PhpStorm – an IDE worth its name

I recently switched to JetBrains PhpStorm as my main IDE for PHP/HTML/JS/CSS development. I tried many solutions in the past such as Dreamweaver (please don’t try it), NetBeans, Aptana, Eclipse PDT, before settling with Zend Studio for quite sometime and finally a couple of months ago I gave ZendStudio the boot and switched to PhpStorm. I am currently using version 6.0 from the Early Access Program (the current stable is version 5) – and I am planning to buy it once 6.0 final is out. If you are developing in PHP give it a go.

Here’s what’s good about it:

  • Its fast and not bloated – Its still Java based but unlike Eclipse it doesn’t come with any bloat.
  • It has code completion which pops-up faster than I could have typed the ‘completion’ on my own.
  • Code analysis is literally instant.
  • It supports all the latest technologies such as SASS, LESS, CoffeeScript out of the box.
  • Its debugger actually works (even though it still doesn’t support break on error functionality).
  • It is actively being developed – just check out JetBrains PhpStorm blog to get an idea.
  • Its cheap (its not free like Eclipse but you’ll save on painkillers for the headaches you will no longer endure).
  • I’ll say it again: its FAST.

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