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With so many different software development tools available, figuring out which is right for you is tough. You know you want to create, test, debug, and maintain your software applications but need to figure out which tool is best. I've got you! In this post I'll help make your choice easy, sharing my personal experiences using dozens of different software development tools with various teams and projects, with my picks of the best software development tools.

What are Software Development Tools?

Software development tools are applications and platforms that assist in creating, testing, debugging, and maintaining software. These tools encompass a wide range, including integrated development environments (IDEs), code editors, compilers, debuggers, version control systems, and testing frameworks. They support various tasks in the software development lifecycle, providing functionalities tailored for efficient programming and project management.

The benefits of using software development tools include increased efficiency and productivity in the software development process. They help in improving the quality of code, reducing errors, and streamlining collaboration among development teams. These tools automate repetitive tasks and provide a structured environment for managing complex software projects. They are crucial in maintaining project timelines, facilitating effective communication, and ensuring that software meets the required standards and functionalities.

Overviews Of The 10 Best Software Development Tools

You can use the simple overviews of each tool below to understand how each tool stands out from other software development tools.

Best for Jira integration & custom views

  • Free plan available
  • From $9/user/month
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Rating: 5/5

Visor is a project management tool that offers a bi-directional integration with Jira, enabling the import of over 75 Jira field types for comprehensive data management and visualization. This capability positions Visor as a top choice for users seeking to create custom views and effectively manage projects within the Jira ecosystem.

Why I picked Visor: I chose Visor after determining its unique ability to provide custom views and robust Jira integration. What makes Visor stand out is its capability to connect with various SaaS applications, allowing for a unified workspace that caters to diverse project management needs. I believe Visor is the best tool for Jira integration and custom views because it not only ensures that data stays in sync with nested Jira information but also supports bi-directional integration, enabling teams to manage and share reports that reflect complex Jira hierarchies effectively.

Visor Standout Features & Integrations

Features include include API, dashboards, data export/data import, data visualization, external integrations, Gantt charts, multi-user, project management, task scheduling/tracking, resource management and third-party plugins/add-ons.

Integrations include Jira, Salesforce, and HubSpot.

Visor starts at $9 per user per month and has a free plan available.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Free plan for 2 workbooks & 5 views each
  • Free unlimited viewer-only accounts
  • Live support via phone & video call

Cons:

  • May cost extra for monthly integration sync credits
  • Unlimited audit trail locked to highest plan

Best for automating build, test, and deployment workflow with secure CI/CD

  • Free plan available
  • Starts from $3.67/user/month
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Rating: 4.7/5

GitHub is a Git repository hosting service that provides web-based coding and collaboration capabilities developers use to build, test, and deploy applications.

Why I picked GitHub: Trusted by millions of users across the globe, GitHub is an outstanding tool that is designed for collaboration. GitHub boosts productivity and offers features for high-quality software development. GitHub’s unlimited repositories, open source community, automation capabilities, and version control system increase developer velocity and help your team to work together efficiently.

GitHub’s built-in security features make the tool stand out. The platform enables you to secure your code in minutes and stay compliant with regulations. With GitHub Actions, you can automate your build, test, and deployment processes with super-secure CI/CD. It has an AI-powered solution, GitHub Copilot, that makes development 55% faster.

GitHub Standout Features and Integrations

Features include collaboration capabilities, built-in security, a complete dev environment, code scanning, workflow automation, unlimited repositories, and version control.

Integrations include Slack, GitKraken, Atom, Disbug, Jira, Azure Boards, Codetree, Nessus, and GitHub Scanner.

GitHub costs $3.67 per user/month and offers a free plan for individuals and organizations.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Great documentation
  • Good collaboration features
  • Reliable backup
  • A wide range of integrations
  • Large open-source community

Cons:

  • A steep learning curve
  • The subscription fee can add up fast
  • Security risks

Best git solution for developers using Jira

  • Free plan (5 users)
  • From $3/user/month
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Rating: 4.4/5

Bitbucket Cloud, optimized for developers using Jira, is the native Git tool in Atlassian’s Open DevOps solution that offers outstanding Jira integration and built-in CI/CD.

Why I picked Bitbucket: Millions of developers build on Bitbucket because of its outstanding capabilities, including ease of collaboration across multiple teams. This powerful Git solution enables you to seamlessly manage your Jira issues using the built-in Jira user interface. As a result, it helps minimize context-switching.

Bitbucket has code review features, which help you find and resolve issues before deploying your software. With the in-built CI/CD and Bitbucket Pipelines, you can increase developer velocity by automating workflows.

Bitbucket Standout Features and Integrations

Features include a built-in Jira interface, code review capabilities, automated deployments, automatic security scans, automated issue tracking, and collaboration capabilities.

Integrations include Jira, IronGit, Makerflow, Mergetastic, Fleep, Atlas Bot, Bucket Board, CircleCI, CloudCannon, and Code Dog.

Bitbucket costs $15/month for 1 - 5 users and offers a freemium plan.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Ease of collaboration across multiple teams
  • Shipping of high-quality codes
  • Flexible pricing
  • Teams that integrate Jira release faster

Cons:

  • Lacks some features that top alternatives have
  • Users encounter configuration challenges sometimes
  • The support platform needs to improve response time

Best for data-driven monitoring and software performance optimization

  • Offers an “only pay for what you use” pricing model

New Relic provides engineers with the capabilities required to monitor, debug, and improve their software or entire stack.

Why I picked New Relic: This all-in-one tool combines 30+ capabilities to enable you to monitor your stack. New Relic extends its functionalities with 530+ integrations. The platform is data-driven and provides the solutions your team needs to monitor and solve software performance issues. 

New Relic has a flexible pricing model that allows you to only pay for what you use. And offers 100 GB of free data ingest per month.  It provides the insights you need to plan, develop, and deploy. With multiple tools built into one platform, New Relic enables you to fix things faster with one connected experience.

New Relic New RelicStandout Features and Integrations

Features include backend monitoring, Kubernetes monitoring, mobile monitoring, model performance monitoring, infrastructure monitoring, log management, error tracking, network monitoring, vulnerability management, and browser monitoring. 

Integrations include Guided install, Java, WordPress, MySQL, Tomcat, PHP, Django, .NET, Kafka, and ActiveRecord.

New Relic offers an “only pay for what you use” pricing model and allows users to get started for free.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Fast resolution of issues
  • A comprehensive observability tool
  • A wide range of capabilities
  • 530+ integrations

Cons:

  • A complex pricing model
  • It’s difficult to predict how much you are going to spend

Best issue and project tracking tool for agile teams

  • 7-day free trial
  • From $7.75 per user/month

Jira is a leading project management tool that developers use to plan, automate, and track software development processes.

Why I picked Jira: It has project management features that help developers to stay organized, work fast, and collaborate effectively. The project planning capabilities help you break ideas into easy-to-manage chunks across teams.

Jira Software’s Open DevOps takes care of necessary automation and integrations while your team focuses on developing, deploying, and managing applications. This solution sets the foundation for DevOps right and helps you focus on things that matter.

Jira Standout Features and Integrations

Features include customizable templates, complete visibility in the DevOps process, No-code automation, Issue management, tracking & reporting, and reliable security.

Integrations include ScriptRunner, Jira Misk Custom Fields (JMCF), Deep Clone, BigPicture, Zephyr Scale, Xporter, Worklogs, Asset Management for Jira, and Calendar for Jira.

Jira costs $7.75 per user/month with a 7-day free trial.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Integrations
  • Easy bug tracking
  • Highly customizable
  • Good security

Cons:

  • Not as intuitive as some top Jira alternatives
  • Steep learning curve - for some features

Best website design tool for developing and managing dynamic websites

  • 7 days free trial
  • From $20.49/month

Dreamweaver, a product by Adobe, provides web design tools that enable developers to build websites for any browser or device.

Why I picked Dreamweaver: This software supports multiple languages (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and more) and allows you to build web services for any browser or device. Dreamweaver has a good coding engine that enables fast and flexible coding of dynamic pages. 

With the code hints feature and visual aids, you can significantly reduce errors and speed up the development process. There are customizable starter templates you can use to quickly build web pages, like e-commerce pages, HTML emails, About pages, and blogs.

Additionally, this tool is part of Creative Cloud. As a result, you can import resources from your Creative Cloud Libraries and Adobe Stock.

Dreamweaver Standout Features and Integrations

Features include multiple programming languages, flexible and speedy coding, a simplified coding engine, code debugging, customizable templates, multi-monitor support for Windows, integrations, and tutorials.

Integrations include Adobe Creative Cloud, Adobe Photoshop, Arlo for Training Providers, SalesCart, CSS, Diib, POS2Net, Adobe Comp, Adobe Stock, and OpenText xPression.

Dreamweaver’s pricing starts from $22.56 per month with a 30-day free trial of Adobe Stock.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Seamless integrations
  • Code suggestions
  • Easy debugging
  • Flexible pricing

Cons:

  • Learning the interface takes time
  • You don’t get what you see always
  • Some users have challenges with global styling

Best dev environment for fast development of complete enterprise apps

  • Starts from $1,095/developer

App Builder is a low-code platform that helps software teams to build enterprise apps faster using pre-built app templates and drag & drop features.

Why I picked App Builder: It gets rid of the complexity that comes with UI design and streamlines the entire software building process. App Builder makes fast app development possible with high-end tools, including 60+ UI controls.

App Builder allows you to deliver your app 80% faster - using customizable templates and responsive screen layouts. The platform is compatible with popular design tools like Sketch, Figma, and Adobe XD. You can import your designs and turn them into an HTML code with a few clicks.

App Builder Standout Features and Integrations

Features include WYSIWYG drag & drop capabilities, pre-built templates and starter layouts, 60+ UI controls, high-speed RAD development, integrations, and real-time source code preview.

Integrations include Fitter, Stacker, GoodBarber, AppSheet, Interfaces by Zapier, Softr, Tadabase, Typebot, Amazon Honeycode, and Kaspr.

App Builder’s pricing starts from $1,095 per developer.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Fast development
  • Production-ready code
  • Low-code features
  • What you see is what you get

Cons:

  • Subscription is expensive
  • Not suitable for users that want to improve their coding skills

Best for providing the latest AI models and complete dev tools

  • Free
  • Offers a pay-as-you-go pricing model

Azure, built by MicroSoft, provides innovative software dev tools that help software engineers build future-ready, super-secure cloud solutions.

Why I picked Azure: Microsoft Azure offers a pay-as-you-go pricing model, enabling users to only pay for the resources they provision. This flexibility allows you to have better control of your budget. 

Azure integrates with ChatGPT through Azure OpenAI Service. You can use ChatGPT to build smart apps that offer conversational features, like writing assistance, contextual chatbots, summarization capabilities, and coding assistance.

Additionally, Azure provides the latest AI models, helping you to build custom machine learning models. The AI models include complex speech, vision, decision-making, and language models.

Azure Standout Features and Integrations

Features include complete dev tools, AI models, ChatGPT integration, load testing, and a wide range of Azure solutions.

Integrations include AzurePing, Cloud Explorer for Visual Studio, Cloud Combine, SQL Database Migration Wizard, Azure Blob Studio, Microsoft Azure Storage Connected Service, Graphic Engine VSExtension, Docker, and Azure Grid.

Azure offers a pay-as-you-go pricing model and a free account.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Data security
  • Scalability
  • Flexible pricing
  • High availability

Cons:

  • Needs high-level tech expertise
  • Requires high-level management and maintenance

Best cloud IDE for code debugging

  • Free
  • Customized price upon request

AWS Cloud9, a top integrated development environment (IDE), provides all the tools you need to write, run, and debug your code - using a browser.

Why I picked AWS Cloud9: It offers a complete dev environment, including a code editor, debugger, and terminal. Cloud9 supports popular coding languages, making it easy for users to start projects without the need to install files or run extra configurations. 

AWS Cloud9 is cloud-based. There is no need to install a local IDE. This allows your team members to work from anywhere. Cloud9 enhances collaboration since your teams can work together in real-time. With a few clicks, team members can share the dev environment and stay in touch in real-time with a messaging feature.

You can speed up development with some time-saving features, such as code hinting, step-through debugging, and code completion.

AWS Cloud9 Standout Features and Integrations

Features include a code editor, debugger, support for multiple programming languages, and collaboration in real-time. 

Integrations include DronaHQ, SaaS customer intelligence 360, NewGenEducationApp, Ataccama ONE, Privitar, VidPowr, TouchBase, AWS, Python, and CSS.

AWS Cloud9 offers customized pricing and allows users to get started for free.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Free AWS training
  • Comprehensive dev environment
  • Code with browsers - like Google Chrome
  • Autocomplete feature
  • Build applications with ease

Cons:

  • It takes time to get used to the interface
  • Documentation can be hard to understand
  • Constant connection to the internet is required

Best IDE for .NET and C++ developers on Windows

  • From $45 per month

Trusted by many, Visual Studio is a comprehensive development platform that offers a wide variety of tools for coding, debugging, and deploying applications.

Why I picked Visual Studio: It is one of the most complete IDEs with three major solutions: Visual Studio for Windows, Visual Studio for Mac, and Visual Studio Code. Visual Studio Code is a source code editor that is compatible with Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Visual Studio Code is ideal for JS & web developers and comes with an extensive range of extensions to support other languages and runtimes.  Microsoft Visual Studio provides outstanding capabilities, such as compilers, code completion features, and graphical designers.

It is a very fast IDE that enables you to code faster on any platform/device. There are collaboration tools to enable your team members to work together in real-time. Best of all, you can identify and resolve issues before they happen.

Microsoft Visual Studio Standout Features and Integrations

Features include IDE for Windows, IDE for Mac, code completion tools, compilers, extensions, issue tracking, and graphical designers.

Integrations include Microsoft Teams, TeamSupport, Targetprocess, Time Doctor, Condenvy, Flock, LambdaTest, TMetric, ClicData, and BrowserStack.

Microsoft Visual Studio starts at $45 per month and offers some free tools to individuals.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • A comprehensive IDE
  • It’s easy to start and run a fresh project
  • Real-time collaboration
  • High developer agility and productivity
  • Cross-platform tools

Cons:

  • Licensing is a bit expensive
  • Code compilation error alerts can be misleading sometimes
  • It lags sometimes

The Best Software Development Tools Summary

Tools Price
Visor From $9/user/month
GitHub Starts from $3.67/user/month
Bitbucket From $3/user/month
New Relic One Offers an “only pay for what you use” pricing model
Jira From $7.75 per user/month
Dreamweaver From $20.49/month
App Builder Starts from $1,095/developer
Azure Offers a pay-as-you-go pricing model
AWS Cloud9 Customized price upon request
Microsoft Visual Studio From $45 per month
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Compare Software Specs Side by Side

Use our comparison chart to review and evaluate software specs side-by-side.

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Other Options

Here are a few more options that didn’t make the best software development tool list:

  1. Azure

    Best for providing the latest AI models and complete dev tools

  2. AWS Cloud9

    Best cloud IDE for code debugging

  3. Microsoft Visual Studio

    Best IDE for .NET and C++ developers on Windows

  4. Codenvy

    Best for providing a secure and zero-configuration cloud-native software development environment

  5. Apache NetBeans

    Best development environment and app framework for refactoring code

  6. Linx

    Best low-code software development environment

  7. Studio Creatio

    A no-code tool that uses workflow automation, integrations, and AI/ML models to help developers build applications with just a few clicks.

  8. Quixy

    Drag-and-drop no-code app development and business process management capabilities for users across industries.

  9. Zoho Creator

    A low-code application development tool that enables developers to design, build, and deploy business solutions.

  10. GeneXus

    Streamlines how developers build, maintain, and evolve software systems with deterministic code generators and AI-powered tools.

  11. TestRail

    Test case management, test planning, test execution, and reporting & analytics solutions for QA teams.

  12. DHTMLX

    Helps developers to boost development speed with JavaScript UI libraries.

  13. GW Apps

    A no-code platform that helps citizen developers and IT teams to build web applications faster and manage their data & business processes properly.

  14. CodeLobster

    Offers free cross-platform IDE that streamlines and simplifies the development process for PHP/HTML/CSS/JavaScript developers.

  15. Bootstrap

    Provides developers with a feature-rich front-end toolkit for developing fast, responsive websites and web apps.

  16. Node.js

    An open-source, cross-platform JavaScript runtime environment designed to enable software teams to build scalable network applications.

  17. Retool

    Provides drag & drop app building blocks for developers in companies of all sizes, from startups to Fortune 500s.

  18. PTC Implementer

    Change management and development process management tool for developers and IT managers.

  19. AngularJS

    A structural framework for dynamic web apps that lets software engineers extend HTML vocabulary for their applications.

  20. Delphi

    A cross-platform software development environment that provides developers with the tools to design, develop, debug, and deploy native apps 5X faster.

How I Selected The Best Software Development Tools

Perhaps you're wondering how I selected the best software development tools for this list. To build this top 27 list, I evaluated and compared a wide range of software development tools with positive user ratings.

After determining my long list of top choices, I further honed my list by using the selection criteria below to see how each platform stacked up against the next one. I also drew on my years of software development experience to pinpoint the features that add a lot of value.

Selection Criteria

Here’s a summary of the main selection and evaluation criteria I used to develop my list of the best software development tools for this article:

User Interface 

Every tool on this list has a responsive, simple, and intuitive user interface. The tools have well-designed interfaces, making it very easy for new users to navigate. The navigational buttons are super responsive and strategically positioned to aid ease of use. In addition, the interfaces are aesthetically appealing. 

Usability

No matter how powerful a tool is, it won’t be very helpful if users are struggling to apply the features. I picked programming tools that are not sophisticated or too technical to use. 

Developers need tools that streamline coding and make development less cumbersome. As a result, all the tools on the list are simple to use. You don’t need weeks of tutorials to get started. It’s easy to figure out how the tools work and get started with projects.

Software Integrations

Software development is vast and requires the use of many tools & frameworks. One of the challenges developers face is using many tools at the same time. Shuttling between tools is mentally tasking and time-consuming. The solution to this problem is integration. 

Integrating other tools with your major software development program enables you to have access to your toolset from one platform. It gets rid of the need to move from one tool to another when building software. Consequently, I looked out for tools that can be integrated with a wide range of software development programs and productivity tools.

Pricing

When it comes to pricing, three important factors were considered: affordability, flexibility, and transparency. As you go through my list of the best 10 software development tools, you are sure to find tools that suit your budget and project.

People Also Ask

Here are a few popular questions answered for your convenience!

Conclusion

If you are looking to build successful, high-performing software, your choice of software development tools plays a vital role. The tool you use significantly determines the quality of the software, how fast you deliver it, and the cost of development.

Settle for a software development tool that has all the capabilities needed for your project. A good tool has a comprehensive dev environment, future-fit technologies, compatibility with multiple OSs, integrations, and more. That said, carefully explore the tools above to find the one that suits your needs and budget.

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By Anyalebechi Elisha

I’m Anyalebechi Elisha, a tech blogger and cybersecurity expert. For more than 3 years, I’ve been researching and writing short-form and long-form articles across many tech niches – with major focus on cybersecuty.