Designing certain web technologies—including a whole website—typically takes three months depending on the complexity, feature set, and design team availability. That might sound pretty expedient for something as complicated as an ecommerce site, but for a business owner, three months can feel like an eternity.
But, there are web development tools that make the job easier and faster. With these essential tools, you can build a successful, high-performance ecommerce website or mobile app that satisfies customers and drives sales.
Whether you need to code front-end interfaces for interactive websites, optimize back-end performance, debug and test, or manage version control, there are tools suited for both small- and large-scale projects.
What are web development tools?
Web development tools are software packages that help you design, build, test, and manage web pages and applications. These tools can simplify your website development by improving productivity, code quality, and team collaboration.
Categorizing development tools can be complex because they address different aspects of the development process. A web development tool might consist of an application, a web builder platform, a library, or a comprehensive software framework, which is a structure that provides a foundation for building applications with reusable code, libraries, and tools.
Some development tools are laser-focused on specific tasks, while others house a suite of tools. Code editors, for example, manage the testing and debugging process.
Front-end vs. back-end vs. hybrid web development tools
Web developer tools can be front end, back end, or a combination of both:
Front-end tools
Front-end development involves enhancing the user-facing aspects of a website, making it visually appealing and responsive. Front-end tools include resources for graphics, fonts, animations, and other visual elements. Some common front-end tools are CSS preprocessors, JavaScript frameworks, and live preview features. Well-known examples include Angular, Bootstrap, and jQuery.
Back-end tools
Back-end development tools are for behind-the-curtain wizardry. They manage server-side operations, including configurations and user data management, while facilitating code writing, debugging, and testing. Popular back-end tools include Ruby on Rails, Django, and Node.js.
Hybrid tools
Some tools handle both sides of web development. Integrated development environments (IDEs) like Visual Studio include code editing, debugging, version control, deployment, database management, and front-end user interface tasks.
Why use web development tools?
These key benefits make its hard to imagine a developer living without web development tools:
Efficiency
Create a faster path to your target by automating tasks that would otherwise require much manual effort. For example, a code editor with built-in autocomplete and syntax highlighting improves coding speed and reduces errors.
Functionality
Development tools’ features and integrations enhance usability across platforms that would be too complex for manual code. Many tools feature a user-friendly interface that enables developers—from novices to experts—to contribute.
Customization
Web development tools let you customize the online store’s design, layout, and basic functionality to match your business needs. Create a unique brand identity or add store features like product reviews with a wide range of themes, templates, and plug-ins.
Support
Developer tools have thriving support communities you can rely on when you’re stuck or facing issues. No need to feel like you have to come up with solutions alone—an army of fellow enthusiasts in online forums can help analyze problems and recommend best practices.
How to choose a web development tool
Here’s what to look for when picking the right web development tool for your business:
User-friendliness
Enable productive developers of all skill levels with intuitive tools that integrate smoothly into your workflow without a steep learning curve.
Security
Ensure your valuable data remains safe with battle-tested tools that have a proven reputation and strong community support, and offer multiple layers of protection.
Flexibility
Keep your websites functioning smoothly while your web development projects grow and evolve with tools that can scale and adapt across platforms.
Cost-effectiveness
Ensure consistency in web development with tools that fit your current and future budget. Consider free trial periods that allow you to test a paid tool’s suitability before making a financial commitment.
Top web development tools
- For versatile development: Visual Studio IDE
- For repository hosting: GitHub
- For in-browser coding and debugging: Chrome Developer Tools
- For beginner coders: Sublime Text
- For sharing and deploying JavaScript packages: Node Package Manager
- For CSS framework development: Sass
- For front-end development of responsive mobile apps: Bootstrap
- For rapid development of web apps: Ruby on Rails
- For PHP developers: XAMPP
- For building user interfaces: React
- For front-end web development: Angular
- For front-end prototypes and development: Vue.js
- For rapid application development: Django
- For building APIs: Postman
- For interface design: Figma
Even the best web development tools vary in size, scope, and specialization. Some handle niche tasks, while others offer broad functionality and customization. Here’s an overview of the most popular options on the market:
For versatile development: Visual Studio IDE
Visual Studio is a popular, robust integrated development environment featuring a powerful Visual Studio code editor, debugging tools, and version control integration. It supports a wide range of programming languages and frameworks, making it highly versatile. Its interface is approachable and enables the creation of high-quality, maintainable, and scalable online stores.
Pricing: Individual developers can access the free tier. Professional subscriptions are $45 per month, and the enterprise edition is available for $250 per month.
For repository hosting: GitHub
GitHub is the world’s largest open-source development clearinghouse. It hosts millions of projects on its cloud servers and provides popular version control systems (VCS) that track your project’s history of changes. Developers use GitHub for project management by maintaining project repositories and enabling user collaboration. That management is especially useful for ecommerce web development, where projects can be complex and involve multiple developers.
GitHub’s advanced features, such as network pull requests, allow developers to propose changes to a codebase for review and potential merging. It also boasts a vast and active developer community.
Pricing: Entry-level pricing is free for individuals and organizations. Development teams can access additional features for $4 per user per month, while the comprehensive Enterprise tier is priced at $21 per user per month.
For in-browser coding and debugging: Chrome Developer Tools
Chrome DevTools is a set of web developer tools and network tools built into the Google Chrome browser, which is as convenient as it gets. It enables rapid development by allowing you to edit, inspect, debug, and optimize a web page on the fly. You can view HTML, CSS, and JavaScript structures, analyze network requests and responses between the browser and the server, execute JavaScript code in the console, measure performance, and test for accessibility—all within a single, integrated suite.
Pricing: Chrome DevTools is free and open source.
For beginner coders: Sublime Text
Sublime Text is a front-end editor for code files. It’s renowned for its intuitive interface, file tabs, split views, and extensive keyboard shortcuts. Sublime Text offers context-aware intelligent code completion, making it a preferred code editor for beginners with limited coding knowledge, while its robust syntax highlighting caters to expert web developers. A multi-cursor feature also enables simultaneous editing. Sublime Text supports many popular programming languages, including Python, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, Ruby, PHP, Java, C++, C#, and Go.
Pricing: Download an evaluation version for free. A personal license costs $99.
For sharing and deploying JavaScript packages: Node Package Manager
Node.js is a leading JavaScript software registry for finding, installing, sharing, and deploying code packages in server-side web applications. It allows developers to save time by avoiding the need to write new code for common JavaScript tasks.
In ecommerce, Node.js integrates with payment gateways like Stripe and PayPal, handles shopping carts and checkout processes, manages product catalogs, inventory, and pricing, and connects to marketing and analytics tools to monitor performance.
Pricing: Node.js is free and open source.
For CSS framework development: Sass
Sass (Syntactically Awesome Style Sheets) is a CSS preprocessor that enhances plain CSS with programming capabilities. It introduces features like variables, nesting, mixins, and inheritance while ensuring compatibility with all CSS versions. By organizing and reusing styles, Sass makes the development of an online store’s user interface more efficient.
Pricing: Sass is free and open source, allowing you to experiment in its in-browser playground before installing.
For front-end development of responsive mobile apps: Bootstrap
Bootstrap is a customizable front-end framework with Sass built in. It offers reusable CSS, JavaScript, and HTML templates, and includes JavaScript libraries and plug-ins that enhance website development. You can easily create responsive mobile-first sites tailored to match your store design and integrate pre-built components like buttons, forms, and navigation menus.
Pricing: Bootstrap is open source and free.
For rapid development of web apps: Ruby on Rails
Ruby on Rails is a server-side (back end) framework for the rapid development of web apps. It’s especially popular with ecommerce developers because they can focus on features and functionality instead of low-level infrastructure. It manages databases on the server and renders real-time HTML pages and updates on the client side. The framework supports front-end frameworks like Angular and React and includes automated testing tools and built-in libraries. Its built-in data protection safeguards payment and customer information from cybercriminals.
Pricing: Ruby on Rails is free and open source but requires server-side data hosting through your provider.
For PHP developers: XAMPP
XAMPP is a popular cross-platform PHP development environment for Apache web servers. It pairs Apache with a comprehensive suite that includes MySQL for database creation and management, PHP scripting language for server-side database access, and Perl programming language for text processing.
Pricing: XAMPP is free and open source.
For building user interfaces: React
React is a web development framework featuring a JavaScript library for responsive mobile and web app user interfaces. It speeds up the development process by making it easy to code pre-built components like buttons, forms, pop-up windows, cards, tables, and charts. Developers can use React from a command-line interface (CLI) to create new projects, manage dependencies, and run build scripts. With debugging tools built in, React works alongside browser developer tools for more advanced debugging. It can also be used for server rendering using Node.js.
Pricing: React is free and open source.
For front-end web development: Angular
Angular is a popular, scalable, cross-platform JavaScript framework developed by Google for dynamic web applications and progressive web apps. It delivers native-like experiences in web browsers without separate apps. Using a component-based architecture, Angular lets you build modular, reusable code, and employs two-way data binding to keep the user interface in sync with data changes. Supported by a thriving developer community of millions, it offers extensive resources and robust support.
Pricing: Angular is free and open source.
For front-end prototypes and development: Vue.js
Vue.js is a front-end JavaScript tool for mobile and web applications. You can use it to build clickable prototypes and a graphical user interface. Its data-binding features support a vast library of animation and transition effects.
Pricing: Vue.js is free and open source.
For rapid application development: Django
Django is a top-tier, scalable Python framework built for high-traffic applications that grow with your web app’s demands. Its rapid, hassle-free development environment ensures speedy performance while prioritizing security. It’s an excellent choice for experienced developers fluent in the Python programming language, and its popularity provides a vast and robust developer support network.
Pricing: Django is free and open source.
For building APIs: Postman
Postman, trusted by over 30 million developers, is an application programming interface (API) platform for quickly assembling and deploying protocols that enable seamless communication between different software applications. It encompasses the entire API lifecycle, including design, documentation, and mocking to simulate objects and behaviors during testing. You can also store API components in a repository to facilitate collaboration with other developers.
Pricing: Postman is free for individuals and small development teams of up to three members. When billed annually for single teams, the Basic tier costs $14 per month, the Professional tier is $29 per month, and the Enterprise tier is $49 per month.
For interface design: Figma
Figma is a popular cloud-based web application that lets teams of web designers and developers collaborate on user interface design. It has shared design files, whiteboards, and an advanced code editor for your team to create high-quality mockups, wireframes, and prototypes. Its intuitive interface facilitates collaboration and integrates well with other design tools like Sketch and InVision.
Pricing: Starter plans are free and include one editor with three design files. Professional team plans cost $15 per month, organization seat licenses are $45 per month, and the enterprise tier is $75 per month. Paid plans are per seat and per team.
Web development tools FAQ
What are the tools used in web development?
Web development tools help create, design, and maintain websites. Front-end development tools handle the coding in web development languages used to build the user interface, while back-end development tools manage server-side logic and data. Integrated development environments (IDEs) combine both sides into a single platform.
How do I find web developer tools?
You can find web development tools at online marketplaces like the Shopify App Store and software repositories like GitHub. Some tools are open-source and freely available; others require a license or subscription.
What are some types of web development tools?
Web development tools are categorized into front-end development tools for user interfaces, back-end tools for server operations, and hybrid tools that integrate both functionalities. These tools serve a variety of uses, including Git clients and services, package managers, browser developer tools, web application frameworks, web design and prototyping tools, API testing tools, and collaboration tools.
