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Top PHP IDE’s

There are a number of IDE’s available for PHP development. In this article we’ll discuss about some free/open-source and some paid IDE’s that might help you in selecting the best. A wisely selected IDE will help you increase productivity while developing web applications.

What is an IDE?

An IDE (integrated development environment) is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to programmers for web development. An IDE normally consists of a source code editor, build automation tools and a debugger. Most IDEs offer Intelligent code completion feature.

In order to get success in developing PHP sites it is necessary to have a good development environment. While producing web sites it is often necessary to edit HTML, CSS and JavaScript files. That is why usable IDE should supply all those file types and provide full set of tools for effective development.

Below are what we think best PHP IDE’s:

Komodo

Pricing: Free/Paid Website: http://komodoide.com
OS Platforms:  Linux, Windows, Mac

Komodo is a multi-language IDE. The code intelligence is solid. Version Control is also surpported via Subversion, Mercurial, Git, Perforce, Bazaar, CVS. You can edit with multiple users simultaneously with Code Collaboration. it has also great debugging and unit testing features. For more information you can visit http://komodoide.com.

PhpStorm

Pricing: Paid Website: http://www.jetbrains.com/phpstorm/
OS Platforms:  Linux, Windows, Mac

PhpStorm provides an editor for PHP, HTML and JavaScript with on-the-fly code analysis, error prevention and automated refactorings for PHP and JavaScript code. PHP code refactoring also reviews PHPDocs to keep them up-to-date. It includes a full-fledged SQL editor with editable query results. It also helps you to form your code, run unit-tests or perform full debugging.

Codelobster PHP Edition

Pricing: Free/Paid Website: http://www.codelobster.com/
OS Platforms:  Windows

Codelobster PHP Edition streamlines and simplifies the PHP development process. You don’t need to keep in mind the names of functions, arguments, tags or their attributes — we’ve implemented all these for you with autocomplete features for PHP, HTML, JavaScript and even CSS. And you can always get necessary help information by pressing F1 or using the special Help control.

Eclipse

Pricing: Free Website: http://www.eclipse.org/
OS Platforms:  Linux, Windows, Mac

Eclipse allows you to select language, platform and vendor environment. Eclipse encompasses the development components necessary to develop PHP-based Web Applications and facilitates extensibility.  It also involves Data Tools Platform to control the databank, plug-ins for interaction with JavaScript, C / C + +, XML editor, and other different tools.

PHP Designer

Pricing: Paid Website: http://www.mpsoftware.dk/
OS Platforms:  Windows

Php Designer focus on the designing aspect of the PHP Web Development. Its features includes intelligent syntax highlighting, debug support, syntax analyzing, support for object-oriented coding, code insight on the fly, code templates, code snippets, todo and bug managers, work with projects and frameworks, intuitive code navigation, code formatters and minifiers and all wrapped into a nice looking intuitive user interface.

PhpED

Pricing: Paid Website: http://www.nusphere.com/
OS Platforms:  Windows

NuSphere PhpED  is a Windows only IDE. PhpED features include Advanced PHP Editor, PHP Debugger and PHP Profiler, Code Insight, Database Client, Integrated Help System, Code Insight. PhpED supports JavaScript, HTML, CSS, XML, SMARTY, XHTML and others. Full support for PHP versions from 4.3 to 5.4 (5.5 is fully supported for debugging and profiling) in IDE and the Editor – from functions and local variables to namespaces and aliases.

PHPEdit

Pricing: Paid Website: http://www.phpedit.com/
OS Platforms:  Windows

PHPEdit is a Windows-only IDE, and it’s easy to set up. PhpEdit works with a fully-featured, highly ergonomical Integrated Development Environment for PHP. To help with deployment, PHPEdit connects to CVS and Subversion, as well as FTP and its own proprietary ezDeployment system.

Zend Studio

Pricing: Paid Website: http://www.zend.com/
OS Platforms:  Linux, Windows, Mac

Zend Studio is one of the best IDE available for PHP development. It has very powerful PHP and Javascript debugging, team collaboration and remote server tools. The Zend studio is one of the highest priced PHP IDEs, though it has a free version however that does not come with very good features. Using Zend Studio You can easily deploy your PHP application onto public or private cloud by using the built-in cloud deployment integration features. Zend Studio includes a fully working mobile app with source code. Use the code to learn how to create mobile apps or leverage it for your apps.

NetBeans IDE

Pricing: Free Website: http://netbeans.org/
OS Platforms:  Linux, Windows, Mac

Netbeans allows developer to quickly and easily develop desktop, mobile and web applications with Java, HTML5, PHP, C/C++ and more. NetBeans IDE is FREE, open source, and has a worldwide community of users and developers. The NetBeans PHP editor provides code templates and code generation tools, such as “getter and setter” generation, refactoring, such as “instant rename”, parameter tooltips, hints, and quick fixes, and smart code completion. NetBeans IDE supports the popular web frameworks like Zend Framework, Symfony2 Framework, Symfony1 Framework.

Aptana Studio PHP Editor

Pricing: Free Website: http://www.aptana.com/
OS Platforms:  Linux, Windows, Mac

Aptana Studio is developed on Eclipse platform and is very stable and powerful. It aids in developing HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, and Ruby applications. Aptana Studio supports the latest HTML5 specifications. Also includes information about the level of support for each element in the major web browsers.