Top 5 Front-end Website Development Tools

Front-end website development is key in having an online presence. In fact, websites are now a necessity for organizations and businesses due to the rise of digitalization. In relation to this, companies have become very particular with the quality of their website. They want to make sure that it will provide only the best possible experience to their clients.

In Australia, it’s estimated that 86% of small businesses have their own website. Note, however, that websites are of no use without good front-end development because users can’t have a good and engaging experience. Developers therefore need to use different tools to come up with dynamic and interactive interfaces.

But how do you choose the most suitable tool for your project? This can be difficult, if not daunting, considering that there are dozens of them out there and new ones are coming up. In addition, websites must have several frontend elements like SEO, responsive web design layout, among other trends.

To simplify the matter, we made a list of the top front-end web development tools in 2022…

What is Front-end Website Development?

In a nutshell, front-end web development is the process of building the graphical user interface (UI) of a website through the use of CSS, HTML, and JavaScript, so users can view and interact with it directly. This means creating the client-facing components of a website, such as an interface, animation, banners, buttons, and links.

One of the main objectives of front-end development is to make sure that the website is convenient to use and has all the information or details needed by its intended users. Likewise, front-end developers have the responsibility of taking the design concept and other key elements and install them through code.

Everything on a web page, from the logo, buttons and search bar to the overall layout and how users interact with the page, are all created by front-end developers. They are therefore responsible for the look and feel of a website.

Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code is a Microsoft-developed source-code editor for Windows, macOS, and Linux. You can hit the ground running, regardless of the platform and you can use VS Code with several programming languages such as C++, Go, JavaScript, Node.js, and Python.

Visual Studio Code is an editor that gets out of the way, allowing developers to do their stuff. It seamlessly blends the simplicity of a source code editor with potent developer tooling, such as IntelliSense code completion and debugging.

You can easily find support for most programming languages, like bracket matching, code folding, configurable snippets, and syntax highlighting. In addition, VS Code uses the same editor component as that used in Azure DevOps. Here are some of the key features:

• Lightning fast source code editor that’s perfect for daily use

• JavaScript execution and debugging

• Built-in Git commands

• Integrated Command Line Interface

• Ability to customize every feature and install third-party extensions

• ESLint helps identify errors in your code and fix them as you write

Webstorm

Dubbed as the smartest JavaScript IDE, Webstorm is a modern JavaScript ecosystem that includes intelligent code completion, spontaneous error detection, fast navigation and powerful refactoring for JavaScript, TypeScript, and all popular frameworks.

It was developed by JetBrains and first released in 2010. Webstorm offers smart coding assistance for JavaScript frameworks including Angular, Meteor, React.js, and Vue.js. It is meant for complex server-side and client-side development with Node.js. It is very flexible so you can write code faster and work on big projects. Here are some of the top features:

• Integrated smart debugger and developer tools for tracing and testing client-side and Node.js apps

• Built-in popular command-line tools to complement web development trends

• Open-source IntelliJ Platform and unified UI working on popular Version Control Systems

• Smart code insight, auto-completion, on-the-fly error prevention, etc.

• Spy-js integrated tool to trace JavaScript code

Sublime

Sublime is a first-rate source code editor and shareware cross-platform with a Python programming interface. It can support a number of programming and markup languages and has expanded functionality thanks to the use of community-built plugins.

This shareware cross-platform source code editor is compatible with Windows, macOS, and Linux, so it helps in managing text editing processes for codes, markups, and prose. It will also allow you to control different syntax definitions and highlighters with the use of multiple built-in functionalities. Here are some of the notable features:

• Python-based plugin API

• Highly customizable via JSON setting files

• Supports split editing mode so developers can edit files side by side

• Quickly insert text and code with snippets

• Command palette uses adaptive matching to speed up keyboard invocation of arbitrary commands

• Compatible with multiple languages’ grammar from TextMate

Angular

Angular is a TypeScript-based free and open-source framework created by Google. Its primary purpose is to facilitate the development and testing of web apps by providing a platform for client-side Model-View-Controller (MVC) architectures and other advanced features.

HTML is usually the linchpin of frontend developers’ toolbox, but it has a serious flaw: it wasn’t meant to manage dynamic views. This is where Angular comes in handy as it lets you extend your app’s HTML syntax, leading to a more readable, expressive, and quick to build setting that could otherwise not have been developed with HTML alone.

Here are its top features:

• Easy to learn and implement

• Handles JavaScript code for every program

• Declarative UI and two-way data binding

• User interface with HTML

• Comes with pre-built material design elements (e.g. navigation, data tables, layouts, form controls, and pop-ups)

• Excellent Google support

Vue.js

Vue.js is an open-source model–view–viewmodel front end JavaScript framework developed in 2013 that has improved considerably over the past years. It has gained popularity thanks to its efficiency when it comes to building User Interfaces.

This Javascript library is not entirely a framework and its main focus is on the view layer. Hence, it is easy to learn and integrate with other projects. One of its main highlights is its ability to provide reacting elements with lightweight APIs. This allows you to work faster and deal with complex applications. Here are its main features:

• Very small size and uses virtual DOM

• Combines the best features of Angular and React

• Two-way data binding

• Flexible, making it suitable for cross-platform apps

• Excellent tooling (unit testing, routing, state store, etc.)

Final Thoughts

Web technology is constantly changing and the popularity of front-end web development tools is also on the rise. You may therefore find it tough to choose the right tool for your project. We hope you find this list useful in making an informed decision. We selected the 5 tools based on our experience and expertise as frontend experts. They have helped us bring to life websites, web and mobile apps that users love.