A similar question to this is often asked on discussion forums. What is the best PHP editor? What is the best CSS editor? Which editor should I use for web page design? And usually you will see a series of posts each polling for their favourite editor. “html-kit is the one I use”, “Notepad is for real programmers” etc. If you are lucky you will see somebody actually tell you why they like their editor.

It is not easy determining which editor is the best editor since it is like comparing apples to oranges. How can you say an apple is a better orange?

A better question to ask your self is ‘which editor best fits your workflow?’ When doing web development we don’t all follow the same exact process, we don’t all value the same priorities and we do not all have the same resources available to us. For some people, a fast and light editor is what works best for them. For others, a feature ridden editor works the best. And your resource availability is a determining factor in what editor works for you as well. Some editors are focused toward quality of code, while others are focused toward faster code writing. Putting you in to a position of having to decide which one of these two focuses most benefits your workflow. Some editors require a fairly decent machine in terms of ram, processor power and space, while other editors will run on pretty much any. Are you willing to upgrade your machine? Some work well across operating systems; Windows, Mac or Linux. Is this important to you?

Unless I know a person intimately, it is not possible for me to advise them which editor is the one best for them. In the end you must know your workflow well enough to know what you need to get the job done.

So my advice to anyone looking for the best editor out there is to look for the best editor for them selves. Know your workflow!

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