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Developer tools

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This category covers tools that help while code is written: linters that flag problems, formatters that rewrite code to a consistent style, and local helpers such as a mail catcher or a workbench for UI components. None of them is part of the deployed site. A record carries it when the software’s place is the developer machine or CI. Tools that run automated tests have their own category, testing. Prettier and Mailpit are examples.

34 projects are developer tools, listed alphabetically. Written in 5 languages, most of them open source. Counts only projects with momentum; the full list has the rest.

0–9

  • @wordpress/env

    Command-line tool that sets up a local WordPress environment for building and testing plugins and themes, Docker-based by default, published from the Gutenberg monorepo.

A

  • asdf

    Command-line version manager for language runtimes and developer tools, configured per project in a .tool-versions file.

B

  • Biome

    Toolchain for web projects with a formatter and a linter, usable from the command line and through a language server.

C

  • CapRover

    Self-hosted platform as a service that deploys apps and one-click services to Docker containers behind nginx with automatic HTTPS.

  • Coolify

    Open-source, self-hostable platform that deploys applications, databases and services to Docker containers on the user's own servers.

D

  • Docker Desktop

    Desktop application that installs the Docker Engine, Docker CLI and Docker Compose on macOS, Windows and Linux for building and running containers.

  • Dokku

    Self-hosted platform as a service that runs on a single Linux server and deploys web apps pushed to it with git.

E

  • ESLint

    Pluggable linter for JavaScript that reports and fixes problems in source code through configurable rules and plugins.

F

  • Flagsmith

    Open-source feature flag and remote config platform, available self-hosted or as a cloud service, with SDKs for web, mobile and server-side apps.

  • FlyEnv

    Native local development environment for Windows, macOS and Linux that runs runtimes, databases and web servers on the host, with local sites, HTTPS and an MCP server for AI coding agents.

G

  • GraphQL Code Generator

    Plugin-based command-line tool that generates typed code from a GraphQL schema and its operations.

  • GrowthBook

    Open-core feature flagging, experimentation and product analytics platform, available self-hosted or as a cloud service, with SDKs for application code.

H

  • Hey API

    Code generator that turns OpenAPI specifications into TypeScript clients, schemas and other generated code, published as @hey-api/openapi-ts.

  • Histoire

    Vite-based tool that builds interactive story books of components for Vue, React and Svelte.

L

  • Ladle

    Component workshop that runs React component stories in a Vite dev server and builds them into a static app.

  • Laradock

    Docker Compose setup and CLI that starts a pre-configured local stack of PHP, web server and service containers for PHP projects.

  • Laravel Herd

    Desktop app for macOS and Windows that runs local PHP and Laravel sites on their own domains, with PHP versions and local services managed from one window.

  • Lerd

    Open-source local PHP development environment for Linux and macOS that runs sites, PHP versions and services as rootless Podman containers.

  • Lighthouse

    Open-source automated tool that audits web pages and web apps for performance, accessibility, SEO and best practices.

  • Local

    Free desktop application for developing WordPress sites on the developer's own computer.

M

  • MAMP

    Local web server environment for macOS and Windows with Apache or Nginx, PHP and MySQL, and MAMP PRO, a commercial app for running several local sites.

  • mise

    Command-line tool that installs a project's dev tools, sets its environment variables and runs its tasks from one mise.toml file.

N

  • nvm

    POSIX shell script that installs and switches between multiple Node.js versions for one user.

P

  • Playroom

    Design environment that renders JSX from a team's own component library across themes and screen sizes.

  • PostHog

    Product analytics platform with session replay, feature flags, experiments, error tracking and surveys, self-hosted from its code or run as PostHog Cloud.

  • Prettier

    Opinionated code formatter for JavaScript and many other languages that rewrites source to a consistent style.

  • pyenv

    Shell-based version manager that switches between multiple installed Python versions.

R

  • React Cosmos

    Sandbox for developing and testing React UI components in isolation, with file-based fixtures, a playground interface and a static export.

S

  • Scalar

    Open-source API reference renderer that turns OpenAPI and AsyncAPI documents into interactive API documentation.

  • Stylelint

    CSS linter that reports errors and enforces conventions in stylesheets, with rules, plugins and shareable configs.

V

  • Vercel CLI

    Command-line interface of the Vercel hosting platform, used to deploy projects, run them locally and manage them from a terminal.

  • Vite

    Frontend build tool and dev server for web applications, with a development server and a production bundler.

  • Vue (Official)

    Language tooling for Vue single-file components, with the Vue (Official) VS Code extension, a language server and the vue-tsc type checker.

X

  • XAMPP

    Free distribution of Apache, MariaDB, PHP and Perl for setting up a local development server on Windows, Linux and macOS.

What is the best developer tool?

No idea. We list software, we don't rate it. Open the records that look close and compare them side by side.