Software development is a challenging task. Solving it without the right tools for a software development company is almost impossible. Whether you work for a large organization or as a freelancer, it’s important to use the right tools to make the development process fast and efficient.
For example, if you are going to start a development company by selecting a good name using a business name generator then high-quality software development tools help organizations in different stages of the development lifecycle such as coding, debugging, automated testing, project management, design, marketing management, etc.
Depending on the type of project, there are certain factors to consider when choosing the right tools such as company standards, integration with other tools, training time, and, of course, pricing.
2022 is approaching, and we’d like to share the 8 most important and relevant tools that will definitely be in demand for software development professionals in the upcoming year.
JIRA
JIRA is a software development tool used by agile teams to plan, track, release, and report on software. It’s also one of the most popular development planning tools for tracking projects and issues. JIRA is completely customizable and perfect for teams engaged in Agile development.
JIRA includes many features that work well and are easy to use. With it, you can manage work in progress, create reports and backlogs. For software development, other important features of JIRA are Scrum Boards, Kanban Boards, Roadmaps, and Agile reports.
Pricing:
JIRA is free for small teams (up to 10 users, 1 site, Scrum and Kanban boards, backlog, agile reporting, customizable workflows, apps and integrations, basic roadmaps and dependency management, mobile device management, password policies, encryption in transit & at rest, domain verification & account capture, 2GB storage, etc).
The Standard package for growing teams costs $7.50 per user per month (includes everything in the Free package + 20,000 users, 1 site, project roles, advanced permissions, audit logs, anonymous access, data residency, 250GB storage, etc.).
The Premium package includes everything in the Standard package and costs $14.50 per user per month (advanced roadmaps and dependency management, admin insights, sandbox, release tracks, IP allow listing, unlimited storage, 24/7 premium support, guaranteed uptime SLA 99.9%, etc).
The Enterprise package (custom pricing) includes everything in the Premium package and provides unlimited access to sites that can be licensed under a subscription plan. The plan also includes Atlassian access (SSO, SCIM, Active Directory Sync) and centralized per-user licensing.
CocoSign
CocoSign is a HIPAA-compliant cloud-based electronic signature software for SMBs and professionals. CocoSign stands as the easiest alternative to DocuSign and HelloSign with competitive pricing and straightforward features, helping businesses streamline eSignature workflows immensely and get contracts signed 5x faster.
Pricing:
- 5 plans, starting from $0 a month
- Can subscribe monthly or yearly
- Free Trial
- Essential: $12 a month, if you make a yearly subscription only $8 per month
- Professional: $25 a month, if you make a yearly subscription only $15 per month
- Business: $35 a month, if you make a yearly subscription only $25 per month
- Advanced Solutions: contact the support team and make a customized plan
CocoDoc
CocoDoc is a cutting-edge online PDF editor. Our interactive interface makes it easier for users to utilize the different tools and features available, therefore increasing efficiency and chopping off time. With our secure gateways, users can enjoy the peace of mind that their documents are safe and private.
Pricing:
- 5 plans, starting from $0 a month
- Can subscribe monthly or yearly
- Free Trial
- Basic Plan: $15 a month, if you make a yearly subscription only $9 per month
- Premium: $30 a month, if you make a yearly subscription only $12 per month
- Business: $45 a month, if you make a yearly subscription only $25 per month
- Enterprise: contact the support team and make a customized plan
CocoFax
CocoFax is an online HIPAA-compliant fax solution provider, integrated with Google, Microsoft, Slack, and many others. It offers an easy-to-use alternative to fax machines for individual users, allowing them to fax from Google(Google Drive, Docs, Sheets), Microsoft(Word, PPT…) and email to fax(Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo..), whether with a computer, cell phone or a Mac.
Businesses can also easily integrate CocoFax into their workflow, adding team members and assigning roles and numbers to their accounts. With its 2FA and TLS 1.2 and AES 256 encryption measures, CocoFax makes sure that all data is well protected for businesses of all sectors and sizes.
Pricing:
- 5 plans, starting from $0 a month
- Can subscribe monthly or yearly
- Free Trial
- Lite Plan: $7.99 a month, if you make a yearly subscription only $4.99 per month
- Basic Plan: $12.99 a month, if you make a yearly subscription only $9.99 per month
- Premium: $19.99 a month, if you make a yearly subscription only $16.99 per month
- Business: $29.99 a month, if you make a yearly subscription only $24.99 per month
- Enterprise: contact the support team and make a customized plan
Usersnap
Usersnap is a customer feedback software and the perfect companion to other software development tools such as Jira. It can be integrated natively with several tools, as well as 4k+ others via Zapier. Great for collecting user feedback, product feedback, and visual bug reports, Usersnap takes away the back-and-forth between users, software developers, product managers, and project managers.
Collect screen recordings and voice feedback, or annotated screenshots with drawings and comments. Each piece of feedback includes the necessary metadata (browser, OS, location, screen size) needed to triage bugs and handle them faster than before.
Finally, launch micro-surveys in your emails, web, and mobile applications to understand satisfaction and if your product serves your user’s needs effectively.
Pricing:
- 4 plans, starting from $69 a month (yearly subscription)
- Can subscribe monthly or yearly
- All plans include screen recordings and voice feedback
- Mobile SDK (beta) available for premium customers
Atom
Atom is a hackable next-generation highly-customizable text editor. The software solution is available on Windows, Linux, and macOS platforms. Atom (by GitHub) is a free and open-source code editor that includes intelligent and flexible autocomplete features and makes coding faster.
Atom also allows users to share their workspaces and edit code together in real-time. It also supports plugins written in JavaScript and embedded under Git. Most WordPress plugins have free software status and are developed and supported by the community.
The best thing about Atom is that you, as a developer, can fully customize the appearance and requirements to speed up productivity without touching a single configuration file. The most recommendable code editor of 2021 also includes an intelligent autocomplete feature for faster code writing.
Atom features:
- Interactive and responsive web app development;
- Automatic code indentation;
- More readable code with customizable color schemes;
- Wide selection of third-party plugins to better identify coding errors;
- Convenient Tree View for a better project file and folder structure look.
The efficient software development tool also has a “multiple pane” feature for code comparison and file editing. In addition, Atom also lets you find, view, and replace text in all your projects. It also comes preloaded with 4 user interfaces and syntax themes.
Pricing: Free.
Sketch
High-quality websites are more than code – they are a combination of great design elements. Sketch knows how to handle such elements and is able to add simple animations, as well as build interactive prototypes.
The app allows you to create a master symbol that can then be used anywhere in the document. You can resize it the way you want, e.g. for an icon or profile picture. With Sketch, you can easily convert text and images into dynamic artwork on your site.
There’s also a cloud-based collaboration component (“Libraries”) that is available because symbols can be shared. You can also use the Font Rapid tool to create custom fonts and give your site look 100% custom.
Since you can only use Sketch on macOS, it’s only beneficial if you have an Apple computer to design and layout websites. Apart from that, it’s also a commercial app – the pricing is a one-time payment for a single user license or a monthly/yearly subscription.
Sketch advantages:
- Ability to create simple animations;
- Interactive prototypes;
- Cloud collaboration support.
Pricing:
Standard
($9 per editor per month) includes unlimited docs and projects, version history, shared libraries, members, and guests. You can expect real-time collaboration, as well prototyping, offline operation, and more;
Business
(custom pricing) includes priority support, invoice-based billing, dedicated customer success manager, single sign-on, and more.
A free 30-day trial is also available.
AWS Cloud9 IDE
Programming with AWS Cloud9 is a unique process where you only need a browser for programming, and the power of the solution you develop has no effect on the characteristics of your working device.
That is, you can develop some serious software on a simple “office” laptop without worrying that it will fail.
AWS Cloud9 is an integrated development environment (IDE) using cloud technologies. It was developed and maintained by developers at Amazon. Because it’s a cloud-based technology, you can work on your project from anywhere – all you need is the Internet and a computer.
AWS Cloud9 includes a code editor, debugger, and terminal. You can easily connect other programmers to your development in this IDE and work together on a project in real-time.
AWS Cloud9 advantages:
- Code directly in your browser. Coding on a new level requires only a web browser;
- Collaborate online. Connect partners from all over the world to your development environment and work on one project online communicating via chabot in this IDE;
- Easy to program serverless apps. All required libraries are here so you don’t have to download anything extra;
- Fast startup of web projects. Inside this IDE, you will find all the tools to work in over 40 of the most popular programming languages (e.g. Java, PHP, JavaScript, Ruby, CSS, HTML, etc.).
AWS Cloud9 is a unique opportunity to unite teams of programmers from different countries in one place and is a godsend for programmers of different fields.
Collaborator
Collaborator is the best commercial tool for critical analysis of software code during development. Such analysis is the best way to improve the quality of developed programs.
Collaborator by SmartBear allows you to analyze images, design documentation, Microsoft Office documents much faster than usual.
Code review with Collaborator becomes even more effective. The process of code analysis is simplified and accelerated, and detailed reports enable you to improve your applications.
Pricing:
- Team (5-user pack) – €529/year (Subversion, Git, GitHub, CVS, Mercurial, Perforce and TFS, Source Code Review, MySQL Database Support; Customizable Workflow, Reporting);
- Enterprise Perpetual (perpetual concurrent license) – €1887/year;
- Enterprise Subscription (full-featured peer code and document review) – €1043/year.
Sublime Text
Sublime Text is a popular code editor that is a useful tool for web design and is available for download on Windows, macOS, and Linux. Useful features include the “GoTo Anything” command for finding a code snippet, the “Multiple Selections” command that makes changes to repeating code sections, and Split Editing for maximizing code display on a widescreen monitor or on multiple monitors.
Sublime Text is free to download and rate. Then you can buy an unlimited license for all systems.
Sublime Text advantages:
- Windows, macOS, and Linux support;
- Advanced commands;
- Free trial version.
$99 for a license for personal use and from $65 (first 10 seats) to $50 (for more than 50 seats) per seat per year.
Flatlogic Platform
Flatlogic is an all-encompassing platform for building web apps in minutes. With the help of Flatlogic, you generate any template, or admin panels for any type of web application: CMS, CRM, bookstore, E-commerce store, or just a primitive to-do list app.
service architecture lets you define the database schema of an app, and download a ready-made code for further editing.
What do you get? Flatlogic platform helps to make a CRUD application with a set of operations you get the server to execute. The Flatlogic platform is highly intuitive and can be used for both experienced developers and newbies in programming.
Flatlogic is a sort of constructor, that will quick start your application no matter whether it has a complex structure with tones of entities, or a simple custom solution with the basic functionality options.
Flatlogic features:
- Full-stack CRUD application using the latest technologies (React, Vue, Angular, NodeJS, Laravel, or Java REST API back-end, and a SQL or NoSQL, etc.)
- Dead simple Prototyping, Launching, and Testing Online
- Mobile-friendly application
One-click deployment - Downloading the source
Pricing: $19 a license for personal use; $99 for a developer license; and a free version is also available, but in limited functionality mode without the option of source code download.
Quixy
Quixy is a no-code app development platform. This cloud-based tool is designed to manage and automate workflows. Quixy is suitable for both developers and casual users with no programming experience. It provides different turnkey solutions for different use cases, e.g. CRM, travel & expense management, and more. You can easily build complex or simple custom enterprise-grade apps faster and without any coding skills.
Quixy features:
- 40+ form fields (e.g. text editor, eSignature, QR code scanner, facial recognition widget, etc.);
- One-click deployment management;
- Software engineering;
- Offline mode;
- Collaborative tools;
- Live actionable reports (automated delivery) and analytics;
- ISO 27001 and SOC2 Type2 certification.
Quixy allows you to automate business processes and workflows, as well as automate, manage, optimize, and track progress across the company on a single digital platform.
Pricing:
- Solution – starts at $1000/month (billed annually);
- Platform – $18 per user per month (billed annually);
- Enteprise – custom pricing.
Foundation
Building something is easier when the foundation is already laid, right? The software solution takes this approach to a new level by offering a “family of flexible interface frameworks” that can be applied to the website or email design. Each of them can be easily customized to get the look you want. The list of companies using the tool includes some giants like Disney, HP, and Adobe.
The tool offers a series of HTML templates, each optimized for a specific app, such as a blog or real estate site. They can be added to a website with “Building Blocks,” such as a full-screen page, subscription form, rating block. or social media buttons. The options are vast. Experienced users warn that there’s a steep learning curve for beginners.
Foundation advantages:
- A framework designed to simplify design;
- Customizable Building Blocks.
Pricing: the price is opaque, but there’s a free demo.
WP Reset
Tired of spending tons of time debugging, testing, and developing within WordPress? WP Reset can help alleviate your suffering!
This tool comes packed with tools for beginners and pros. One of the most noteworthy ones is the snapshots tool which will allow you to revert a site back to a previous state using just one click.
One-click is also all you need to install plugins and theme collections created with this tool.
Now, for the resetting features, they come in all shapes and sizes – nuclear reset features as well as partial reset features.
Lastly, we have to mention the star of the show Emergency Recovery Script, a tool that can restore a site in the worst of situations.
All in all, WP Reset is definitely worthy of your attention.
Conclusion
The success and effectiveness of any software project depend on choosing the right development tools. If you, as a software developer, are still not using the above-mentioned software development tools, it’s time to fix this.
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