The best PHP editors and PHP IDEs

PHP editors make it easy to write clean PHP code. PHP IDE, in turn, serves as an advanced editor in PHP with ad­di­tion­al func­tion­al­ity. We present the best free and paid PHP software and compare all features, ad­vant­ages and dis­ad­vant­ages.

What are the dif­fer­ences between the PHP Editor vs PHP IDEs?

PHP editors and PHP IDEs have one thing in common as PHP software solutions, which is that they are both used for editing PHP files and for pro­duct­ive PHP pro­gram­ming. However, while PHP editors are also aimed at users without in-depth pro­gram­ming know-how, PHP IDEs with their ad­di­tion­al functions are primarily suitable for ex­per­i­enced PHP pro­gram­mers. The acronym IDE stands for In­teg­rated De­vel­op­ment En­vir­on­ment.

PHP editors impress with compact PHP editing functions, a clear user interface and easy setup – everything you need for less complex PHP programs. For complex ap­plic­a­tions, on the other hand, IDEs offer the most flex­ib­il­ity and freedom. Although PHP editors inherit functions such as terminals and debuggers from PHP IDEs, using IDEs is usually best with expert knowledge.

Here are the most important features of PHP editors and PHP IDEs at a glance:

What to look for in PHP editors

When selecting PHP editors, you can choose from a range of free code editors. Most free editors offer the standard features a PHP editor should offer. Similar to HTML editors, a dis­tinc­tion can be made between different types. These include classical PHP editors as in­stall­able software and online editors for code creation in a browser. In addition, editors based on the WYSIWYG principle are available. These tend not to require any pro­gram­ming knowledge. This overview focuses on editors that are stand-alone software.

A good PHP editor – whether free or premium – should offer the following features for full func­tion­al­ity:

• Syntax high­light­ing
• Auto-com­ple­tion
• Auto­cor­rect
• Search/Replace
• In­dent­a­tion and line breaks
• Version control or source code control
• Parallel code editing
• Live error control
• Functions for code review such as debugging, re­fact­or­ing or linting
• Automated storage
• PHP tutorial

The best PHP editors at a glance

Free PHP editors often come equipped with all the essential features required for pro­gram­ming, catering to both simple and intricate tasks. On the other hand, premium paid editors provide added benefits such as advanced PHP func­tion­al­it­ies, technical support, extensive plugin libraries, regular updates, and support for multiple pro­gram­ming languages and frame­works.

We have taken a closer look at the following free and paid PHP editors:

Overview of free PHP editors

Visual Studio Code (Windows, Linux, macOS)

Key features:

• Auto-com­ple­tion
• Syntax high­light­ing
• Version control
• Code auto­com­ple­tion thanks to In­tel­li­S­ense
• Code nav­ig­a­tion
• FTP functions
• Git and GitHub in­teg­ra­tion
• Supports almost 80 code languages besides PHP: CSS, JavaS­cript, JSON, TypeScript, HTML, Java, Python, GO, Power­Shell and others
• Enables inclusion of custom ex­ten­sions or PHP ex­ten­sions from the VS Code Mar­ket­place
• Debugging, re­fact­or­ing and linting
• Has its own terminal
• Col­lab­or­at­ive pro­gram­ming thanks to Live Share

Notepad++ (Windows)

Key features:

• Syntax high­light­ing
• Auto-com­ple­tion
• Code com­ple­tion
• Split-screen and parallel pro­gram­ming
• Drag-and-drop and find/replace functions.
• Supports almost 80 languages besides PHP, e.g. HTML, JavaS­cript, CSS, XML, SQL, Python, C, C++, Cof­feeScript
• User interface for working on multiple documents sim­ul­tan­eously
• Cus­tom­is­able user interface
• Supports plugin ex­ten­sions
• Code folding
• Suitable for various character sets

Atom (Windows, Linux, macOS, FreeBDSD)

Key features:

• Highly cus­tom­is­able via UI, syntax theme, format­ting, languages, and key bindings
• Extensive ex­tens­ib­il­ity with nearly 9,000 packages for ad­di­tion­al features such as debugging, re­fact­or­ing, linting, an­nota­tions and more
• Standard features such as syntax high­light­ing and in­tel­li­gent auto-com­ple­tion
• Search/replace functions
• Real-time col­lab­or­a­tion features
• Git and GitHub in­teg­ra­tion
• File system browsing

Bluefish (Windows, Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, Solaris, OpenBSD)

Key features:

• Standard code editing features such as syntax high­light­ing, auto-com­ple­tion, error cor­rec­tion, or find/replace
• Con­veni­ent quick launch menu and shortcut functions
• Emmet support
• Unicode character browser and HTML tag dialogs/wizards
• Split-screen and full-screen editing
• Remote support via FTP, SFTP, HTTPS and more
• Support for multiple encodings and many languages
• In­teg­ra­tion of numerous plugin ex­ten­sions

Brackets

Key features:

• Focuses on the de­vel­op­ment of web projects with frontend and backend pro­gram­ming
• Supports other important languages like HTML, CSS, JavaS­cript, Perl, Python, Java, Ruby, C and C++ besides PHP
• Split screen (ho­ri­zont­al and vertical)
• Live preview in the web browser
• Inline edition support via CSS
• Cus­tom­is­able via themes
• Supports Quick Edit and live highlight features
• Reads and extract PSD design data as CSS code (via Adobe Creative Cloud Extract)

Vim (Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, iOS)

Key features:

• Important standard features such as syntax high­light­ing, auto-com­ple­tion, search history, error cor­rec­tion, split-screen and more
• Supports Java, Python, Ruby, Lua, JavaS­cript, C, C++, Perl, and more, in addition to PHP
• Allows you to compare and merge files
• Supports various protocols such as FTP, SSH and HTTP
• Provides a text user interface and an optional visual user interface
• Offers extensive ex­tens­ib­il­ity through over 1,000 Vim plugins or custom functions created via Vim Script
• Six different modes for code editing (including easy mode for beginners)
• Mul­ti­lin­gual and Unicode
• In­teg­rated tutorial for usage

Overview of paid PHP editors

Sublime Text 3 (Windows, Linux, macOS)

Key features:

• Important functions such as code high­light­ing, code preview, auto-com­ple­tion, command search or search/replace of code elements.
• In­teg­rated package manager and flexible ex­tens­ib­il­ity through plugins (e.g. for linting, code testing, com­ment­ing, format­ting or op­tim­ising)
• Also WordPress-specific plugins
• Split screen and multiple selection
• Menus, macros, keyboard mapping and snippets can be cus­tom­ised

UltraEdit (Windows, Linux, macOS)

Key features:

• Out-of-the-box func­tion­al­ity with easy on­board­ing
• Pleasant, cus­tom­is­able user interface with themes and layouts
• Supports cloud and remote server cap­ab­il­it­ies and cloud syn­chron­isa­tion
• Con­veni­ent search functions within and between files
• Live preview of code in HTML and Markdown
• Com­pre­hens­ive command list
• Support for FTP/SFTP and SSH/Telnet for remote pro­gram­ming
• Supports PHP and many other languages such as HTML, CSS, Markdown, JavaS­cript, Ruby, Perl, Python, MySQL and JSON
• Supports features like multi-caret editing, cus­tom­is­able tabs, column mode and multi-selection
• Allows working with very large files without failures or crashes
• Includes Ul­traCom­pare Pro tool for comparing files of different types and version control with systems of Git, CVS or Sub­ver­sion

Rapid PHP Editor (Windows)

Key features:

• Windows-based editor for PHP files as well as many other file types
• Live preview of PHP files (via local web server) as well as multi-browser previews
• In­di­vidu­al con­fig­ur­a­tion through various designs, layouts and functions
• Supports many other languages besides PHP such as LESS, CSS, SQL, JavaS­cript, XML and Smarty
• HTML/CSS validator in­teg­rated
• Real-time syntax val­id­a­tion for PHP
• Support for PHP frame­works (WordPress, Symfony, Prado, Laravel and more)
• PHP debugger and beau­ti­fi­er
• Supports Smarty template engine
• Files can be saved via FTP/FTPS/SFTP
• In­teg­ra­tion for Git and SVN

Smultron (macOS)

Key features:

• Cus­tom­is­able with themes, layouts, key bindings, and ad­di­tion­al features
• Features like file com­par­is­on, split file view, HTML preview, code snippets and auto-com­ple­tion
• Very good data pro­tec­tion
• Scan function for text via iPhone/iPad
• Support for iCloud
• Advanced encoding possible, including UTF-8 BOM
• View with all functions
• Full ac­cess­ib­il­ity
• Advanced search functions
• Support for vertical text as well as right-to-left languages

The best PHP IDEs at a glance

PHP IDEs are available in both free and paid versions, allowing users to choose based on their specific re­quire­ments. Free IDEs offer essential features like debugging, profiling, re­fact­or­ing, and syntax checking, which are crucial for PHP de­vel­op­ment. On the other hand, premium IDEs offer a range of pro­fes­sion­al ad­di­tion­al functions designed to meet the needs of companies. These features include technical support, extensive framework support, in­teg­ra­tions with various tools, and content man­age­ment system cap­ab­il­it­ies.

We have looked at the following free and paid PHP IDEs for you:

Free PHP IDEs

Eclipse PDT (Windows, Linux, macOS, Solaris)

Key features:

• Ex­tens­ively cus­tom­is­able user interface (UI, layouts and panels)
• Flexibly ex­tens­ible with Eclipse plugins
• Provides PHP functions such as debugging, re­fact­or­ing, profiling, syntax checking and testing
• PHP wizard for projects and classes
• Web server in­teg­ra­tion for live preview
• Auto-com­ple­tion, code nav­ig­a­tion and content wizard
• Provides code templates and advanced PHP code format­ting
• Git client
• Support for in­teg­rat­ing your own web server to work with PHP files
• In­teg­ra­tion with PHP tools such as Zend Debugger, Xdebug, PHPUnit and Composer possible

CodeLite (Windows, Linux, macOS, FreeBSD)

Key features:

• Supports PHP as an IDE for C++ (via pre-installed plugins)
• Includes all major IDE features for working with PHP including debugging, project and workspace man­age­ment, panes, auto-com­ple­tion and task man­age­ment
• In­teg­rated setup wizard
• Supports C, C++, Node.js, JavaS­cript, HTML, and more in addition to PHP
• Can be set up spe­cific­ally as a PHP editor for web de­vel­op­ment
• Good go-to and find/replace functions
• Features like re­fact­or­ing, debugging and linting
• PHP wizard for classes
• Supports SFTP (with SSH account manager)
• Git in­teg­ra­tion
• Various diff tools for files and dir­ect­or­ies

Apache NetBeans (Windows, Linux, macOS, BSD)

Key features:

• Works as part of the Java Virtual Machine and supports many other languages besides PHP such as CSS, Sass, JavaS­cript, C, C++, Java and LESS.
• Allows execution, debugging and editing of PHP files
• Flexibly con­fig­ur­able interface with themes and panes
• Features such as syntax high­light­ing, go-to defin­i­tions, auto-com­ple­tion, code format­ting and folding, error high­light­ing, smart sug­ges­tions, and more
• Unit testing (via Selenium and PHPUnit)
• Supports version control systems from Git, Mercurial or Sub­ver­sion
• Flexibly ex­tend­able with over 1,000 plugins via the NetBeans Plugin Portal
• Supports PHP frame­works such as WordPress, Zend, Symfony and Yii
• Offers semantic code analysis

Komodo IDE (Windows, Linux, macOS)

Key features:

• Useful PHP features like live preview, unit tests, auto­com­plete, minimap, multiple selection, chrome debugging and a de­pend­ency detector
• Support for many other languages such as CSS, JavaS­cript, Node.js, Python, HTML, Perl, Ruby and Golang
• Code re­fact­or­ing and code browser
• HTTP inspector and database explorer
• Vagrant and Docker in­teg­ra­tion
• Enables in­teg­ra­tion with version control systems from Git, Sub­ver­sion, CVS, Perfore or Mercurial
• Real-time col­lab­or­a­tion and share cap­ab­il­it­ies via Slack
• Wizard for on­board­ing and projects

Eclipse Che - Cloud IDE (all operating systems via web browser)

Key features:

• Enables ap­plic­a­tion de­vel­op­ment in preset, container and cloud-based work­spaces including runtimes, de­pend­en­cies, project code and IDE
• Supports real-time col­lab­or­a­tion of hundreds of de­velopers sim­ul­tan­eously
• Works via online IDE in web browser
• Container-based PHP de­vel­op­ment
• One-click setup of a pre­con­figured workspace
• Configure PHP stacks and customise editor in­ter­faces
• Location and device in­de­pend­ent working
• Devfile templates
• Pre­con­figured sample projects such as plain PHP, Symfony with MySQL, Laravel with MySQL or plain PHP with Apache web server
• Terminal access to all sample projects
• Flexibly ex­tend­able via plugins

Paid PHP IDEs

JetBrains PhpStorm (Windows, Linux, macOS)

Key features:

• Very min­im­al­ist­ic, intuitive user interface with ad­di­tion­al on-demand features and con­fig­ur­a­tion settings
• Includes outline view for HTML5 and pri­or­it­isa­tion of code issues
• Provides on-the-fly error pre­ven­tion
• Advanced re­fact­or­ing features and debugging (with zero-config visual debugger, Xdebug or Zend Debugger)
• Fa­cil­it­ates switching between PHP versions
• Supports version control systems from Git, Sub­ver­sion and Mercurial
• Suitable for both PHPUnit (test-based de­vel­op­ment) and Behat (behaviour-based de­vel­op­ment)
• In addition to PHP, supports CSS, Markdown, JavaS­cript, Node.js. React, TypeScript, MySQL XML and LESS
• Suitable for all major PHP frame­works (WordPress, Zend Framework, Yii, Magento, Laravel and CakePHP)

Code­Lob­ster (Windows, Linux, macOS)

Key features:

• User interface shows all available hideable menus, panels and features
• Can be used as a com­bin­a­tion of free PHP editor and paid, optional IDE
• Editor provides all major PHP features such as syntax high­light­ing, auto-com­ple­tion and debugging features
• Com­pre­hens­ive PHP support with plugins for WordPress, Drupal, Symfony, Yii, Laravel and Codelgniter
• Support for Twig and Smarty template engines
• In­teg­rated plugin manager
• Code inspector for HTML/CSS
• HTML/CSS/PHP code val­id­a­tion
• SQL manager and FTP/SFTP client
• Supports version control systems of Git, SVN and Mercurial
• Handy code templates and code snippets

Zend Studio (Windows, Linux, macOS, IBM i)

Key Features:

• Based on Eclipse PDT IDE and can be installed as an Eclipse plugin or sep­ar­ately
• Ef­fort­less in­teg­ra­tion with Zend products such as Zend Debugger, Zend Server, Zend Guard as well as Lamina’s API tools and frame­works
• Supports many other frame­works, tools, web servers and debuggers
• PHP-specific func­tion­al­ity such as code wizard, cloud de­ploy­ment (public and private) and re­la­tion­al database man­age­ment systems
• Auto­ma­tion for model creation
• In­tel­li­gent code editing for PHP and other languages such as JavaS­cript, HTML, CSS and Markdown
• Versatile debugging cap­ab­il­it­ies (with Zend Debugger, Xdebug or Z-Ray)
• Container-based PHP ap­plic­a­tions thanks to support for Docker
• In­teg­rates with various version control systems and Composer
• Usable with popular cloud platforms such as Azure, AWS, IBM Cloud or Red Hat’s OpenShift

Codeany­where – Cloud IDE (all operating systems via web browser, iOS, Android)

Key features:

• Platform-in­de­pend­ent IDE for use in web browsers or mobile systems
• Supports over 100 code languages including PHP, CSS, JavaS­cript, TypeScript, Node.js, Python, Go, Ruby, LESS, Java
• Use in OpenVZ container, own server or via third-party providers such as GitHub, Bitbucket, Google Drive, Amazon S3 or even Di­gita­lOcean
• Starts with either pre­con­figured or custom PHP and WordPress stacks
• Live testing of PHP ap­plic­a­tions over HTTP and HTTPS protocols
• Support for ad­di­tion­al protocols such as FTP, FTPS, SFTP or SSH
• Git can be in­teg­rated via terminal
• In­tel­li­gent PHP features like re­fact­or­ing, minimap, auto­com­plete or go-to defin­i­tions
• Real-time pair pro­gram­ming with shared files
• Con­fig­ur­able layouts as views with rows, columns, grids or as split screen
• Live preview in web browser and one-click code beau­ti­fic­a­tion

Con­clu­sion

The choice between a PHP editor and a PHP IDE depends on in­di­vidu­al re­quire­ments and the com­plex­ity of the project. Free PHP editors are ideal for users who may not have extensive pro­gram­ming knowledge and don’t regularly work on PHP files. They offer ad­vant­ages such as a shallow learning curve, quick startup times, and a min­im­al­ist and user-friendly interface. Examples of such editors include Notepad++ and Smultron.

Premium PHP editors, on the other hand, are highly re­com­men­ded for those seeking a com­pre­hens­ive set of features and support for a wide range of file types and pro­gram­ming languages. Premium editors often come with a vibrant community, their own mar­ket­place, and a plugin library, which are suitable for complex tasks working with PHP files.

If your de­vel­op­ment plans involve complex frontend and backend work with PHP, or if you require specific frame­works and tools, PHP IDEs are the ideal choice. These usually also offer an in­teg­rated web server, a stack overview or selection and options for testing ap­plic­a­tions. A com­bin­a­tion of editor and IDE such as Zend Studio or Code­Lob­ster is also suitable.