It's not always easy trying to find free software and applications to help you with your web design and development. Maybe you keep on finding software or applications that you have to pay for. There are many software and applications that you can use for free, and 15 of some of the best free software and applications are listed here.
GIMP
GIMP works across multiple platforms including windows, Mac, Linux and more. GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program and is suitable for a variety of tasks.
Notepad++
Notepad++ is a free source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several languages and is only available for Microsoft Windows users. Notepad++ colours your code depending on what language you have selected (such as HTML, PHP, Javascript, etc.)
Eclipse
Eclipse is an open source community, whose projects are focused on building an open development platform comprised of extensible frameworks, tools and runtimes. The main eclipse tools are Eclipse IDE for Java EE Developers and Eclipse for PHP Developers.
Filezilla
Filezilla an open source FTP solution. It is a fast and reliable cross-platform FTP, FTPS and SFTP client with features such as tabbed user interface, drag & drop support and many other features.
FireFTP
FireFTP is a free, secure, cross-platform FTP client for Mozilla Firefox which provides easy and intuitive access to FTP servers. Its features include directory comparison, search/filtering, export and import accounts, remote editing, drag & drop and more.
Launchlist.net
Launchlist is intended to help and encourage web designers and developers to check their work before exposing it to the world. The process is simple, you enter in your name and the URL, then process through the list checking yes or no or N/A if the question is irrelevant.
IETester
IETester is a free web browser that allows you to have the rendering and javascript engines of IE9 preview, IE8, IE7, IE6 and IE5.5 on Windows 7, Vista and XP, as well as the installed IE in the same process.
Browsershots.org
Browsershots makes screenshots of your web design in different operating systems and browsers. It is a free, open source web application that gives developers a convenient way to test their websites browser compatibility in on place.
Load Impact
Load Impact generates simulated user traffic to your site (e.g. simulate that 50 users are trying to load your web pages at the same time). While simulating the traffic, it records how fast the pages are loaded from your server, letting you know how fast your site is.
Dropbox
Dropbox is an online storage application that allows you to sync, share and backup your files. It also stores your files on a secure server where you can access them from any computer or mobile device.
Kuler
Kuler is a web-hosted application for generating colour themes that can inspire any project. No matter what you're creating, with Kuler you can experiment quickly with colour variations and browse thousands of themes from the community.
Firebug
Firebug is a free extension for Mozilla Firefox. It allows you to view, edit and delete any html or css on a live website, as well as debug any javascript. It's also useful for finding out where elements are on a page, with the inspect element feature.
W3C Validation Server
W3C Markup Validation Service is the official and most popular validation checker. It is a free tool and service that validates your (X)HTML and CSS code.
XML Sitemaps
XML Sitemaps lets you create an XML sitemap that can be submitted to Google, Yahoo and other search engines to help them crawl your website better. You can either create an XML sitemap, text sitemap, ROR sitemap or a HTML sitemap which is useful for visitors.
SEO Tools
SEO Book has a variety of SEO Tools to help you optimise your website and check your websites stats. These can include keyword suggestion tools, search engine ranking checker, etc. Some of these tools are add-ons for Mozilla Firefox.
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