical languages. In addition to this, its extensions and pipe features have made this tool very popular in the market. 

Komodo offers the facility of multi-window and split-view. It also offers quick bookmarking and smart language detection. Some of the features of Komodo also include Document Object Model (DOM) Viewer and support for Remote and Git File Access.

2. Conclusion

So that’s it! There are still more to go but these are my favorite ones fully power-packed with outstanding features and capabilities that allow the creation of PHP websites quickly & easily. However, the tools listed on this blog are the ‘best PHP development tools that meet every requirement of your project. PHP IDEs are popping out day and night; so it’s always worth keeping an eye on.