Top 9 Best Front End Web Development Tools You Didn't Know

Like the coming of the seasons and the movement of the tides, something is comforting and eternal about front-end development tools. Every ...

Like the coming of the seasons and the movement of the tides, something is comforting and eternal about front-end development tools. Every year you know there’ll be new features launched and new tools to test out, all helping you keep your web development at its peak performance. But, much like shopping for anything in the modern consumer economy, what starts as exciting can quickly turn into exhausting when you don’t know what to pick and what you’ll actually use. To help you out, here are the top 9 best front-end web development tools for all levels of development that you can use to hone your websites and apps for the optimum user experience.

Top 9 Best Front-End Web Development Tools You Didn't Know

1. Material Design for Bootstrap (MDB)

If you’re looking for a guided experience, MDB is the service for you. It’s the most widely used website and app-building framework and comes pre-packaged with over a thousand UI elements, icons, CSS animations, and plugins. It is the one-stop-shop for anyone looking to build a website or app.

2. ARC Toolkit

Any solid frontend toolkit should have plenty of accessibility features built in to make sure everyone has a good experience using your website. ARC Toolkit provides you with all the accessibility testing information you need to test your services and know your site is fully accessible. ARC fits in neatly with your existing testing toolkit, so you don’t need to uninstall what you have or switch between the two, and it’s free to download from the Chrome Webstore.

3. WebDataRocks

WebDataRocks is a JavaScript library ideal for creating reports and performing web analysis. It works in tandem with an app or website through an embedded function, merging it seamlessly with your own web presence. Like other libraries, you can perform all standard data management actions like sorting, filtering, and calculations, and it has a powerful API for customizing your reports. Best of all, it’s completely free to use.

4. Commento

When it comes to managing comments on your content, you want to make sure it’s both easy to use and safe from fraud and spam accounts. That’s where Commento comes in, giving you all the tools you need for comment moderation. It comes with up-and-down voting features, nested threads, and a sticky to make writing and reading comments easier, and it has a built-in spam detector and moderation tools so you can keep your forums tidy for your readers.

5. Novi Builder

For more experienced web developers, Novi Builder is a great choice for a drag-and-drop builder with a lot of customization under the hood. Terri Hatcher, a front-end developer, says “Novi Builder is my top pick for control over my web development. It has a wide choice of pre-made themes but backs it up with an advanced code editor, so if you’re not happy with the smallest of features you can tweak it. Beware though, it is tricky to use if you’re not accustomed to frontend development”.

6. Node Package Manager (NPM)

An indispensable part of JavaScript, the node package manager helps you find reusable code and transform it to serve your own particular needs. The Registry contains nearly 500,000 free code packages and the NPM is essential for accessing it.

7. WebStorm

“If you’re looking for smart coding assistance in your JavaScript development, look no further,” says Sam Alekum, a tech writer at Academized. “WebStorm is the go-to tool for advanced assistance with JavaScript frameworks and libraries like Vue, Meteo, React, and Angular. It’s the best way for developers working on large-scale projects to break up tasks into manageable chunks and still deliver top-quality development”.

8. Sass

Sass is probably the most robust extension language for CSS available at the moment. Its easy-to-use framework can help you write code for any number of CSS elements and is brimming with useful functions and advanced features like color manipulation and control directives. If that isn’t enough, it supports language extensions so you can more fully customize your output.

9. CSS Feature Toggles

According to VITech – a software development company, this Chrome extension is particularly useful for developers. Another Chrome extension that is particularly useful for some developers, depending on their audience. This tool allows you to toggle CSS features on your website to see what the site looks like for a user who can’t see them. This might be useful for websites whose users generally use older technology, and it’s yet another way to make sure your brand message is coming across in all its glory at every opportunity.

Conclusion:

Of course, these are only a fraction of the available website development tools, and it really depends on what you need as a developer and what your website needs. A tool that is absolutely priceless for one developer could be completely useless to another, so it’s best to give them all a try and see what works best for you!