Website Developer Tools

Website developer tools are a must for any professional. No matter what web design technology a developer or designer uses, they will always benefit from a large bag of tools. Over the last few decades, the world of information has drastically changed. To get some information, you would need to look for it in a book, encyclopedia, or other text. Today, all the information that we need is online on different websites. Besides information, many retailing, advertisement, social media, and other things are also on the web. People spend an enormous amount of time online viewing different websites. Hence, web developers must put in great effort to make the websites pleasant to look at and easy to use.

For this reason, web developers use many tools to help them in web development. Luckily, there is a vast amount of free tools that are available for any website developer. These website developer tools are beneficial for website developers, but there are also disadvantages.

Google’s website developer tools

Many different website developer tools are available that can improve performance and efficiency for a website developer. They range within a wide variety of categories. There are free tools for web design and graphic tools that help with the website’s design. For example, a free tool available by Google called “Google Web Designer” is a great tool that helps “create engaging, interactive HTML5-based designs and motion graphics that can run on any device” (https://www.google.com/webdesigner).

Microsoft’s website developer tools

The Microsoft Web Platform offers the right tools for the right task. There are many free tools by Microsoft. Design, build, debug, and deploy websites with Visual Studio Community, and test your sites in Windows® and Internet Explorer® 10 using the built-in developer tools” (https://www.microsoft.com/web/platform/tools.aspx).

These are all free tools for website developers searching for them in major search engines. Also, many different websites display such tools. In one article by Gary Marshall that was written in Net Magazine, he collected 50 free tools. He writes: “With web design encompassing all disciplines from code editing to photo manipulation, building up a set of tools to cover every eventuality can quickly become a costly exercise. However, spending huge sums on big-name packages isn’t the only option: it’s possible to pick up everything from image editors to integrated development environments and entire content management systems that won’t cost you a single penny” (Marshall, creativebloq.com).

Reasons for using website developer tools

Free tools that web developers can use are helpful for a few reasons. First of all, the fact that they are free makes them great. As Marshall said, there are tools “that won’t cost you a single penny” (Marshall, creativebloq.com). Some tools are costly for creating websites. For some companies, it’s possible to purchase expensive tools due to their budget. For others, free tools are a huge help, especially for small businesses just starting up and needing help creating their websites. Secondly, these tools are just great because of the functions they offer. Instead of spending many hours on a task, a web developer can use a free tool to speed up the process. For example, instead of creating colors and finding a code to use on a website, there are tools with all the colors and codes needed. Finally, free web development tools are usually created in a very convenient and easy way for the user.

Disadvantages of website developer tools

Free web development tools are a tremendous advantage for web developers, although some disadvantages exist. The main disadvantages of free online tools for web development are limited options. Designing a website one likes or wishes to have is difficult. Due to limitations on customization and not having so much of an exclusive and unique design, Image optimization and search engine optimization challenges are common across most free online tools for web development.

Limitations with website developer tools

Most free online templates for site design are limited to options for the site’s look and feel. Hence you may not be able to create a site that looks professional or original. Some programs don’t let you implement Flash, video, or other ordinary web design elements. People often end up with a website that looks indicial to other sites out there due to free temples’ limited options. If you want to ensure no one out there has the same website template as you, you must purchase the specific temple at a high price. However, there is a high chance that someone already has that template because clients had downloaded it before you bought it.

Also, having that exclusive and unique look of your brand as a company is very challenging. At times free website templates cannot be tweaked beyond a certain point, so you can end up with something you may not want or like. If you have a lot of website content and choose a web template with limited space for text, adding more text can change how the layout looks when stretched. By now, one may realize this temple will not work for them, but now they are stuck with it. If stated repeatedly, all that time and work will go to waste, but you may not like how the end product looks. Some free website templates might be easy to customize, edit, and update. However, some require knowledge of photo-editing and website-building tools and coding.

Online Templates are not Optimized.

Also another vital issue is optimizing search engines. Free online website templates are only shells on sites. They are not optimized to attract search engines. So remember, search engines are more attracted to words than to pictures. This means you will need to add your website content yourself. Not only that, but at times the specific software one is using is no longer available. Then what, they have lost all their advertisement. On top of that, they must repeat the process of having an up-to-date web page. Which also slows down the workflow.

Takeaway on Website Developer Tools

Whether it’s a new website or an existing one, in the end, it all comes down to what one is looking for. Someone looking for a simple SEO business tool and who doesn’t have much to spend could do with free tools. Or someone with a bigger budget can invest in some premium tools. However, free tools are not the way to go for mid-size businesses and companies. Since they are more stable and have a good profit rate, it is reasonable to invest in quality tools.