Best Website Builders for Mac Mac users know that ordinary website development soft for PC isn't suitable for using it on Mac Systems. Official software from Mac isn't convenient and not so perfect tool for website building, so many ask a question: what website builder is the best for Mac? At the most recent CocoaHeads meetup in Shanghai, I presented 21 of my favorite tools which I use on my Mac. These are not necessarily specific to iOS development, but they are all tried and tested tools which save me a few seconds, a few minutes or a few hours of my time. With developer tools, design and build apps and manage projects. OmniWeb is a full-featured native web browser for Mac OS X. Highly multi-threaded and written using Apple's Cocoa frameworks.

The abundance of web development tools available can make the process of selecting one a little overwhelming. In the end, it comes down to personal preference and what fits your needs. Basically, you need a way to create your code and then preview, test, and debug it. You might also require specialty tools depending on the project.

I'm sharing which tools are must-haves for my web development projects. My list includes a code editor, browser tools, and a framework for turning designs into reality.

Also read: The three must-have tools for ASP.NET developers and The three must-haves for C# developers

Building your application

Whether it is standard HTML or dynamic code like PHP or ASP.NET, you need a good editor to put it all together. I have used a number of editors over the years, and the one I like and use daily is WebMatrix. The latest version is a free download and has everything you need to build prototypes and the final product. In addition, there are a variety of templates available to quickly build an application.

Although WebMatrix is a Microsoft offering, you are not restricted to Microsoft technologies, as it can be used for PHP-based applications and those using HTML/CSS/JavaScript standards. It only runs on Microsoft Windows, though I run it on my Mac in a Windows VM.

I know Microsoft doesn't have the best reputation in the web development community, so if you choose to explore other options, you might start with Dreamweaver, Brackets, or a cloud-based tool such as Cloud9.

Browser tools

The latest version of Firefox offers some great tools, but I'm still a big fan of Chrome and its developer tools and the wide variety of extensions available. With a few clicks, you can easily access the JavaScript console and developer tools. The tools allow you to dig into every detail of a web page and its code: JavaScript, HTML DOM, CSS classes and elements, and so forth. One of my favorite features is the ability to edit CSS elements on the fly to quickly view how changes affect the interface.

A good foundation

There are freely available frameworks that provide the foundation for your own application; these frameworks utilize the latest techniques for full-featured web applications. My favorite is Bootstrap, and the latest version fully embraces responsive design and the mobile platform — the motto of Bootstrap 3 is mobile first.

Bootstrap allows you to build powerful interfaces that conform or respond to the user platform. It is a simple concept but, like anything, it takes time and patience to get acclimated with the framework (nothing beats diving into the code).

There are plenty of other options available, such as Foundation. The key is to utilize a framework that conforms to standards and allows you to concentrate on application design as opposed to the nitty gritty details of concepts like responsive design.

Plenty of options

Other tools you might want to check out are: Proto.io for quickly creating prototypes, PhoneGap for mobile development, BrowserStack for testing, and free JavaScript libraries such as Modernizr and Chart.js. The key is to find good tools and know how to use them; this allows you to focus on tackling your new project as opposed to figuring out how to use the tools.

What tools are must-haves for your development projects? Let us know in the discussion.

A fully-featured, extensible, free IDE for creating modern applications for Android, iOS, Windows, as well as web applications and cloud services.

A full-featured and free IDE for creating modern applications for Android, iOS, macOS, as well as web applications and cloud services.

Flexibility

Productivity

Designers, editors, debuggers, profilers, in one single tool

Ecosystem

Languages

Code in C#, Visual Basic, F#, C++, HTML, JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, and more

Flexibility

Productivity

Designers, editors, debuggers, profilers, in one single tool

Web Development Tools For Mac

Languages

A brand-new workload-based installer optimizes your installation to make sure you have everything you need and nothing you don’t.

A brand-new workload-based installer optimizes your installation to make sure you have everything you need and nothing you don’t.

Write code, navigate, and fix issues
Code with confidence in your language, find and fix code issues quickly, and refactor with ease.

Code with confidence in your language, find and fix code issues quickly, and refactor with ease.

Debug to quickly find and fix bugs. Find and diagnose performance issues with the profiling tools.

Debug to quickly find and fix bugs. Find and diagnose performance issues with the profiling tools.

Tools for Apache Cordova, Xamarin, and Unity available for download to enable code, debug, test, share, and reuse for more platforms.

Tools for Xamarin and Unity are available to enable code, debug, test, share, and reuse for more platforms.

Develop for the web with ASP.NET, Node.js, Python, and JavaScript. Use with powerful web frameworks such as AngularJS, jQuery, Bootstrap, Django, and Backbone.js.

Develop for the web with ASP.NET Core and JavaScript. Use with powerful web frameworks such as AngularJS, jQuery, Bootstrap, Django, and Backbone.js.

Manage your source code in Git repos hosted by any provider, including GitHub. Or use Azure DevOps to manage code alongside bugs and work items for your whole project.

When you sign into Visual Studio Community, you get access to a broad set of free developer tools, selected Xamarin University courses on-demand, Pluralsight training, Azure credits, and more as part of Visual Studio Dev Essentials.

Free Web Development Tool

Get access to a broad set of free developer tools, selected Xamarin University courses on-demand, Pluralsight training, Azure credits, and more as part of Visual Studio Dev Essentials.

Any individual developer can use Visual Studio Community to create their own free or paid apps.

An unlimited number of users within an organization can use Visual Studio Community for the following scenarios: in a classroom learning environment, for academic research, or for contributing to open source projects.

For all other usage scenarios:
In non-enterprise organizations, up to five users can use Visual Studio Community. In enterprise organizations (meaning those with >250 PCs or >$1 Million US Dollars in annual revenue), no use is permitted beyond the open source, academic research, and classroom learning environment scenarios described above.

For more information, see the Visual Studio Community license terms.

Any individual developer can use Visual Studio Community for Mac to create their own free or paid apps.

An unlimited number of users within an organization can use Visual Studio Community for Mac for the following scenarios: in a classroom learning environment, for academic research, or for contributing to open source projects.

For all other usage scenarios:
In non-enterprise organizations, up to five users can use Visual Studio Community for Mac. In enterprise organizations (meaning those with >250 PCs or >$1 Million US Dollars in annual revenue), no use is permitted beyond the open source, academic research, and classroom learning environment scenarios described above.

For more information, see the Visual Studio Community for Mac license terms.

Free, fully-featured IDE for students, open-source and individual developers

Professional developer tools, services, and subscription benefits for small teams

End-to-end solution to meet demanding quality and scale needs of teams of all sizes

Free, fully-featured IDE for students, open-source and individual developers

Professional developer tools, services, and subscription benefits for small teams

Mac For Development

End-to-end solution to meet demanding quality and scale needs of teams of all sizes