PhpStorm is an IDE (integrated development environment) specifically built for PHP developers. IDEs make programming much easier, by providing handy features such as autocomplete, code hinting, boilerplate code and more, all aimed at increasing programmer productivity. PhpStorm takes away as much of the necessary mundane programming tasks as possible, so that programmers can concentrate on their application.

How is PhpStorm useful?

PHP developers will be aware of how inconsistent PHP can be when it comes to naming conventions. Autocomplete takes the guess work out of this, while also providing the same support for all the other languages a PHP developer is likely to use such as HTML, CSS, Javascript and even Coffeescript. It also allows developers to navigate code easier, refactor code without breaking anything and comes with built-in debugging tools to help developers track down the problem when something does go wrong. It helps cut down on time spent navigating through large code bases and lets developers find and fix the code they want quickly.

Conclusion

PhpStorm is not free and can actually be quite costly when there are less fully featured, but free alternatives. However, for serious PHP developers and organisations the features on offer will probably justify the cost. Less time spent wrestling with unwieldy code bases is more time writing code that matters.