List of PHP editors explained

This article contains a list of text editors with features specific to the PHP scripting language.

Free editors

Editor	License	Latest Version	Platform				Autocompletion	File Browser				GUI builder	Internal Browser	Version Control	PHP Debugger
			Linux	macOS	Windows	Other		Local	FTP	SFTP	SSH
Aptana Studio		3.6.1									?			?
Atom		1.13.1				^[1]					?
Bluefish		2.2.9									?
Brackets		1.8									?
CodeLite		17.0									?
Eclipse PDT		7.0									?
Geany		1.29									?
gedit		3.22.2									?			?
GNU Emacs		27.1
jEdit		5.5.0
Kate		16.08.1
KWrite		16.08.1									?
KDevelop^[2]		5.0.3									?
Komodo Edit		10.1.2									?
NetBeans
Notepad++		7.2.2
SciTE		3.7.1									?
Sublime Text	Shareware	4113	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	Yes
TextMate		1.5									?
Vim		9.0	-->
Visual Studio Code											?

Cross-platform

• Aptana Studio – Eclipse-based IDE, able to use PDT plugins, visual JS editor. Open-source, free project. (Community edition merged in).
• Atom – free and open-source^[3] text editor with out-of-the-box PHP support.
• Brackets – free and open-source editor in HTML5/NodeJS by Adobe Team the best for integration frontend
• CodeLite – an open source, cross platform IDE for C/C++ and PHP. The built-in plugins supports SVN, SSH/SFTP access, Git database browsing and others.
• Eclipse – PHP Development Tools (PDT) and PHPEclipse projects. With additional plugins supports SVN, CVS, database modelling, SSH/FTP access, database navigation, Trac integration, and others.
• Editra – open source editor. Syntax highlighting and (partial) code completion for PHP + HTML and other IDE-like features like code browser etc.
• Emacs – advanced text editor. The nXhtml addon has special support for PHP (and other template languages). The major mode web-mode.el is designed for editing mixed HTML templates.
• Geany – syntax highlighting for HTML + PHP. Provides PHP function list.
• jEdit – free/open source editor. Supports SFTP and FTP.
• Komodo Edit – general purpose scripting language editor with support for PHP. Free version of the commercial ActiveState Komodo IDE.
• Netbeans – IDE with PHP support and integration with web standards. Supports SFTP and FTP. Full support for SVN and Git since 7.2 and powerful plugin support for added functionality.
• SciTE – PHP syntax highlighting, compiler integration, powerful config via Lua API.
• Vim – provides PHP syntax highlighting, debugging.^[4]

Windows

• ConTEXT – *No longer under development* Freeware editor with syntax highlighting.
• Crimson Editor – Lightweight editor. Supports FTP.
• Microsoft WebMatrix – A combined editor, server and publishing environment, syntax highlighting for HTML, PHP, Razor, node.js, C# and JavaScript and publishing through WebDeploy and FTP. Supports multiple file encodings as of version 2.
• Notepad2 – Simple editor with syntax highlighting
• Notepad++ – FLOSS multi-language editor with macro support, syntax highlighting (possible export to HTML), code completion, php.net function reference, foldable code blocks etc.; expandable via plugins, e.g. (S)FTP support, version control (Git, SVN), documentation generators, snippet support, spell checking, custom classes completion, code beautifiers
• PSPad – Supports FTP; syntax highlighting.
• RJ TextEd – Text editor with many great features

macOS

• Coda (web development software) – Shareware IDE/Editor
• Smultron
• TextWrangler – Supports SFTP and FTP

Linux

• • gedit gPHPEdit
• Kate – Supports any file access protocol that is supported by KIO. This includes HTTP, FTP, SSH, SMB and WebDAV.
• KDevelop – Supports everything as Kate above with addition of references of functions and syntax parser.
• Kwrite

Proprietary editors

• ActiveState Komodo IDE – Support for PHP syntax checking, debugging, trial available (NOTE: As of 2020, ActiveState Komodo is now completely free, and only requires that you register an account in order to use)
• Adobe Dreamweaver – Supports SFTP and FTP; Trial available
• BBEdit – Supports SFTP and FTP; Trial available
• Cloud9 – Online editor (supports multiple languages)^[5]
• Coda – Supports SFTP and FTP; Trial available
• CodeCharge Studio – Supports FTP
• Codelobster – Editor with syntax highlighting, debugger, code validation, supports FTP.
• Codenvy – Cloud development environment.
• EmEditor
• HyperEdit – Integrates PHP, JavaScript and HTML in an only interface WYSIWYG.
• JetBrains PhpStorm – PHP IDE with editor, on-the-fly code analysis and other web development specific tools including FTP/SFTP synchronization; Trial available
• Komodo IDE – Cross-platform integrated development environment for PHP as well as Python, Ruby and Perl.
• Microsoft Expression Web – Full PHP support with syntax highlighting, etc.; Trial available
• PHPEdit – Supports SFTP and FTP
• PHP Tools for Visual Studio PHP syntax highlighting, debugger, code validation, testing, support for other languages, among others. One- month trial available
• Rapid PHP Editor – Support for PHP syntax checking, auto-complete, debug and support for CSS, Javascript and HTML
• SlickEdit
• Smultron
• SourceLair – Online IDE for PHP,^[6] as well as JavaScript and Python
• TextPad – Trial available
• Top PHP Studio – Supports FTP
• UltraEdit – Supports SFTP and FTP; Trial available
• Zend Studio – (Cross platform) professional PHP IDE, based on the PHP Development Tools plugin for the Eclipse platform; Trial available

Notes and References

1. Instructions for building Atom on FreeBSD are all that are officially available. No official binary releases are available.
2. Web site: KDevelop PHP Support. 2024-01-08.
3. News: Atom, the Text Editor from GitHub, Goes Free and Open-Source. 5 October 2016. . Alan. Henry.
4. http://developers.blog.box.com/2007/06/20/how-to-debug-php-with-vim-and-xdebug-on-linux/ How to Debug PHP with Vim and XDebug on Linux
5. Web site: Cloud9 – Your development environment, in the cloud .
6. Web site: PHP support in SourceLair. SourceLair Help.