An IDE to Make Your Dev Life Easier: CodeLobster and PhpStorm

This page may contain links from our sponsors. Here’s how we make money.

When it comes to choosing the perfect IDE for PHP development, there are a multitude of options available to developers but some are better than most. CodeLobster and PhpStorm are the two of the most used and reputable IDEs. While both provide reliable and efficient development experience, there are some contrasting features among the two. In this article, we intend to compare the two to allow developers to make an educated decision next time they get their PHP development boots on.

Background

Codelobster was developed for PHP development primarily. The auto-complete function for HTML, JavaScript, CSS and PHP simplifies development as you no longer will have to remember the names of tags, functions or arguments. It also contains an internal PHP debugger. Click here to visit the website.

Codelobster

PHPStorm is a cross-platform IDE that has been built on top of the JetBrains’ IntelliJ IDEA platform. Along with providing a PHP, HTML and JavaScript editor that performs real-time code analysis, error prevention and PHP refactoring, it also has a complete SQL editor with alterable query results. Click here to visit the website.

PHPStorm

Available Versions

CodeLobster has 3 versions. There is a free version with limited capabilities, a Lite version that costs $39 and a Professional version that is $119.95 for a one time payment.

PHPStorm has 2 main versionsFor businesses it starts at $199 for the first year. For personal use, the license starts at $89 for the first year. They also offer free use for educational and training purposes.

Features

CodeLobster:

  • CSS Editor
  • HTML Code Inspector
  • JavaScript editor
  • PHP Editor
  • HTML Editor

The professional version of CodeLobster has some interesting other features as well. Here are some of them:

  • CMS: Drupal, Joomla
  • PHP frameworks: CakePHP, CodeIgniter, Symfony, Yii, Laravel
  • JavaScript libralies: JQuery, Node.js, AngularJS
  • WordPress blogging engine
  • Smarty and Twig template engines
  • Phalcon plugin
  • Code snippets, code formatting and code validator support

PHPStorm:

  • Code Completion
  • Refactoring
  • PHP 7.0 Support
  • Interactive debugging
  • Interactive UI for testing.
  • REST APls explorer
  • Full featured database management
  • Advanced support of PHP,CSS, LESS, SASS, JavaScript, TypeScript, markdown etc.

The commercial version of PHPStorm has some exciting features to know about. Here are a few:

  • Smart Duplicated Code Detector
  • Phar Packages
  • Twig, Smarty and blade templates
  • Efficient navigation
  • Efficient project analysis
  • Callback References
  • PHP Code Sniffer
  • Mass Detector

Supported Languages

CodeLobster is available in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, and Turkish.

PHPStorm is available in English.

Final Word

Codeloster  PHP edition is a powerful tool for developing in PHP as it simplifies the work for the developer. With its built-in support for famous plugins like WordPress and Joomla, it’s definitely something to know about. The interface might not be that catchy to the eye but we believe that where it lacks in aesthetics, it makes up with increased functionalities.

PHPStorm is often rated to be one of the best (if not the best) IDEs for PHP development purposes. While Sublime Text is often used as a light-weight substitute, we believe that with PhpStorm, not only can development be made faster and efficient, but it can also be made less error-prone. So, to conclude we can say that it’s lot more than just a powerful PHP editor.

Let us know what you think! What's your preferred IDE?