12 Mac OS X App Web Developers Must Know

For web developers, applications are important factors to better productivity; without having the right ones, developing a single website could take up a lot of a developer’s time. There are many applications for web development for every platform.

In this post, we will put together the best OS X Applications that you should include in your Web Development toolbox. All the following Applications are free, and we believe that everyone love free stuff. Without further ado, let’s check them out:

Recommended Reading: 100 Free Useful Mac Applications

Web Sharing

Apple removed the Web Sharing option from OS X System preference (from OS X Mountain Lion). This option lets you turn on and off the built-in OS X Apache Serve , where you can host your local websites under the localhost address.

If you want this back, get the Web Sharing plugin. Once installed, it adds a new pane in System Preference, where you can switch the service on and off. It also shows the PHP status and the registered VirtualHosts in the system.

Anvil

Anvil is a free application that allows you to create a .dev domain. It turns up as a new icon at the OS X menu bar, where you can add your projects, create domain, and turn the service on and. It’s a handy tiny OS X application for managing and developing your local websites.

Keka

Most file packages that we download are compressed either in zip, rar, or tar format, allowing for multiple-file delivery. Even though the Mac has a built-in feature to extract these formats, it is rather limited. Keka is a free open-source OS X application for file compression and extraction. It supports the three formats above and various compression formats including 7z, Gzip, Tar, DMG, and ISO, and it can extract RAR, EXE, CAB, and PAX format as well.

With Keka, you can also apply password restriction to the compressed file, split the compressed file in multiple parts at specified size threshold, automatically delete the source file after compression or extraction, and choose the compression method for for much smaller file output. Keka also integrates with OS X Notification Center to put failure and success notification.

Compressing files

There are two ways to compress files with Keka. First, you can download and install the Services contextual menu.

Second, you can drag and drop your files onto the Keka application window, as shown below. The files will be compressed as the specified default setting.

Sequel Pro

MySQL could be the most popular open-source database used worldwide. There are many websites including open source projects like WordPress that rely on MySQL for storing its databases. We need a tool for managing databases in MySQL. If you are on OS X, Sequel Pro is the best option for the job.

Sequel Pro is a native OS X application, built with Cocoa, and it has a nicer GUI compared to similar applications. In it, you can create, remove, export, import, filter databases, create MySQL users, as well execute MySQL query through the app.

SourceTree & Github

Whether you build a small or a large-scale website, you should incorporate a control version system to keep track of the changes and revisions of the codes in the projects. Today, with Git being the most popular system for version control, you can install SourceTree or Github application for OS X to use and operate Git in more convenient way through GUI. Both applications are free.

Koala

Koala is a tool to compile LESS, Sass, Compass, and CoffeeScript into browser-compliant format. Are you using one of these trendy technologies? Then Koala is one app to install in your Mac.

iPhone Emulator

Today, developing and addressing websites for mobile platform is inevitable. Many people are going online from their mobile devices, and you certainly need the tool to test your websites for the platform. You can use a physical mobile phone and tablet, or simply use a simulator application like iPhone Simulator.

To get the iPhone Simulator, install Xcode from the AppStore.

The iPhone Simulator is deeply buried within the Xcode application. For easy access, you can run the following command so that you can launch it right from the Application folder instead.

 ln -s /Applications/http://ift.tt/1fozMgS\ Simulator.app ~/Applications

Icons8

Needs icons? Look no further, just install Icons8. Once installed, Icons8 adds a new icon at the menu bar where you can search through its 2800 collections of icons. Then, you can place the selected icon on any application like Photoshop, Xcode, and Finder.

Browsers

It’s obvious, we need a Browser to view the websites we’ve developed. However, since you are a developer, you may need to go the extra mile, testing your website for various Browser versions including the Nightly Builds and Beta versions. So apart from the regular Browsers, you may also need Firefox Nightly, Firefox Aurora, Chrome Canary, Chromium, and Opera Next.

Poedit

Poedit is an editor for .po file that is widely used for internationalizing websites; translating the website user interface into multiple languages. If you are developing websites or products like WordPress themes and plugins for international audience, then Poedit is a must-install app.

Dash

If memorizing code syntax from all languages sounds impossible to you, you may need to install Dash. Dash collects Documentation for HTML5, CSS3, jQUery, Sass, LESS, and a bunch of other programming languages. You can search through their documentation, finding codes, syntax, functions, as well as code snippets, all in one place.

Automator

Automator has been pre-installed with OS X. This application allows you to automate tasks, for example: you can create a contextual menu for renaming files in batch, change file extensions, creating thumbnail images, and crop multiple images at once Assigned to those features, Automator could be a great companion tool for streamlining your web development workflow.