Free Programming Tools and Utilities
Editors, Debuggers, Help Authoring, Setup, Version Control, etc
Free Programming Tools / Resources
You can find tools, resources and utilities for a wide variety of programming tasks below.
If you don't see the category of tools you want listed in the index below, please check out the Miscellaneous Free Programming Tools page, a catch-all page for everything that does not have its own page. Note that compilers and interpreters, source code and libraries as well as documentation are listed separately on their own pages.
Help and Documentation
Text and Source Code Handling
- Free Programmers' Editors, ASCII Text Editors and IDEs
- Free Java IDE and Editors
- Free Online Editors and Integrated Development Environment (IDE)
- Free Text Search and Replace Utilities
- Free Text and Binary Comparison / Merging Utilities (Diff/Merge)
- Free Clipboard Extenders and Clipboard History Managers
- Free Source Code Beautifiers
- Free Version Control Software
- Free Interactive Regular Expression (Regex) Testers and Builders
- Free Static Code Analyzers (Static Source Code Analysis Tools/Lint)
- Free Programmer's Fonts
Debugging and Binary Code Management
- Free Debuggers and Bug Trackers
- Free Disassemblers, Binary and Hex Editors, Hex Viewers
- Free DOS Extenders (Protected Mode)
- Free Text and Binary Comparison / Merging Utilities (Diff/Merge)
- Free Executable Compressors - shrink your EXEs and Binaries
- Free Windows Resource Compilers, Resource Editors, Resource Hackers, Icon Editors
- Free File Patch Makers (for Delivering Small Updates)
Compiler Construction and Grammars
Miscellaneous
- Free 3D Software Box Image Makers
- Free Interactive Regular Expression (Regex) Testers and Builders
- Free File Patch Makers (for Delivering Small Updates)
- Free GUI Builders, Application Builders and Rapid Application Development (RAD) Software
- Free Make Utilities (Program Maintenance and Building Software)
- Free Setup / Installers / Uninstallers
- Free Autorun/Autoplay DVD and CD Menu Creation Software
- Free Command Line Shells
- Free Programmer's Fonts
- Free JavaScript Minifiers (Minimizers), Obfuscators and Compressors
- Free Java Resources and Tools
- Miscellaneous Free Programming Tools and Utilities
Engineering Software
Other Programming Resources
- Free Source Code and Programming Libraries - don't reinvent the wheel
- Free Compilers and Interpreters for Programming Languages
- Free Online Programming Documentation, Frequently Recommended Programming Books
- Free Emulators and Virtual Machines
Other Resources of Interest
- Free Security, Privacy, and Anonymity
- Free Utilities and Application Software
- Free Perl CGI Scripts
- Free PHP/Perl CGI Script Hosting
- Free PHP Scripts
- Free JavaScript, AJAX, DHTML and Web 2.0 Scripts
- Free Web Hosts, Budget Web Hosts
- More Free Webmaster Resources
- Free Tutorials and Articles for Webmasters
- Free POP3, IMAP, SMTP, Web Email
New Pages on thefreecountry.com
- Free Geolocation Services
- Free CAD Software
- Free XML Parser/Generator Libraries
- Free Android Emulators
- Free Social Network / Media Software
- Free Static Code Analyzers (Static Source Code Analysis Tools/Lint)
- Free JavaScript Minifiers (Minimizers), Obfuscators and Compressors
- Free Image Pop-Up JavaScripts (Where Image Overlays Current Web Page)
- Free Royalty-Free Stock Photos
- Free PHP Compilers: compile PHP scripts to native code, .NET or Java bytecode
- Free Embedded Web Video Player Scripts/Code
- Free Image/Photo Slide Show JavaScript
New Pages on thesitewizard.com
- What to do if a registrar quotes an exorbitant price for a domain
- How to Rotate an Image on a Website When Viewed on a Mobile Phone (CSS)
- How to Stretch a Background Image to Fill an Entire Web Page (or Column) in BlueGriffon
- How to Change the Message Shown Before the Comments Field in WordPress
- How to Use Google Fonts and Other Web Fonts in BlueGriffon
- Can I Change My Website's Address to HTTPS Without Getting an SSL Certificate?
- How to Make a Button Run a Server-Side Script (eg, a PHP, Perl, or Python Script) (HTML)
- How to Add a (Self-Hosted) Video to Your Website with Expression Web
- How to Prevent Your Website from being Placed in a Frame
- How to Move a Website from Dreamweaver to BlueGriffon
- My Frustrations with Google AdSense
- How to Put Rounded Buttons on Your Website
- How to Close a Browser Tab/Window with JavaScript
- How Do You Get Access to a Domain Name You Just Purchased? What to Do After You Buy a Domain Name
- How to Create a Password-Protected Area for Customers or Members in WordPress
- How to Redirect to Another Web Page in PHP
- What Happens If My Web Host Goes Out of Business? Or If They Shut Down My Website?
- What's the Difference Between a Domain Name Registrar and a Web Host?
- How to Move Your Website to SSL (ie, Convert from HTTP to HTTPS)
- How to Make a Mobile-Friendly Website: Responsive Design in CSS
- What's the Difference Between a Content Management System (CMS), a Blog, a Web Editor and an Online Site Builder?
- How to Centre a DIV Block Using CSS
- What is MySQL? What is a Database? What is SQL?
- What is HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP and Perl? Do I Need to Learn Them to Create a Website?
New Pages on HowToHaven.com
- How to Solve the 0x80092004 Error When Installing a Windows 7 Security-Only/Monthly Update
- How to Record a Game Video
- How to Boot a CD or DVD in Windows 8.1
- How to Change BIOS Settings on a Computer with Windows 8.1 Installed
- How to Shut Down Windows 8 (Full Shutdown and Normal Hybrid Shutdown)
- How to Set Up a Standard User Account (or Limited Account) on Windows Vista and Windows 7 for Daily Use
- How to Back Up Your Hard Disk in Windows
- How to Securely Prepare Your Old Computer for Disposal
Popular Pages
- How to Create/Start Your Own Website: The Beginner's A-Z Guide
- How to Create a Blog
- Hard Disk Backup and Restore, Hard Disk Image and Cloning Utilities
- Free DVD Authoring and Creation Software
- Free Data Recovery, File and Partition Recovery, Undelete and Unformat Software
- Expression Web Tutorial: How to Design a Website with Microsoft Expression Web
- Dreamweaver Tutorial: How to Design a Website with Dreamweaver CS6
- BlueGriffon Tutorial: How to Design a Website with BlueGriffon 3
- How to Design and Publish Your Website with KompoZer
What's New
Stay Updated (Free)- Keep track of what's new on thefreecountry.com with your news reader
by pointing it to
thefreecountry.com's news feed
.
Note: for historical reasons, this What's New column also includes information from
thesitewizard.com's news feed
and HowToHaven.com's news feed
.
- A new SQL database server has been added to the Free Database Libraries and SQL Servers page. This one is column-oriented, potentially increasing its performance (over the usual row-oriented database management systems).
- New page: What to do if a registrar quotes an exorbitant price for a domain. One of my visitors told me that a domain name registrar quoted a "ridiculous price" for a domain he wanted, and asked if there was any way around it. This article answers that question.
- A Python compiler has been added to the Free Python Compilers and Interpreters page. This one works on Windows, macOS and Linux, and can generate standalone binary distribution packages for your program.
- New page: How to Rotate an Image on a Website When Viewed on a Mobile Phone (CSS). In response to a visitor's query, this article deals with how you can turn an image on its side when a web page is viewed on a mobile phone.
- Another PHP script that can generate CAPTCHA images has been added to the Free PHP CAPTCHA Scripts page. Such scripts are meant to be used in conjunction with forms on your website to cut down the amount of spam dumped into them. (For those who don't really know how to write PHP programs, or can't be bothered to write your own script, one quick and simple way is to generate a contact form, complete with CAPTCHA integrated using the Feedback Form Wizard. It's free too.)
- A new compiler has been added to the Free PHP Compilers page. This one can compile PHP 7.1 code into a .NET program that can run on Windows, macOS and Linux systems. Such compilers are useful for people who want to write computer software in the PHP programming language that run on normal desktop or laptop computers.
- New page: How to Stretch a Background Image to Fill an Entire Web Page (or Column) in BlueGriffon. This article deals with how you can use BlueGriffon to stretch a picture that is used as the backdrop of a web page, so that it fills the entire page, column or section.
- A new site has been added to the Free Royalty-Free Stock Photos page. This one provides both free photos and videos which you can use without paying royalties on your own website, presentations, etc.
- A new icon editor for Windows and Linux has been added to the Free Resource Editors, Compilers and Icon Editors page. Icon editors are useful for webmasters wishing to create a favicon for their website as well as programmers who want to make one for their software.
- New page: How to Change the Message Shown Before the Comments Field in WordPress. If you run a WordPress blog, and want to customize the message that is shown in the "Leave a Reply" section of your post (where you visitors enter their comments), this article shows you how, using a method that will allow your changes to persist even when your theme files auto-update.
- New page: How to Use Google Fonts and Other Web Fonts in BlueGriffon. This article describes how you can add Google Fonts and other web fonts to BlueGriffon for use with your website.
- New page: Free Geolocation Services. If you are thinking of customizing your website so that it shows different content for different countries (eg, display prices of goods in the local currency), these free geolocation services may be just what you need.
- A free service has been added to the Free Dynamic and Static DNS Services and Name Servers page. This one provides dynamic DNS for those whose websites are hosted on their own computer and who connect to the Internet with an address that changes each time. To avoid confusion, please note that these are not services that give you free domains. You will still need to obtain a domain name from a registrar. In addition, for the average person who wants to create a website the standard way, you don't need these services.
- Another free service has been added to the Free Web Hosts page. If you want to create a website and don't want to pay for web hosting, take a look at these free hosts on which you can place a site.
- A new site has been added to the Free Mailing List Hosting and Email Newsletter Hosting page. It is useful if you are interested in starting an email mailing list, whether an announcement list or a discussion one.
- A new implementation of Common Lisp for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and FreeBSD has been added to the Free Common Lisp Compilers and Interpreters page. This one can create standalone executables for your programs. (For those wondering, Common Lisp is a general purpose programming language.)
- Updated: How to Make / Create a Website. If you are thinking of designing a website, whether a business or hobby site, read How to Create a Website. The article has been updated with the latest developments on the Internet.
- New page: Can I Change My Website's Address to HTTPS Without Getting an SSL Certificate? This article answers a question asked by a visitor on whether he can simply update all the URLs on his website to "https" without obtaining an SSL certificate, and, if not, why.
- Two more programs have been added to the Free Standard ML Compilers page. Standard ML is a general purpose functional programming language. Both programs added (one is a compiler, and the other an interpreter) are open source.
- New page: How to Make a Button Run a Server-Side Script (eg, a PHP, Perl, or Python Script) (HTML). I was asked by a visitor how he could make a button run a server-side script (such as a PHP, Perl or Python script). This article answers that question.
- A new debugger for Windows DLL and EXE files has been added to the Free Debuggers and Bug Trackers page. (For those wondering, debuggers are software that help programmers track down bugs in their programs.)
- New page: How to Add a (Self-Hosted) Video to Your Website with Expression Web. Find out how you can insert a video into your web page with the free Microsoft Expression Web editor. The video, in this case, will be placed on your website itself (ie, self-hosted) and not on a video sharing site.
- Another lint-type program has been added to the Free Static Code Analyzers page. This one scans your C or C++ program source code for a huge variety of potential bugs/errors. It works on Windows, but can apparently be compiled to run on Linux and other Unix-type systems.
- A new Windows program has been added to the Free Command Line Shells page. This open source software supports backquotes (where the output of a command is inserted into the command line of another), background processing (run programs in the background), aliases, tab completion, extended wildcard/filename-matching, and so on.
- New page: How to Prevent Your Website from being Placed in a Frame. By default, anyone can place your website in a frame or iframe, for the purposes of clickjacking, altering your content, or putting advertisements on your page. This article shows you how to prevent this, using both the older backward-compatible method as well as the modern officially-recommended one.
- New page: How to Move a Website from Dreamweaver to BlueGriffon. I was asked by a visitor how he could move his website from Dreamweaver to the free BlueGriffon web editor. This article answers that question.
- A new program has been added to the Free CD, DVD and Blu-Ray Burning Software page. This one can not only create data discs but also audio CDs, rip (ie, copy) music from CDs, make ISO images, burn ISO images, create multi-session discs, erase discs, etc. It's useful for those who find the built-in facilities provided by Windows too limited.
- Two more software have been added to the Free Programmer's Editors page. These text editors collectively feature things like bracket/brace matching (so that you don't have mismatched brackets in your code), syntax highlighting, project management, search and replace, file comparison, hexadecimal viewing, column editing, code folding, JSON/XML/SQL formatters, etc.
- Another open source program for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux has been added to the Free Secure Password Managers and Password Savers page. Password managers are used to store (and automatically type, if you wish) your passwords for the varous online sites (eg, email, social media, etc) that you are a member of, allowing you to use different, complicated and secure passwords for each site without worrying that you will forget them.
- New page: My Frustrations with Google AdSense. This article details my increasing frustration with Google AdSense. And no, it's not about what you think.
- A new program has been added to the Free Text Search and Replace Utilities page. This open source utility for Windows can search and replace text across plain text files, Word documents, PDFs, using literal queries, regular expressions and even phonetic searches.
- New page: How to Put Rounded Buttons on Your Website. I was asked by a visitor how he could create rounded buttons. This article shows you how to add round corners to your buttons and, if that's what you really want, insert buttons that are completely circular.
- Another web statistics program has been added to the Free Web Statistics and Web Log Analyzers page. If you have created a website and want to see how it is performing (eg, the number of visitors for each page, the browsers they use, etc), the programs listed here will do the trick.
- A new program has been added to the Free File Managers and Graphical Shells page. This one works on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and FreeBSD. Although all modern systems have their own file managers (eg, Explorer on Windows), these third party software offer convenient features such as built-in file comparison, the ability to open two folders side by side to facilitate easy copying/moving, and so on.
- New page: How to Close a Browser Tab/Window with JavaScript. This article answers a question on how to close a browser window or tab using JavaScript.
- An open source RSS reader for Mac OS X has been added to the Free Standalone News Feed Readers and News Aggregators page. There are also many RSS/Atom readers for other systems listed on that page (such as Windows and Linux ones).
- New page:
How to Prevent a Directory Listing of Your Website Without Using .htaccess.
A visitor asked me if there was a way to stop her web server from showing a directory listing of the folders on
her site, without having to create a
.htaccessfile. This article gives 2 alternative solutions.
- If you are looking for a way to scan your PHP source code for potential bugs before you even test it, take a look at the latest program that has been added to the Free Static Code Analyzers page. This one works on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and other Unix-type systems. For those who don't use PHP, that page also lists static analyzers for C, C++, Objective C, JavaScript, Fortran and Java.
- New page: How do I Increase/Decrease the Space Between Paragraphs on a Web Page (CSS). One of my visitors wanted to know how to change the distance between paragraphs on a web page. This article addresses that question. It also deals with what to do when you change the spacing between lines (eg to double-space it), and the gap between paragraphs becomes too wide.
