Where are you going to write code? You write code in an editor! An editor is simply a program that can read your code, and save it. For example, you may write HTML in an editor, save it as a .html file, and then open it up in your web browser (such as Google Chrome), and see your creation. Click on the resources button below for a ton of cool editors that are most commonly used!

There are also online editors such as JSFiddle that you can use – but they are mainly for testing code, sharing pieces of code or to teach you coding. They are not used for large projects really – but you’ll definitely find them useful. Some tutorial websites like Codecademy use their own online editors to help teach you.

6 Curated Resources

Github's Atom

free, Text Editor

Atom is the editor I use to create and maintain this website! It’s my personal favorite, but also a highly reputable editor. It has a lot of theme customization, so you can personalize it just for you. Atom also has a lot of community add-ons to make it even more powerful.

Brackets

free, Text Editor

Brackets is especially good for web development because of one main addition: live editing. That’s right! You can code and as you change your code, your webpage will change and highlight what your changing – on a window right next to the editor.

JSFiddle

free, Online Editor

JSFiddle is usually used when sharing code snippets online. It’s not meant to be an editor for full projects. It’s especially useful when your stuck on code and you want to ask for help on platforms like Stack Overflow. You can code in HTML, CSS and Javascript, but also add other external frameworks and plugins.

Visual Studio Code

free, Text Editor

An editor built by Microsoft quickly growing in popularity. It’s available on all platform and is constantly getting updates. It has git commands built in, it’s customizable, and you can install extensions on it.

Sublime

free, Text Editor

It’s at the top with Github’s Atom, I’m sure one could argue one or the other. It seems to be mainly up to preference.

CodePen

free, Online Editor

Very similar to JSFiddle. My favorite part of Codepen is the social aspect. You can see a lot of really cool stuff built with their editor.