It's a popular saying that a craftsman is as good as his tools and the same goes for Web Developers. If you don't know your tools, you will struggle in your day-to-day job. At the same time, knowing your tool well can increase your productivity and help you become a star developer in your team. That's why I always in search of new tools which can make my developer life easy. Earlier, I have shared the best tools for Java developers and best tools for Python developers, and in this article, I am going to share some of the most essential tools for Web developers, both frontend and backend developers. These are the tools I use in my day-to-day life and there is a good chance that you may already be familiar with most of them, which is great.
The point here is to learn more about those tools so that you can use them effectively and take your Web development skills to the next level. There is also a lot of articles on the internet about web development tools and technology, but most of them are filled with non-practical information like JavaScript framework and libraries, which are not needed in day-to-day life.
In Today's world, we are really lucky to have these powerful tools which can save a lot of time while developing, testing, debugging, deploying, and even scaling your application. I have come from the time where "View Source" on IE and JavaScript alert () was our only source for browser-based debugging. Today, you have powerful tools like Chrome Developer Tool and Firebug for such things.
If you are looking to become a better Web Developer in 2023 and ready to level up your skill learning these tools will go a long way in improving both your skill and productivity. I have also shared the best resources and online courses to learn these tools and you can use them for further learning.

8 Essential Tools for Frontend and Backend Developers

Anyway, if you come across any other handy tool which can really boost Web developer's productivity, feel free to share with us and I'll add that to this list.
Without wasting any more of your time, here is my list of some of the most essential tools for frontend and backend developers to learn in 2023:
1. VS Code
This is the single most important tool for a Web developer in 2023. I have been doing web development for quite a long and have used many IDEs and Editors like Atom, Sublime, Eclipse, and IntelliJIDEA but VS Code is something else. It's both lightweight and powerful. Initially, it comes with a basic feature but you can customize it for your need by downloading extensions.
There are so many VS extensions available ranging from debugging, connecting to git, deploying into the cloud, like Azure and AWS, and much more. There is a good chance that you already familiar with VS Code but if you don't I strongly suggest you learn VS Code in 2023.
2. Postman
Modern Web development is all about APIs and Postman is a great tool to interact with those APIs. During development, if you want to get familiar with a third-party library, you can use Postman to interact with it like you can send GET and POST requests, set request headers, examine response headers, and other HTTP metadata.
Postman is also very useful for REST API testing and that's why it's an essential tool for both frontend and backend developers. I strongly suggest you learn Postman in 2023.
3. Docker
Containers are essential for modern web developers. Containers not only make development easier but also makes deployment smoother. Instead of deploying your application and its dependencies separately, you deploy a container, which is both easier to manage and scale. And, any discussion of containers is incomplete without talking about Docker.
It is one of the most popular container platforms for developers and a must-know tool for Web Developers. Whether you are a frontend developer or a backend geek, I strongly suggest you learn Docker in 2023.
4. Kubernetes
When we talk about containers and Docker, Kubernetes also comes into the picture because it can help you in managing containers. It's easy to deploy one or two containers initially but when your application grows and more instances are required, it becomes difficult to manually deploy 100s of containers.
It also becomes a headache to create new containers and take off unused ones, that's when Kubernetes comes to rescue you. It's a container management tool that can create, scale and manage containers for you.
5. GitBash
There are a lot of git clients available online, both GUI and command line but if you work in Windows and love to work in the command line then there is no better than Gitbash.
Though VS Code and other IDEs already provide Github integration, sometimes you prefer to work in the command line, particularly if you are committing a large block of code or merging changes from different branches.
In Linux, it's easy to execute all those git commands but in Windows, it's a bit challenging and that's where Gitbash helps.
6. Chrome Developer Tools
This is another essential tool for Web Developers. It let you see what's going on in the browser. By using Chrome developer tools, you can examine different HTML elements, can play with CSS, and also check JavaScript.
It also lets you see a lot more details about downloaded scripts, network connections, and so on. It's a great tool for browser-based debugging, particularly for frontend developers and you should learn it in 2023.
7. NPM (Node Package Manager)
NPM stands for Node Package manager, It's the most important tool for web developers. While working on a web development project, you need to use and import a lot of other JavaScript frameworks and libraries like React.js for UI, or Vue.js for frontend, Jest library for unit testing, and many more. NPM can do all that for you.
It puts modules in place so that nodes can find them, and manages dependency conflicts intelligently. Most commonly, it is used to publish, discover, install, and develop node programs. Run npm help to get a list of available commands.
8. Cloud (AWS, Azure, or GCP)
Many of you already familiar with Cloud and Cloud computing platforms like AWS (Amazon Web Service), Microsoft's Azure, and GCP (Google Cloud Platform), if you are not, make sure you learn one of them.
Ideally, you should learn the one which your company is adopting. For example, if you are company is investing in Microsoft Azure, you should learn that to excel in your team and company by pioneering in migrating your project into the cloud.
Similarly, if your company is migrating into GCP or Google Cloud platform then you should spend some time learning GCP. It's a great cloud platform, particularly for Machine learning, Artificial Intelligence, and Big Data companies. If your work has anything to do with Python Pandas, Tensor Flow, neural network, etc. learn GCP.