14 Jul 10 Must-Have Tools for Every WordPress Developer

We all have tools (and methods) that we use to make the work we do easier and even more enjoyable. As a WordPress developer, you surely have a professional toolkit, and today, we will expand it with even more tools, offering you more of what you need to push yourself beyond the remits of your own imagination. Sounds fun, right?

Enjoy and share your thoughts, opinion as well as your favorite WordPress developing tools in the comments at the end. That out of the way, let’s get this done and over with.

Notepad++

A personal favorite, Notepad++ is a new-age code editor that adds fun and ease to WordPress theme and plugin development. It uses different color codes for different tags making chunky code easily readable.

On top of that, Notepad++ is free, fun and easy to learn and use. Use this tool to write code in whichever language, and surely – just like yours truly – you won’t be disappointed.

Pixlr Online Image Editor

We all know of Adobe Photoshop. The great features that make all projects fun, and the high subscription fees we would rather forget. If you’re just starting out as a WordPress developer, and don’t have a huge budget to splash on fancy subscriptions, you need to check out Pixlr Online Image Editor.

This tool allows you to manipulate your images whichever way you want. It’s just like having Photoshop on the cloud, free! That’s right, it’s 100% free and you don’t need to install it on your computer – it’s web based. That plus it works with .PSD files too. You can choose to save your files in Google Drive among other cloud storage providers, and access them on the go.

Trello

As you get busy developing and running your business, you quickly learn the place and value of staying on top of your projects. Being disorganized is not how you stay on top of your projects; you need a user-friendly project management such as Trello.

Using this tool, you can create cards, place and share them with collaborators on your board. Team members you invite to view these cards can comment on the cards, upload and share files. On top of that, you can link your Trello account to Dropbox, OneDrive and Google Apps. It’s free.

Theme Check

This bad boy is a must-have tool for every WordPress theme developer. It’s a WordPress plugin that’s pure joy, and offers you an incredibly easy method of testing your themes to ensure they’re up to standards. Check your themes to ensure they can support the latest WordPress theme practices.

Monster Widget

If you can save time when developing your themes, you can definitely achieve much much more. Today, ladies and gentlemen, we introduce you to Monster Widget, a tool that’s built with WordPress theme developers in mind.

This plugin comes with 13 core widgets that help you to develop multiple WordPress website easily and quickly.

Codecademy

Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. – Henry Ford

The last thing you want in the fast-paced internet world is growing complacent, and avoiding new knowledge. You need to keep learning and practicing.  This is where Codecademy comes in. They offer you free lessons on HTML, CSS, JavaScript and PHP among others.

Beaver Builder

As a developer, you tend to write a lot of code on an ongoing basis. If you’d like to save time, and still create masterpieces, you need the magical powers of creating beautiful websites without writing a single line of code. But how is that even possible?

You turn to Beaver Builder, a WordPress page builder like no other. The main feature is, of course, the intuitive front-end page builder that lets you create website simply by dragging and dropping elements. You really don’t have to be a WordPress expert to use this tool.

Dropbox

You need to access your projects from wherever, whenever and using whichever device is at your disposal. This is especially true if you’re always on the move, you know, enjoying your WordPress dev career.

That’s why you need Dropbox, which is a cloud storage service that let’s you to save and share files easily. It is an invaluable tool to any WordPress developer.

Developer

Still bothers me I took an eternity to discover this auspicious WordPress developer plugin built by Automattic, Alex Mills, Nikolay Bachiyski, and six other esteemed developers. In a single statement, Developer is a WordPress “…plugin which helps WordPress developers develop.” Huh?

Developer optimizes your development environment, and recommends all the essential developing tools you need.

GenerateWP

From their website, GenerateWP is an easy and fast way of creating “…custom and high quality code for your WordPress project using the latest WordPress coding standards and APIs. All you have to do is select a tool, fill in a form, and generate the code. It’s all easy and straightforward.

You can create everything from custom taxonomies, custom post types, menus, sidebars, shortcodes, and toolbars just to mention a few. Register free to save your codes, or just paste the codes generated to your project.

Conclusion

The above WordPress developer tools will make your work easier and more fun. They will also open doors to a world of new ideas, giving you the boost of inspiration you need to wow clients.

Which tools do you already use, and which is your favorite WordPress developer tool? Add your comments in the section below!