There are many editors or IDEs (Integrated Development Environments) for JavaScript, but today we’re going to talk about the best open source IDEs for JavaScript.
Open source software is free but also keeps its code available to the public so that anyone can read it and even contribute in its development. One of the benefits of open source software is that it facilitates collaborative work, which means that you can add a feature or fix a bug if you have the knowledge to do so.
Table of Contents
Best Open Source Ide For Javascript
Though the basic functioning is the same, each JS IDE and source code editor has some distinct advantages, and disadvantages as well, over others. Here is our pick of the 14 best JavaScript IDEs and Source Code Editors to use in 2022:
1. Atom
Initial Release – February 2014
Type – Source Code Editor (Open-source)
Atom is one of the most popular source code editors used for JavaScript development. The modern code editor is flexible and highly customizable. A cross-platform tool, Atom is easy to install, offers a significant speed gain, and is completely free to use.
The basis of Atom is Electron, which is a very popular framework for building cross-platform desktop applications using JavaScript. Smart code completion is inherent to Atom, which also boasts an intuitive file system browser. There are also several UI and syntax themes available.
The ability of Atom can be extended by means of adding packages, such as the Auto-close HTML tags, Minimap, and Linter. Atom has an inbuilt package manager that simplifies searching available packages and installing them on priority.
2. AWS Cloud9
Initial Release – 2010
Type – Cloud IDE (Proprietary)
Written completely in JavaScript and using NodeJS on the back-end, AWS Cloud9 is probably one of the best online IDEs for developing JS applications. Additionally, it supports development for C, C++, Go, Node.js, Perl, PHP, Python, and Ruby projects.
Anyone looking to use AWS Cloud9 must have an AWS account. The online IDE comes with an inbuilt terminal that provides support for npm and basic Unix commands. Code completion, real-time language analysis, and simultaneous editing are some of its notable features.
AWS Cloud9 comes with variable/function name refactoring and syntax highlighting for JS. Code reformatting is possible via JSBeautify and CSSLint. Customizable key-bindings is also available, which includes presets for Emacs, Sublime Text, and Vim.
The functionality of AWS Cloud9 can be extended by using plugins. Moreover, a variety of themes are available to give the IDE a look of your choice. In addition to offering a debugger, the IDE offers tabbed file management.
AWS Cloud9 has an inbuilt image editor and provides support for several Version Control Systems, including BitBucket, GitHub, and Mercurial. The IDE provides support for deployment to a variety of platforms, such as Google App Engine, Heroku, Joyent, and Microsoft Azure.
3. Brackets
Initial Release – November 2014
Type – Source Code Editor (Open-Source)
Created by Adobe Systems, Brackets is a fresh front-end development tool available under the MIT license. It is continuously rising as a leading tool choice by JS developers. The source code editor offering built-in support for JavaScript is fast and lightweight.
One of the most interesting features supported by Brackets is Live Preview. It allows seeing how the changes in code work in real-time by automatically opening a new Chrome window. The JSLint feature is responsible for verifying the JS file while it is being saved using Brackets.
Like its contemporaries, Brackets comes with the automatic code completion feature. However, it is way faster than what competitors offer. In order to debug JS apps built using Brackets, the Theseus extension is there. It works with both Google Chrome as well as NodeJS.
The ability of Brackets can be enhanced by means of installing extensions. Brackets offer a crystal clear interface for searching and adding extensions. Some useful extensions to add to Brackets are Autoprefixer, Code-folding, Markdown Preview, Smart Highlighting, and Snippets.
4. Codeanywhere
Initial Release – May 2013
Type – Cloud IDE (Free/Premium)
Codeanywhere is a cloud-based, cross-platform IDE written in JavaScript. It allows developers to write, edit, and run web development projects directly from a web browser. In addition to JavaScript, the online IDE provides support for over 70 programming languages.
The editor offered by Codeanywhere is based on the CodeMirror and utilizes OpenVZ containers for development environments, known as DevBoxes. In addition to allowing the user to run code in DevBoxes, the IDE enables connecting with one’s own VMs via FTP or SSH.
Codeanywhere comes with an inbuilt terminal that supports basic Unix commands as well as npm. It has a built-in debugger, offers tabbed file management, and supports deployment to Heroku.
It is possible to connect to Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive with Codeanywhere. The cloud IDE provides support for Bitbucket, Git, and GitHub code repositories.
5. Eclipse
Initial Release – November 2001
Type – Java-specific IDE (Open-source)
Initially influenced by IBM VisualAge, Eclipse is one of the big three Java IDEs. It comes with an extensible plugin system. In order to use Eclipse for JavaScript development as well as with other programming languages, specific plugins need to be installed.
Eclipse was one of the first IDEs to run under GNU Classpath. The integrated development environment offers a remarkable combination of performance, robustness, and stability. Setting up the Oomph Project allows automating and reproducing identical workspaces.
Since Eclipse Mars, vigorous efforts have been made to make Eclipse more JS-friendly. This is evident with the performance enhancement in the JSDT (JavaScript Development Tools). Eclipse supports a new Docker UI, enabling building Docker images and containers with the Docker CLI.
Almost all download packages for Eclipse integrate with Git. One of the amazing feature supported by Eclipse is the automated error reporting. The feature allows the IDE to automatically sent found bugs to eclipse.org
After processing, these bugs are converted into Bugzilla entries. Hence, it allows troubleshooting via crowdsourcing in place of relying on a few people or a small community.
best ide for html css javascript
1. Visual Studio Code
Visual Studio Code is possibly the best JavaScript ide for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Not only does it support JavaScript, but it also supports Node.js, TypeScript, and it comes with a whole ecosystem of extensions for other languages including C++, C#, Python, PHP etc.
It provides great syntax highlighting and auto-complete with IntelliSense based on variable types, function definitions, and imported modules. It also allows you to debug code by launching or attaching to your running apps debug with breakpoints, call stacks, and an interactive console. You can effortlessly integrate a JavaScript UI library into Visual Studio Code. All in all, this IDE for JavaScript is definitely one to check out. An important note – it is free to use.
To get the most productivity out of the Visual Studio Code, we recommend this quick 1-hour online course, which will guide you through adding custom hotkeys, creating templates and boilerplates to increase coding speed, integrating with GitHub to be able to work on Git repositories without leaving VS Code.
2. RJ TextEd
RJ TextEd is high on our list fighting for the spot of the best IDE for JavaScript. It is a full-featured text and source editor with Unicode support and all in all, a great IDE for web development.
It supports not only JavaScript, but also PHP, ASP, HTML, and CSS. Some of the most important features of this web development IDE include but are not limited to:
- Auto-completion.
- Code folding
- Column mode
- Multi-edit and multi-select
- Document map
- Annotation bar
- Advanced sorting
- Handles both ASCII and binary files
- CSS and HTML wizards
- Highlighting of colors in CSS/SASS/LESS
- An advanced color hint that can convert between color formats
- Dockable panels
- FTP and SFTP client with synchronization
- File explorer, text clips, code explorer, project manager
- Convert between code pages, Unicode formats and text formats
- Unicode and ANSI code page detection
- Open/Save UTF-8 encoded files without a signature (BOM)
- Unicode file paths and file names
- HTML validation, format, and repair
- Tools available like syntax editor, color picker, charmap
3. Light Table
Light Table is a reactive work surface for the creation and exploration of apps or programs. It’s a quite unique web development IDE based on a simple idea that people need a real work surface to code on rather than just using an editor.
With Light Table, you can move things around, keep clutter down, bring information to the places you need it most etc. In addition to that, Light Table is a standalone app and you can run it just like any other editor you have been using so far.
Here are the guiding principles of this cool web development IDE:
- You don’t have to look for documentation
- Files are not the best representation of code, just a convenient serialization
- Editors can be anywhere and show you anything – not just text
- Trying is encouraged – changes produce instantaneous results
- We can shine some light on related bits of code
4. NetBeans
NetBeans is high on the list for the best web development IDE because it is easy to use and it lets you develop cool desktop, mobile, and web apps in no time. It works equally as good with JavaScript, HTML5, PHP, C/C++ etc. It is a free JavaScript IDE and a great HTML5 IDE for your day-to-day use.
This web development IDE comes with cool code analyzing and editing tools compatible with the latest Java 8 technologies. This makes NetBeans 8.1 one of the best if not the best JavaScript editor.
It is also a great AngularJS IDE as well as a fantastic tool for working with Node.js, Knockout.js etc. In addition to all that, it is available in a variety of languages including English, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Russian, and Simplified Chinese.
As mentioned earlier, NetBeans supports a wide range of programming languages, but if you want the coolest web development IDE for your projects, we recommend downloading the HTML5/JavaScript built installation from the download page.
As NetBeans IDE is a massive package, configuring the environment, setting up the debugger, deploying and executing an app could be tricky when you’re just getting started – this short NetBeans crash course will help you to get started.
5. Brackets
Brackets is the best web IDE if you are looking for an editor that understands web design. It comes with a great set of visual tools, such as website form creators or other, preprocessor supports and it has been created by web designers for web designers.
Another great thing about this web development IDE is the fact that it is open source and completely free of charge. In addition to that, it has a big and passionate community which is always there to help.
Here are some of the Bracket’s useful and unique features:
- Inline Editors: you can simply open a window into the code you care about most instead of jumping between file tabs.
- Live Preview: allows you to get a real-time connection to your browser; whenever you make changes to HTML and CSS, you immediately see the changes on the screen
- Preprocessor Support: allows you to use Quick Edit and Live Highlight with your LESS and SCSS files which will make working with them much easier than usually
Conclusion
Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.
Check out other publications to gain access to more digital resources if you are just starting out with Flux Resource.
Also contact us today to optimize your business(s)/Brand(s) for Search Engines