Author: Dave Smith
Updated on: 2016-11-29
Categories: PHP Tutorials
Read this article to compare the features of some of the most popular IDEs being used by PHP developers, so you can decide which one suits you best.
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Contents
What is a PHP IDE?
Disclaimer
PHP IDE List
PHP Code Editor Features
PHP Editor Version Control Support
Other Supported Languages
PHP Framework Support
Supported JavaScript Libraries
Other Features
PHP IDE Tutorials in this site
Where to find these PHP IDE Free Downloads?
Where to find the price and buy the commercial PHP IDEs?
PHP IDE Discount Coupon Codes
Change Log
Conclusion
What is a PHP IDE?
What makes an IDE the prefect tool for one developer may not meet the needs of another. A set of features, the look and feel are all subjective to the user as to what makes the best IDE. The primary goal with these comparisons is to provide just the facts, without bias, so that you can make a decision based on your own needs.
Great effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of these charts by not only doing our own research but also inviting the developers to review them and provide their own feedback for consideration.
Due to the extensive list of features being compared, the charts are broken down into several categorized tables. Some of these tables are wide, so use the horizontal scroll to ensure you are not missing out on some of the data.
This is a live article. This means that the article will be updated once and republished here again once there are relevant updates to the features of the currently listed IDEs or others that may not yet be listed.
Disclaimer
This article was composed in collaboration with the producers of several PHP IDEs, some commercial, some free. The production of this article was not sponsored in any form by any of the IDE producers.
Producers of IDEs being actively developed but currently are not listed here, are invited to contact the site to have your PHP IDE included in a future edition of this article.
PHP IDE List
1. Codelobster
Developed by: Codelobster
2. Eclipse PDT
Developed by: Eclipse
3. Komodo IDE
Developed by: ActiveState
4. Netbeans
Developed by: Oracle
5. Nuclide for Atom
Developed by: Facebook
6. PHPEd
Developed by: Nusphere
7. PHPStorm
Developed by: JetBrains
8. PHP Tools for Visual Studio
Developed by: Devsense
9. Zend Studio
Developed by: Zend
Notice: PHP Tools from DevSense requires a version of Microsoft Visual Studio. It works with either Visual Studio 2010, Visual Studio 2012, VisualStudio 2013, Visual Studio 2015 and Visual Studio 2017.
Version | Release date | License | Min PHP | Max PHP | Debugger | FTP | |
Codelobster | 5.10 | Sep 12, 2016 | Commercial | 4 | 7.0 | Xdebug | Yes |
Eclipse PDT | 4.1 | Sep 28, 2016 | EPL | 5.1 | 7.1 | Xdebug/Zend | No |
Komodo IDE | 10.1 | Aug 22, 2016 | Commercial | 4.4 | 7.1 | Xdebug | Yes |
Netbeans | 8.2 | Oct 3, 2016 | CDDL/GPL | 4 | 7.0 | Xdebug | No |
Nuclide | 0.184 | Nov 22, 2016 | FPL | Xdebug | Yes | ||
PHPEd | 18 | Nov, 2016 | Commercial | 4.3 | 7.1 | DBG | Yes |
PHPStorm | 2016.3.1 | Nov 28, 2016 | Commercial | 5.3 | 7.1 | Xdebug/Zend | Yes |
PHP Tools | 1.20 | Oct 12, 2016 | Commercial | 5.4 | 7.0 | Xdebug | Yes |
Zend Studio | 13.5 | Jul 9, 2016 | Commercial | 5.1 | 7.0 | Zend/Xdebug/Z-ray | Yes |
Licenses:
CDDL = Common Development and Distribution License
EPL = Eclipse Public License
GPL = GNU General Public License
FPL = Facebook Public License
PHP IDE for Windows
The following IDEs are available under Windows: Codelobster, Eclipse PDT, Komodo IDE, Netbeans, PHPEd, PHPStorm, PHP Tools and Zend Studio.
PHP IDE for Mac
The following IDEs are available under Mac: Eclipse PDT, Komodo IDE, Netbeans, Nuclide, PHPStorm and Zend Studio.
PHP IDE for Linux
The following IDEs are available under Linux: Eclipse PDT, Komodo IDE, Netbeans, Nuclide, PHPStorm and Zend Studio.
PHP Code Editor Features
Auto Complete | Highlighting | Folding | Hinting | Refactoring | Mapping | File Compare | |
Codelobster | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
Eclipse PDT | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Komodo | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Netbeans | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Nuclide | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes |
PHPEd | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
PHPStorm | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
PHP Tools | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Zend Studio | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Auto Complete = Code suggestions presented and completed, relevant to the current context
Highlighting = Code colorized to simplify locating specific elements
Folding = Code blocks can be expanded and contracted (hidden)
Hinting = Similar to Auto Complete, properties are also displayed for functions and methods
Refactoring = Restructuring code for better readability and complexity
Mapping = Display of declarations used, mapped to their origin
File Compare = Comparing 2 or more files and highlighting the differences in them
PHP Editor Version Control Support
GIT | GIT Flow | Github | SVN | CVS | TFS | Mecurial | ClearCase | Perforce | Bazaar | |
Codelobster | Plugin | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | No |
Eclipse PDT | Yes | Plugin | Plugin | Plugin | Plugin | Plugin | Plugin | Plugin | Plugin | Plugin |
Komodo | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
Netbeans | Yes | Plugin | No | Yes | Plugin | No | Yes | Plugin | No | No |
Nuclide | Yes | No | Plugin | Plugin | No | Plugin | Yes | No | Plugin | No |
PHPEd | Plugin | No | Plugin | Plugin | Yes | No | Plugin | No | No | Plugin |
PHPStorm | Yes | Plugin | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Plugin |
PHP Tools | Yes | No | Yes | Plugin | Yes | Yes | Plugin | No | Plugin | No |
Zend Studio | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Plugin | Plugin | Plugin | Plugin | Plugin |
Plugin indicates that support is provided by installing external code, either directly from the developer or a third party.
Other Supported Languages
HTML | Javascript | CSS | LESS | SASS | Hack, HHVM | |
Codelobster | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Eclipse PDT | Yes | Yes | Yes | Plugin | No | No |
Komodo | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Netbeans | Yes | Yes | Yes | Plugin | Plugin | No |
Nuclide | Yes | Yes | Yes | Plugin | Plugin | Yes |
PHPED | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
PHPStorm | Yes | Yes | Yes | Plugin | Plugin | No |
PHP Tools | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Zend Studio | Yes | Yes | Yes | Plugin | No | No |
Plugin indicates that support is provided by installing external code, either directly from the developer or a third party.
PHP Framework Support
CakePHP | Codeigniter | Drupal | Joomla | Laravel | Phalcon | Prado | Smarty | Symfony | Twig | Wordpress | Yii | Zend | |
Codelobster | Plugin | Plugin | Plugin | Plugin | Plugin | Yes | No | Plugin | Plugin | Plugin | Plugin | Plugin | No |
Eclipse PDT | No | No | Plugin | No | No | No | No | Plugin | Plugin | Plugin | No | Plugin | Plugin |
Komodo | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No |
Netbeans | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
Nuclide | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Plugin | Plugin | Plugin | Plugin | Plugin | No |
PHPED | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes |
PHPStorm | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Plugin | Plugin | Plugin | Yes | Plugin | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
PHP Tools | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Zend Studio | No | No | Plugin | No | No | No | No | Plugin | Yes | Plugin | No | Plugin | Yes |
Plugin indicates that support is provided by installing external code, either directly from the developer or a third party.
Supported JavaScript Libraries
AngularJS | BackboneJS | extJS | Flow | Jquery | KnockoutJS | Meteor | React | |
Codelobster | Plugin | Plugin | Plugin | No | Plugin | No | Plugin | No |
Eclipse PDT | Plugin | No | Plugin | No | Yes | No | No | No |
Komodo | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes |
Netbeans | Yes | No | Plugin | No | No | Yes | No | No |
Nuclide | Plugin | No | No | Yes | No | No | Plugin | No |
PHPEd | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
PHPStorm | Yes | No | Plugin | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
PHP Tools | Yes | No | Plugin | No | Yes | No | No | Plugin |
Zend Studio | Plugin | No | Plugin | No | Plugin | No | No | No |
Plugin indicates that support is provided by installing external code, either directly from the developer or a third party.
Other Features
PHP IDEs have many features that are not yet listed here for side by side comparison. Eventually those features will be added later on a future edition of this article.
Therefore PHP IDE producers were invited to describe some of the most important features of their PHP IDEs that they consider important for the PHP developers.
Nusphere PHPEd
The built in DBG debugger provides:
1. Ability to debug PHP console or Web applications
2. Ability to debug in embedded browser or one in a regular browser window
3. Ability to profile code in terms of performance, memory consumption, the time SQL queries take to execute
4. Support for secure debug connections to the servers
5. Conditional breakpoints, starting the debugger on errors and exceptions, ability to change current execution line, etc..
Additional features include:
1. Embedded SSH Client
2. Built in phpUnit support
3. phpUnit support integrated with debugger for remote debugging
Komodo
1. Komodo is based on Mozilla, like Firefox, and so it is not based in a Java editor
2. Has a Regex tool, which allows you to write regular expressions easily and see how it matches as well as provides various shortcuts to make writing regular expressions easier.
3. Has built-in code collaboration, letting you work on code with your colleagues simultaneously
4. Has a code profiling tool.
5. Has a HTTP inspector which lets you inspect HTTP traffic from the IDE to the Web sites
6. You can quickly test code by selecting a code section and hitting the "Run Code in-Line" button.
7. You can easily find documentation on common PHP functions by selecting them and invoking the documentation tool.
8. The user interface was designed to be simple and straight forward. It provides a lot of useful functionality despite it does not show too many buttons on the window.
9. It provides a field called "Go to Anything" that provides quick access to any feature.
Zend Studio
1. Can debug using either Xdebug and Zend Debugger
2. It can debug Web applications, CLI applications and supports PHPUnit tests
3. Debug sessions can be triggered from Z-Ray, browser toolbars or a special URL.
4. It automatically downloads the source code being debugged from the server if not available in the IDE
5. The profiler provides detailed reports.
6. It can perform static code analysis using a rich set of rules for finding issues in your code as you type it. It has a special set of rules to help migrating your existing code to PHP 7.
7. It can be used for mobile development. It has integration with Apigility for easy developing of REST services, as well with Cordova for cross-platform mobile application development.
8. It has Zend Server integration for deployment and application monitoring.
PHP IDE Tutorials in this site
Codelobster Tutorial
PHPEd Tutorials
PHP Tools for Visual Studio Tutorials
Using Microsoft Visual Studio as PHP IDE with the PHP Tools extension: Part 3 Debugging
Where to find these PHP IDE Free Downloads?
Some commercial IDEs have free versions. Others have trial versions that you can use for free during a given period.
Here follow the pages with free download versions of each PHP IDE:
Codelobster (limited feature set)
Eclipse PDT (Open Source)
Komodo IDE (21 day trial)
Netbeans IDE (Open Source)
Atom Nuclide (Open Source) Install Nuclide from Atom
PHPEd (14 day trial)
PHPStorm (30 day trial)
PHP Tools for Visual Studio (30 day trial)
Zend Studio (30 day trial)
Note: for PHP Tools for Visual Studio you need a working version of Visual Studio. There are also free versions of Visual Studio Community Edition. Here are free download versions of each edition:
Microsoft Visual Studio 2017 (Release Candidate all versions)
Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 (community edition)
Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 (community edition)
Where to find the price and buy the commercial PHP IDEs?
Here follow the list of links of where to download these PHP IDEs or buy in the case of commercial IDEs. Below you may find discount coupons for some of the commercial IDEs. The following pages have the price and buy instructions for each PHP IDE:
PHP IDE Discount Coupon Codes
Since several of the listed PHP IDEs are commercial, their producers were kind enough to share codes that allow you to buy their IDEs with a discount. Here follow the coupon discount codes for each of the PHP IDEs.
Codelobster
20% off: 20aeb
Komodo IDE
PhpEd
10% off: ALL-OTH-10-O-F9FEC (expires in 2017)
PHP Tools for Visual Studio
10% off: PHPCLASSES777 (expires December 31, 2016)
Change log
Conclusion
The goal of this article is to let you evaluate the different PHP IDEs so you compare and find which ones are more suitable for your needs.
Since these PHP IDEs are always evolving, this article will be updated with latest developments.
Special thanks for the developers of the organizations and companies of each the the listed PHP IDEs for their collaboration.
If you have questions or find inaccuracies, post a comment here.
Meanwhile share this article with other developers that are interested about PHP IDEs.
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Comments:
6. My preferred IDE - Artavazd (2016-11-15 23:23)
Useful article... - 1 reply
Read the whole comment and replies
5. Very useful - MT Lars (2016-11-15 22:21)
Thanks... - 1 reply
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4. Netbeans File Compare. - James Hansen (2016-11-15 22:20)
Blah... - 1 reply
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3. Best PHP IDE - Boris Donald Sodoloufo (2016-11-15 12:15)
Thanks. Very nice article... - 0 replies
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2. my prefered IDEs - José Filipe Lopes Santos (2016-11-15 10:31)
my prefered IDEs... - 0 replies
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1. Nice comparison - Carlos Alberto Garcia (2016-11-15 10:21)
IDEs... - 0 replies
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