PHP Development Tools for Web Developers Recommended by Top Experts

by Shishir Dubey May 8, 2019

PHP is one of the most widely used open source programming languages that covers more than 50+ industry segments. Hundreds and thousands of businesses that operate online through a website have PHP code working at their backend. It is also one of the most loved programming languages by developers who do web application development through productive and popular PHP development tools.

The main reason being – PHP has a lot of tools in its arena that allows them to ease the process of building a business PHP website of any given complexity level.

You can anticipate the popularity of this technology also form the fact that there are so many PHP frameworks available in the market like –

Laravel | CakePHP | Zend Framework | CodeIgniter | Phalcon | Aura | Slim | Fat-free | FuelPHP | PXPixie

Not only that, each one of those PHP frameworks has its dedicated set of PHP development tools which PHP Developers can use to build high quality and performance optimized websites and web apps.

So in this blog today, we will be discussing the most popular and widely used PHP Application Development Tools that are used at ChromeInfotech.

Each of these tools is voted upon by our in-house PHP web experts.

Wide Range of Best PHP Development Tools According to PHP Web Experts

PHP Development team at ChromeInfotech conducted an internal poll amongst its developers. It was done to find out which PHP website/web app development tools developers find more productive and efficient in using.

HERE ARE THE DETAILED LIST AND FEATURES OF EACH ONE OF THOSE.

 

 

Eclipse PHP IDE | Eclipse Editor

First of all, this PHP Development editor is supported on all three platforms – Windows, MAC, Linux.

It has got the support of the latest version of the PHP language which is – PHP 7. This allows developers to write code in a much efficient and better manner.

Apart from that, it has a faster PHP indexer which is mainly responsible for effective compilation of PHP code. It is implemented using a very high performance based text search engine called Apache Lucene.

It is one of the best performance optimized and enhanced PHP editor software that makes it easier to do code optimization and maximize software performance.

The eclipse editor also has code highlighting functionalities which makes it easier for developers to understand and write code better as compared to writing code in the command line.

Last but not least, eclipse PHP development tools consist of advanced code debugging functionalities also which allows developers to eliminate 100% of the bugs.

NetBeans PHP IDE | One of the Best Free PHP IDE

It is written in Java. Despite that, it has excellent support for multiple languages including PHP and its various frameworks.

NetBeans also provides extensive support for Content management software like WordPress and allows anyone to build a CMS WordPress based PHP website/blog.

Not only it has two primary and fundamentals components like –

• Source Code Editor
• Code Debugger

But it also features many Continuous Integration (CI) based features and functionalities. It allows PHP developers to add and integrate new and customized features into your PHP web software efficiently and effectively. NetBeans PHP IDE also has a lot of in-built configuration setting that reduces the time of developers to set up and configure their project.

Mind it – If you are someone looking for migration-related services, this is one of the best PHP development tools that can help you migrate your website to a PHP based website.

Apart from that, it also has powerful source code formatting features and allows developers to format source code automatically.

PHPStorm | PHP Development Tools for Developers

PHPStorm is one of the best PHP IDE of 2019 that has extended support for a wide range of PHP frameworks such as CakePHP, Symfony and Zend too.

It is also one of the best PHP tools to develop a high-performance WordPress and PHP based website for your business.

Some of its features are –

It supports a wide range of relational databases. So it doesn’t matter which relational database you want to use for your PHP website. PHPStorm has got support for many.

Moreover, it is one of the best PHP tools for engaging in custom web application development based out of the PHP language. That’s because it supports many advanced features such as command line functionalities, code versioning, and control systems for software versions, features to work with REST APIs and also a composer.

Aptana Studio | Web Development IDE for PHP

In addition to the above PHP tools, we also have another top-rated tool that our team prefers to use called Aptana Studio.

This is an open source PHP IDE free to use and supports several client-side technologies as well as server-side technologies. The client-side technologies include HTML5 CSS3 While the server side technologies include JavaScript| Python | Ruby on Rails | Ruby.

So in case you are developing a PHP based website or web application, our PHP developers can quickly help you integrate the code in above server-side technologies with the PHP code to create a custom software for the web powered by PHP.

Moreover, building and testing of the PHP web application is much more comfortable and convenient with Aptana Studio as – This one of those PHP development Tools which has a single environment to build and test PHP websites and web applications.

Apart from that, it features a command line interface too. This can help developers who want to manually configure and develop some parts of their PHP web application/website.

It also has an advanced code debugger. GIT integration is also supported by this feature-full PHP tool.

Code Lobster | One of the Commonly Used PHP Development Tools

Most of our PHP developers are in love with this portable Integrated Development environment for PHP. Majority of the popular PHP frameworks are supported here.

PHP programmers and developers stay at ease while writing code in the PHP language using this tool. That’s because –

• It has a syntax highlighting feature to allows developers and programmers to write better code.
• Code Auto-complete functionality through which our team can save a lot of development time.
• Code validator to validate the code written in PHP.
• Debugger to figure out bugs and loopholes and remove them.
• An SQL manager to manage SQL databases effectively.

These are the five key features and functionalities which makes Code Lobster one of the preferred PHP development tools amongst our PHP team.

PHPDesigner | Build Web Applications Using HTML5 CSS3 and PHP Code

Why should One use PHPDesigner?  That’s because this is one of the functionality powered PHP development tools that allows PHP developers to build customized and best PHP websites/web applications.

It enables natural website/ web app development in PHP language because it allows developers to take full benefits of the ecosystem created by the blend of HTML5 CSS3 JavaScript and the PHP language.

It has a fast Integrated Development Environment and a powerful code editor. Not only it has tools and functionalities for editing, analyzing and debugging of code, but it also has features for convenient writing, testing, and deployment of PHP code.

Moreover, it very well let you build PHP web software solutions that need integration of JavaScript Code also.

Some of its additional highlights are –

• Code completion functionality.
• Highlight syntax of code that has errors and mistakes powered by smart tech.
• Code Tipping features.

Because of these features and functionalities, our team has PHPDesigner on the top PHP development Tools list.

Zend Studio | One of the Web Application Product Development PHP Tools

One of the best PHP Development Tools to save you time and money both. Our Developers prefer to use Zend Studio in certain use cases where they need to speed up the development process and build PHP website/web application fast.

Writing code, as well as debugging code, is a piece of cake with Zend Studio. It has many smart and intelligent functionalities working at the backend to ease the life of developer and programmer.

One of the best PHP tools if you are building a PHP web software solution using the Zend PHP framework for your business.

Furthermore, to debug the PHP code, Zend studio uses the following components –

• Zend Debugger
• XDebug
• X-Ray.

Also, not only for debugging but when it comes to PHP application deployment, Zend Studio is the most preferred choice. It because – PHP programmer and developers can deploy the PHP web software on any given number of web servers.

Moreover, one major key USP of this PHP development tool is that – Developers and programmers can extend Zend Studio functionalities via the Eclipse Plugins also. A great tool to build PHP websites and web applications.

PHPED | One of the Best PHP Development Tools to Choose and Work With

First of all, NuSphere provides one of the most potent PHP tools named PHPED. This is one of the most robust PHP tools any PHP developer can ever use. The primary reason being –

Because of the support of PHP version 7.1 and support to HTML5 CSS3 and JavaScript Code.

PHPED is for you If you want to work with a wide range of PHP frameworks like Laravel, Yii or Zend.

Moreover, the latest version of this tool is even better with advanced code debugging features and functionalities. Because of these advanced features, developers can quickly build PHP web software products and complete the product development life cycle quickly.

Hence these advanced debugging features include – Local Debugging as well as Remote Debugging to choose from and makes it easier to test PHP software.

Therefore, I would say that this is one of the most productive and efficient pieces of technology tool for the developer so far. Finally, it has code refactoring as well as code completion functionalities too.

Sublime Text | One of the Open Source Rapid PHP Editor Tools

Because of its many features, Sublime text is one of the most robust text editors to write code, Mark-up and prose it. One of its many significant advantages is that it is cross-platform and supported on Windows, MAC, and Linux.

Furthermore, Sublime Text offers a wide range of features like a Customized UI toolkit. Also, it has many keyboard shortcuts through which a programmer can jump to a specific section of the code for editing or making relevant changes.

Most Noteworthy feature of this PHP tool is that – You change not only a specific section of the code just by directly jumping to that section, but also edit multiple lines of code at the same instant of time.

Therefore, one thing which you can note from the existence of this tool it that – it offers tremendous flexibility and customizations when it comes to writing professional and clean PHP code. I would highly recommend Sublime Text to any developer and programmer who wants to develop custom web-based PHP websites as well as web applications.

AWS CLOUD9 | PHP Development Tools | IDE for PHP | Debug PHP Code

First of all, AWS CLOUD9 is one of the most significant cloud-based coding services provided by Amazon.

Here is what this tool does explicitly –

It is an integrated development environment based on the Amazon cloud which our developers and programmers use to –

• Write code,
• Run it and
• Do code debugging at the same time.

PHP development experts prefer it because of its many features and functionalities, –

• To write the code of a PHP web software, all you need is a browser and an internet connection.
• It permits real-time coding.
• One of the great PHP tool to build serverless PHP applications.
• You get direct access to the AWS terminal.
• It has a fully- featured code editor that has code completion functionalities.
• Availability of a vast variety of RUN configurations.
• Integrated Debugger to removes 100% of the critical bugs.
• Feature to connect to any given Linux Server Platform.
• Collaborative chat feature for the team to collaborate and develop high performing PHP software.
• Many custom themes.
• Last but not least, it has a built-in image editor.

Hence, it is one of the most –

• Effective and
• Productive PHP tools based on the cloud that a PHP developer or programmer can ever use.

Therefore, I recommend it to anyone who –

Wants to achieve super high-level productivity using the PHP language and its related frameworks.

Our Conclusion About | Top PHP Debugging Tools / PHP Coding Software

Finally, coming to a verdict, I would like to say that –

Our team of developers, testers and other senior quality assurance specialists –

Ranks the above PHP Tools as some of the best.  

Moreover, these

• Open source as well as
• Licensed tools not only makes it incredibly easier at our end to build a PHP website,

But also –

LET US DEVELOP OPTIMIZED WEBSITE AND WEB APP BASED OUT OF PHP ON EVERY SINGLE FRONT.

Furthermore, the main thing that inspires any PHP web developer to work with any given PHP development tool is –

• Its design concept and usability aspect.
• How effectively it can maximize business productivity and results.

Hence, the above-discussed PHP website and web app development tools which our team uses –

Let them build one of the best business-centric PHP software solution.

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