Web development is a very satisfying job but can be very tedious with all of the coding and testing you have to do. Different tools can make this job much easier no matter what you are coding, whether it is a basic web site using just HTML or if it is a database driven web application. I have complied my 5 favorite tools to use when I am doing web development, of course you will have your own set of tools. These 5 tools are all free tools with the intention of helping starting web developers get their business going until they can afford the $300+ programs.

WS Ftp is a great FTP program which has certain versions that can be obtained for free and used as long as you would like. You can set up different profiles and access different web servers file systems so you can upload, download, create and delete files on a remote web server.

Apache Web Server is a free web server that can be installed on a Windows or Linux machine and can be used to test web applications and web pages you have created without having to purchase web space.

MySQL Administrator can be installed on any computer and then used to connect to a remote server and access the MySQL database. This program gives you great functionality in creating a new database and tables and is a lot easier to use the MySQL command line and just as powerful.

TextPad is a very powerful text editor that can be used to write just regular text documents or can be used to write code for web pages and any other program. Best of all this program is free to download from their web site. TestPad color codes the text you type assuming that it understands what you are writing. Color coding text really helps developers get there “ correct when you are working a large coding projects.

MSPaint is a program that comes free with Windows but I find in to be a very valuable program when I need to make quick changes to graphics or even some where complicated changes to graphics. MSPaint can be a very handy tool, which you can even use to design your entire web page. As a starting web developer I designed many pages using just TextPad and MSPaint until I was able to purchase more expensive programs.

One more tool I would like to mention will be Adobe Dreamweaver which is a very flexible and easy to use web development tool. This program however is $200+ but I would highly recommend getting it if you are serious about web development and web design.

I tried to keep the tools in the article to free tools for starting web developers to use and not have to purchase $300+ programs to design a web page for someone. The five tools listed above are my personal favorites to use as a web developer. As always keep your eyes open for new tools that provide you more functionality and a low cost or no cost as all.