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116 Software Development Tools


If you want to see the best tools for software development in one place, then you’ll love this guide.

This list contains 116 tools that are either for developing software or can help you work as a software developer.

The tools are grouped into categories to help you navigate the list.

Check it out below.

Code Editors

This collection of tools includes full IDEs, text editors, and web-based development environments.

Atom

https://atom.io/

A free, open source, powerful text editor that’s used for editing simple text or programming in a variety of languages. It allows for themes and customisation using extensions.

Sublime Text

https://www.sublimetext.com/

Another powerful and popular text editor, which can be used for simple text editing or programming. Has a free and paid version.

Notepad++<

https://notepad-plus-plus.org/

A free text editor for Windows. A great replacement for Notepad and supports several languages.

Visual Studio Code (VS Code)

https://code.visualstudio.com/

A free, open source code editor by Microsoft. It’s quite a popular IDE even though it’s fairly new. Has a simple but well-built UI and lots of features.

IntelliJ IDEA

https://www.jetbrains.com/idea/

A powerful IDE by JetBrains who make a range of great products. It’s focused on Java programming but supports several other languages.

NetBeans

https://netbeans.apache.org/

A code editor by the Apache group. Runs on many platforms and supports many languages. I used this many years ago when I started development.

Eclipse IDE

https://www.eclipse.org/eclipseide/

Another popular IDE which focuses on Java development. I also used this many years ago for development.

Zend Studio

https://www.zend.com/products/zend-studio

A powerful PHP-focused IDE that has many features for developing PHP applications. Has an integration with other Zend products.

phpStorm

https://www.jetbrains.com/phpstorm/

Another IDE by JetBrains, focusing on PHP development but supports other languages. Has many great features and a familiar UI.

PyCharm

https://www.jetbrains.com/pycharm/

JetBrains IDE for Python development. Has a familiar IDE like all JetBrains products, and many features for Python development.

WebStorm

https://www.jetbrains.com/webstorm/

A JetBrains IDE focusing on JavaScript development. It has features to handle common frameworks and other JavaScript functionality.

Ultra Edit

https://www.ultraedit.com/products/ultraedit/

A powerful text editor available on multiple operating systems. It’s been around for a while and is still popular.

Xcode

https://developer.apple.com/xcode/

An IDE for developing MacOS and iOS applications.

Cloud9

https://aws.amazon.com/cloud9/

A web-based IDE by Amazon AWS for writing, running, and debugging code.

Codenvy

https://codenvy.com/

A tool for creating workspaces for developing code.

Codeanywhere

https://codeanywhere.com/

A cloud-based IDE, allowing you to develop and deploy and environment online.

Boostnote

https://boostnote.io/

A powerful, collaborative workspace for development teams, allowing you to develop code and more.

Project and Task Management

As a software developer you’ll need a way to capture your work, both professionally and personally. This collection of tools let you manage this work.

Trello

https://trello.com/

Trello is a simple, popular, web-based tool for visualising your work using cards and boards.

Asana

https://asana.com/

A task and project management tool which is great for individuals and teams.

Jira

https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira

A popular software development tool, used for tracking work for Agile teams. You may already use this at work.

Monday

https://monday.com/

A tool for tracking tasks and projects. Includes features for integration and automation.

Notion

https://www.notion.so

A flexible tool for project management, documentation, Kanban boards, calendars, and more.

Todoist

https://todoist.com/

A clean and fast task management application, with many features for managing your work. I’ve used this for years to track my todo list.

Airtable

https://airtable.com/

A tool that can be thought of as a combination of a spreadsheet and project manager. Has great features and is quite flexible.

ClickUp

https://clickup.com/

A fairly new application that combines tasks, documentation, spreadsheets, events, chat, goals, and more.

Axosoft

https://www.axosoft.com/

A tool for managing Agile projects. Includes features for bug tracking, help desk, documentation, and more.

Pivotal Tracker

https://www.pivotaltracker.com/

A tool for managing software projects, allowing you to visualise the upcoming work for your team.

Binfire

https://www.binfire.com/

Binfire helps teams plan and coordinate their work.

Codegiant

https://codegiant.io/home

A workspace for planning, building, and shipping software. Includes an issue tracker, documentation, and more.

Plan.io

https://plan.io/

A project management and issue tracking tool, with help desk features, wikis and chat.

Mantis Bug Tracker

https://www.mantisbt.org/

An open-source issue tracker which is quite simple but powerful.

Proofhub

https://www.proofhub.com/

A tool that allows teams to work together and to manage projects. Includes table views, Kanban boards, tasks, and more.

nTask

https://www.ntaskmanager.com/

A project management application allowing you to view lists of tasks and Kanban boards.

Miro

https://miro.com/

A popular and flexible tool for visualising work, creating diagrams, brainstorming work, and more.

Blossom

https://blossom.co/

A project management tool focused on teams spread across different locations and timezones.

Design

These tools are commonly used to design systems and interfaces.

Axure

https://www.axure.com/

A tool that can be used to build functional prototypes for software.

Figma

https://www.figma.com/

A tool for teams to design interfaces and work together in a visual way.

Canva

https://www.canva.com/

Canva allows you to easily create graphics for use online, for posters, or logos and more.

Gleek

https://www.gleek.io/

Gleek is a tool that allows you to create diagrams using only the keyboard.

Code Repositories

Chances are you use one of these already, but if you’re looking for a source code repository, check out this list.

GitHub

https://github.com/

Arguably the most popular source code repository, GitHub lets you store your source code and maintain your software. Learn how to use it with SQL files here.

Bitbucket

https://bitbucket.org/product

An Atlassian tool for managing source code, plan projects, and manage issues.

Gitlab

https://about.gitlab.com/

A DevOps platform that includes source code management, CI/CD tools, and more.

Deployment and Environment Tools

Jenkins

https://www.jenkins.io/

An open-source continuous integration server for helping you deploy your code.

CircleCI

https://circleci.com/

A continuous integration tool for deploying your code and automating your build process.

Octopus Deploy

https://octopus.com/

An automated deployment tool that can help you deploy your code and manage releases.

Bamboo

https://www.atlassian.com/software/bamboo

An Atlassian tool for testing and deploying your code automatically.

Buddy

https://buddy.works/

A tool for continuous integration and deployment of your code.

Team City

https://www.jetbrains.com/teamcity/

A JetBrains solution for automated code deployment and continuous integration.

Launch Darkly

https://launchdarkly.com/

A service for managing feature flags and toggles in your code.

Heroku

https://www.heroku.com/

A tool for deploying and managing your applications.

Travis CI

https://travis-ci.com/

A CI tool focused on open-source projects. Commonly recommended for personal projects.

Docker

https://www.docker.com/

A tool that allows developers to create a self-contained area of their computer for running applications, called “containers”.

GCP (Google Cloud Platform)

https://cloud.google.com/

A set of tools and services by Google for deploying and hosting your application.

AWS (Amazon Web Services)

https://aws.amazon.com/

A set of tools by Amazon for deploying and hosting applications.

Microsoft Azure

https://azure.microsoft.com/

Microsoft’s set of tools for deploying and hosting your application.

Flyway DB

https://flywaydb.org/

A tool for implementing version control for your database objects (tables, procedures, etc) and data. Related: How to Set Up FlywayDB

Liquibase

https://www.liquibase.org/

Another tool for applying version control and tracking to your database changes.

Koding

https://www.koding.com/

Create and share fully automated development environments.

Codestream

https://www.codestream.com/

An extension for VS Code, Visual Studio, and JetBrains, that combines several tools into your IDE, such as GitHub, Slack, Jira, and more.

Monit

https://mmonit.com/monit/

Monit is an open-source utility for monitoring Unix systems.

Testing

Codepen

https://codepen.io/

An online code editor for writing, testing, and sharing front-end code.

JSFiddle

https://jsfiddle.net/

A tool for writing HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and testing the results.

Postman

https://www.postman.com/

A platform for API development and testing.

Rollbar

https://rollbar.com/

Error tracking software for various web development languages.

SQLFiddle

http://sqlfiddle.com/

A site that lets you build a database using SQL scripts and run sample queries. Great for testing small SQL and database examples. Supports MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, SQLite, SQL Server.

DB Fiddle

https://www.db-fiddle.com/

Another site for writing and testing SQL scripts. Supports MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite.

DB Fiddle UK

https://dbfiddle.uk/

A site for writing and testing SQL scripts. Supports many versions of SQL Server, PostgreSQL, SQLite, Oracle, MySQL, MariaDB, Firebird, and DB2.

Browserstack

https://www.browserstack.com/

A tool that lets you test applications on different browsers.

Walrus.ai

https://walrus.ai/

Allows you to add automated end-to-end tests to your application.

Focus

Cold Turkey

https://getcoldturkey.com/

An application that lets you block games, websites, and applications on your computer, allowing you to focus.

Habitica

https://habitica.com/

An RPG-style method for gamifying habit tracking.

F.lux

https://justgetflux.com/

An application for macOS that adjusts the blue light levels in your screen to make it easier on your eyes as the day ends.

Rainy Mood

https://rainymood.com/

A simple site that plays rain sounds to help you focus.

RescueTime

https://www.rescuetime.com/

An app that lets you track the time you spend in different applications and reports to you on their categories and effectiveness.

Desktime

https://desktime.com/

A tool for tracking time, which is aimed at teams and freelancers.

Pomofocus

https://pomofocus.io/

An online pomodoro timer, allowing you to set timers for 25 minutes (as well as breaks) to help you focus.

Brain.fm

https://www.brain.fm/

Specialty music to help you focus.

Headspace

https://www.headspace.com/

A guided meditation app to help you relax and focus.

Calm

https://www.calm.com/

An app to help you meditate, relax, and focus.

Dewo

https://memory.ai/dewo

A tool to help you block notifications, schedule meeting times, and reports on how you can work better.

SelfControl

https://selfcontrolapp.com/

An app for macOS that lets you block your access to distracting websites.

Coffitivity

https://coffitivity.com/

A website that plays recreated ambient sounds of a cafe to help you focus.

Noisli

https://www.noisli.com/

An app to help you mix different sounds to create an environment to improve your focus.

Spotify

https://www.spotify.com/

A popular music streaming service, allowing you to listen to music on your computer or other devices.

Code Analysis

Embold

https://embold.io/

A tool that allows you to perform static code analysis, to find and fix issues.

Code Climate

https://codeclimate.com/

A tool that analyses data from commits and pull requests and makes insights for you and your team.

Silver Searcher

https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher

A text-based file searching tool that claims to be very fast.

SQL Compare

https://www.red-gate.com/products/sql-development/sql-compare/

A Redgate tool that allows you to compare SQL Server database schemas.

Documentation

Confluence

https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence

An online documentation tool by Atlassian, which can be used as a team wiki or other documentation needs.

Loom

https://www.loom.com/

An app that allows you to record a short demonstration video and share with others.

Veed

https://www.veed.io/tools/video-editor

Veed is a simple video recording and editing tool with many features to make working with videos much easier.

 

promo

Promo

https://promo.com/

Promo is a video creation tool focused on making it easy to create videos for business and social media.

 

SnagIt

https://www.techsmith.com/screen-capture.html

An application for quickly capturing screenshots, adding additional information, and sharing.

Markup Hero

https://markuphero.com/

An app that allows you to take screenshots and annotate them.

Haroopad

http://pad.haroopress.com/

A Markdown-based documentation tool.

Dynalist

https://dynalist.io/

A tool that allows you to create checklists.

MindMeister

https://www.mindmeister.com/

A mind-mapping tool which you can use to capture thoughts and brainstorm.

ReadTheDocs

https://readthedocs.org/

A service that allows you to build, version, and host documentation.

Communication

Slack

https://slack.com/

A team chat tool that allows you to to communicate and manage work.

Flock

https://www.flock.com/

A team messenger and collaboration platform.

Microsoft Teams

https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/microsoft-teams/group-chat-software

An application that lets you chat within your team, make video and voice calls, schedule meetings, share your screen, and more.

Reading

Feedly

https://feedly.com/

A service that allows you to add RSS feeds of websites and read their content.

Pocket

https://getpocket.com/

A website and app that lets you save articles and web pages for later reading.

Instapaper

https://www.instapaper.com/

Similar to Pocket, a website that allows you to save articles for later reading.

Time Saving

Alfred for Mac

https://www.alfredapp.com/

An app for macOS that lets you improve your efficiency by using hotkeys, shortcuts, and extra features.

Oh My Zsh

https://github.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh

A community-driven framework for managing your zsh configuration.

Homebrew

https://brew.sh/

A tool for macOS that helps you install other packages and applications.

Text Expander

https://textexpander.com/

An application that lets you enter short combinations of characters which then expand to larger sentences, allowing you to save time.

LastPass

https://www.lastpass.com/

A password manager that works on your browser and phone.

1Password

https://1password.com/

Another password manager for your browser and mobile device.

Zapier

https://zapier.com/

A service that uses APIs from other online services to automate your tasks.

IFTTT

https://ifttt.com/

Another service that uses APIs from other online services to automate your tasks.

Onetab

https://www.one-tab.com/

Convert many open browser tabs into a single tab with a list of links, saving space and memory.

Unroll.me

https://unroll.me/

A service that looks at your email inbox and helps you unsubscribe from emails.

PushBullet

https://www.pushbullet.com/

An app that allows you to easily send data between your devices.

Shift

https://tryshift.com/

An app that combines many apps into one, allowing you to focus.

Front

https://frontapp.com/

A tool that allows you to combine emails and other applications into a single place.

Conclusion

I hope you found this list useful and found a couple of tools you want to try out.

Did I miss anything? Let me know in the comments below.

3 thoughts on “116 Software Development Tools”

  1. HI!

    This listing is really huge and efficient!

    I would definitely add here for Project and Task Management Tweek Calendar — https://tweek.so
    It is shareable for collaboration with colleagues by creating simultaneously several calendars and to-do lists.

  2. Dear Ben!

    Thank you for sharing this handful list with us. With the right tools, our progress increases significantly. Therefore I take my time to discover different tools and look for the most convenient ones for my professional growth. And this catalog helps out a lot.

    Surprisingly, I didn’t see Bordio.com on this list. It’s also one of the excellent platforms to keep your plans, events, and projects well organized. Its interface is neat and convenient. Everything is placed on one page, and you can work with a group or alone. Keep track of everything and, most importantly – stay focused :)

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