What (free) web development IDEs do people use?

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+19 Q:

What (free) web development IDEs do people use?

I'm after a free (and Free) lightweight IDE at least on Windows, and preferably cross-platform as well, which handles:

XHTML, CSS and Javascript (maybe even jQuery..!) syntax highlighting
FTP deployment
Version control integration (CVS, SVN, Git, whatever)

What've people found to work?

EDIT: I've tried a few of these, and have chosen Aptana, even though it isn't the highest-voted solution. It's quicker than Eclipse, and seems more suited to Web development (e.g. I just typed in a few FTP details and it sucked down the site onto my hard disk. Nice and easy.) I hope that it's reasonable/acceptable behaviour to accept the non-highest answer; this is my first answered question, so thanks everyone for answering!

For posterity, the other solution I would strongly consider is Eclipse PDT.

+10 A:

NetBeans is my IDE of choice (http://www.netbeans.org/).

Jack Sleight 2009-02-05 09:52:18

Netbeans is a really good choice it does all the basic web languages, has FTP support and really good intergration with various version control systems.It also has really good PHP support since version 6.5 and really good support for a number of different JavaScript libraries including jQuery.

Mark Davidson 2009-02-05 12:15:23

+19 A:

Eclipse

Techmaddy 2009-02-05 09:53:38

+2 for with Aptana plugin though.

Noah Goodrich 2009-02-15 03:55:35

Ya, with Aptana plugin, its cool for Front end Development.

Techmaddy 2009-02-15 18:44:11

+17 A:

Aptana is the best IDE for JavaScript. It also supports jQuery. It's based on Eclipse, so you can make it work with Eclipse Plug-ins. It supports SVN right out of the box.

01 2009-02-05 09:54:39

I wouldn't say that Aptana fits the "lightweight" category though.

Simon Hartcher 2009-02-06 05:51:59

Only Aptana Pro which costs $99 supports SVN if you use their plugin

Adam 2009-02-06 05:56:53

Aptana is the best ide for javascript that I found so far.

Hoffmann 2009-02-08 22:52:58

I think Aptana is more lightweight than Eclipse, Visual Studio, Netbeans and IntelliJ :P

01 2009-02-09 23:38:57

@Adam, the free version supports SVN with Subclipse, which is the best SVN plugin IMO. I suggest to use the 1.5.1 version of Aptana which has a better JS support and supports Smarty syntax too.

Fabien Ménager 2009-12-05 17:00:22

what version of eclipse does aptana sit on? Last time I used it it was quite a few version behind?

Nathan Feger 2009-12-05 17:10:33

gvim - If you are good at vi, this is very powerful.

Techmaddy 2009-02-05 09:55:26

Aptana

Techmaddy 2009-02-05 09:58:09

+7 A:

Open Komodo (or Komodo Edit) and Eclipse.

Anders Sandvig 2009-02-05 09:58:18

Komodo is nice, if a bit slow to start.

Rob 2009-02-05 17:15:51

Yeah, but I only start it once every time I reboot or turn on the computer... ;)

Anders Sandvig 2009-02-05 18:10:20

Komodo Edit comes with jQuery intellisense, but it doesn't have VCS integration. On Windows you can use TortoiseSVN, TortoiseHg, or TotoiseGit.

T. Stone 2009-12-05 17:41:45

+17 A:

Visual Studio Web Developer Express edition.

melaos 2009-02-05 09:59:14

not sure i'd call it lightweight!

darasd 2009-02-05 11:32:27

compared to the Pro or Team edition I would call it lightweight. Currently i am using everyday because its more optimal for what I do. VS Pro seems huge/bulky in comparison

MikeJ 2009-02-06 05:33:20

+1 A:

jEdit has plugins for FTP and different version-control-systems. It also supports syntax highlighting for nearly everything.

Mnementh 2009-02-05 10:02:11

Here is a perfect free two software :

For CSS : TopStyle Lite

For FTP : FileZilla

For General Use (Notepad Replacement) : Notepad2

Canavar 2009-02-05 10:08:16

Textmate rocks my socks. Maybe it doesn't do deployment, but I use capistrano for that, and it hits every other requirement you have.

EDIT: oh free... Textmate isnt free. But well worth the purchase.

Squeegy 2009-02-05 10:08:30

Except the requirement to run under Windows.

Rob 2009-02-05 17:16:59

Haha, I fail today.

Squeegy 2009-02-05 17:26:17

E Text Editor, sold as 'The power of Text Mate for windows', very similiar to Text Mate. Although also not free.

Ronnie 2009-02-08 01:06:16

+1 A:

+1 for Netbeans. Great Java and Ruby/Rails support - now also comes with Python support.

I've been using IntelliJ lately as they offer a 30 day free trial and it rocks. So, so clever. It needs to be tried to be believed. Just need to raise the funds or persuade the boss to buy me a license...

marktucks 2009-02-05 10:15:13

I used IntelliJ a bit with my previous company...it was amazing, I agree! Although Eclipse has done a lot of catching up.

Robert Grant 2009-02-05 12:13:40

+1 A:

Aptana checks all your boxes. Comes as a standalone or Eclipse plugin.
Notepad++ is very cool if you need something fast and light. I'm not sure if it has plugins for SVN or jQuery but it may do.

meouw 2009-02-05 10:18:51

UltraEdit

GateKiller 2009-02-05 10:23:43

I still think that Eclipse is the best by far.

In terms of capability but also because of its plug-ins and the community behind it.

Remember that it has the level of Visual Sudio but is FREE which is really rare this days.

Polo 2009-02-05 10:40:01

Eclipse Doesn't have the level of a Visual Studio ;)Visual Studio Express is FREE.

François 2009-02-05 14:16:07

Robert Grant 2009-02-06 21:12:30

Thanks for the answers (so far!) guys. I'm trying to download a few options and give them a go; this is a really helpful list. I'm ideally looking for something more lightweight than Eclipse (or derivatives); I use it every day and it's a good tool, but it's quite heavyweight. However, possibly a stripped-down version would work, I'll give that a go.

Robert Grant 2009-02-05 10:47:50

you should put your responses by editing your question, not answering it yourself =)

Hoffmann 2009-02-08 22:54:11

Oh - sorry! I obviously didn't read the FAQs carefully enough before starting :)

Robert Grant 2009-02-09 09:13:54

+1 A:

I use #Develop - it is the free and light weight C#/VB.NET/IronPython/IronRuby/Boo IDE. You can find a quick review of #Develop on my blog.

Pronounced Sharp-Develop it has integration with many tools such as NUnit, FxCop and more.

Dror Helper 2009-02-05 11:06:28

Does it have JavaScript support? I went to the site and I can't see that it does.

Nosredna 2009-12-05 17:44:19

#Norsredna - Unfortunately SharpDevelop does not have (at the moment) JavaScript support - hopefully they'll add some in future versions

Dror Helper 2009-12-06 06:09:34

I've been using phpDesigner for a while. It's not restricted to PHP and doesn't contain any intellisense-style tips but I like it as it's pretty lightweight.

Ross 2009-02-05 11:37:19

+1 A:

I have used EditPlus (now $35) for years. Lightweight, with syntax highlighting and FTP deployment. No version control integration though.

Leslie 2009-02-05 11:40:24

I use PSPad for JavaScript, XML and XSLT.

jaloplo 2009-02-05 11:47:15

+3 A:

For CSS IntelliJ IDEA IDE is good. But it is not free. But you can get a trial version for one month. After that you can uninstall and reinstall. The AutoCompletion feature is very good in IntelliJ IDEA.

BlackPanther 2009-02-05 12:05:09

Now it will be free: http://blogs.jetbrains.com/idea/2009/10/intellij-idea-open-sourced/

OscarRyz 2009-10-16 00:30:16

Peter Mortensen 2009-12-05 17:48:46

I'm currently studying at a university and we have been told not to use an IDE as it can complete a lot of code for you (fine if you know what you are doing). I am currently using PSPad and it supports most formats too. PS Pad.

Cool Hand Luke UK 2009-02-05 17:13:29

Tell them to sod off, and use whatever tools make you most productive. As long as you understand what's going on and can explain it if challenged, I see no reason to accept arbitrary limitations on tooling.

Rob 2009-02-05 17:18:37

+2 A:

For a "lighter" Eclipse environment for PHP, go to http://www.eclipse.org/pdt/downloads/ and pull the package down from there.

Then head over to http://download.eclipse.org/technology/dltk/downloads/, click on the link for the current stable downloads and pull down the JavaScript IDE plug-in to add on as well. (No need to get the core, it's already in the PHP download.)

Evan 2009-02-06 05:18:50

That's interesting; do you mean the one under Incubated Components?

Robert Grant 2009-02-06 10:13:50

That's the only one there, so, yep.

Evan 2009-02-06 11:01:03

eclipse FTW

Scott Evernden 2009-02-06 05:48:42

+3 A:

NetBeans 6 is fantastic because it supports pretty much all the languages you're likely to use for web development.

The JavaScript editor is just amazing; it highlights errors as you're typing, just like you may be used to when editing a static language such as Java. Given that there's no compiler to validate your JavaScript, this is a huge time saver.

It also itegrates with all the popular SQL databases.

People who last tried NetBeans at vesion 5 or earlier should really give version 6 a look. The product has transformed since then.

David Easley 2009-02-14 12:29:07

I agree with that last bit - Netbeans 6 is so far ahead of the other versions it's ridiculous.

Robert Grant 2009-02-16 09:34:09

ansaurus

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What (free) web development IDEs do people use?

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