Released back in 2011, Twitter’s Bootstrap has totally emerged as one of the most popular frameworks across the globe. Other than making responsive web development easier, it even boasts a wide library of pre-styled components, plugins, and add-ons. With the help of HTML, CSS, and Javascript, the excellent front-end framework provides a really easy way of crafting your site designs and thus allows you to create great looking and mobile-optimized builds in hours, instead of days.
Now, anything that is popular is bound to have some naysayers and Bootstrap is no exception. So before we dive into the best editors offered by the framework, let’s look into some of the framework’s known traits, both in terms of the positives as well as the negatives.
Bootstrap was never meant for web development
Created by Twitter, Bootstrap was initially meant to be utilized by developers who could work faster by using a standardized interface to present their creations. In simple language, if you are a developer working on some cool feature at Twitter, you can present what this feature is through Bootstrap at a quick pace without even need to spend time creating a cool web appearance from scratch. However, the purpose-made tool is not entirely in line with the standard concept of web development.
Bootstrap is TRULY an open source
No matter how basic it may sound, but bootstrap is truly an open source platform. However, one should never forget that Bootstrap’s straightforward license has also played a role in the framework’s popularity. Now, most of the open source licenses go on for pages of never-ending lawyer talk, where you as a Bootstrap developer are allowed to do whatever with the framework, once you obtain a copy of it.
Bootstrap provides consistency and handles the mundane
One of the mundane aspects of the website building process is having to prepare the styles of various form elements such as drop-down, buttons, input fields, pagination, alerts and so more. And most importantly, all styles are consistent throughout the platform and mobile-friendly. They actually look quite nice even despite their simple nature.
Recommended read : Impact of using Shadows and Blur Effects in Modern UI Design
Most Popular Bootstrap Editors/Tools to take into account
Bootstrap has already made responsive web development a lot easier. But what if you didn’t have to write out all that code by hand or what if you could select the Bootstrap components you want to work with and drag them onto your canvas? Here’s the time when you require a Bootstrap editor. Bootstrap editors and builders make it ten times easier to prototype, test and build responsive websites. No matter how each editor seems to be different, they all feature some drag and drop functionality using Bootstrap’s huge library of components.
Further, I would like to share a bunch of editors/tools that are capable of offering valuable assistance to professionals all across the world.
- LayoutIt- Being a drag-and-drop interface builder, LayoutIt is exclusively developed to suit the purpose of front-end web designing. The base happens to HTML 5, CSS, and JavaScript plugins which any programmer can easily deal with. Without writing any codes programmers can use the drag and drop facility enabled in the LayoutIt.
- Pingendo- This is a superb platform used mainly for bootstrap prototyping. Compatible with operating systems like iOS, Android, and Linux, Pingendo even functions with HTML and LESS for creating responsive/ bootstrap web pages. Designers can easily customize the codes by clicking right on the objects.
- Firebase Hosting- This is an ideal space to develop as well as host static websites on a platform itself. Popularly known as Divshot, Firebase is powered by Google and has a great set of tools to develop Android and IOS mobile applications. This platform comes with features having explanatory notes that detail its merits & functionality. Divshot offers paid services only.
- Lavish Bootstrap- This tool, in particular, has the potential to offer developers a unique functionality. They can choose the color from any image and alter it in such a way that it suits demands of end users easily. Lavish functions automatically, and highlights headers, menu, text, and much more in every image. The ways of customization offered by Lavish is super easy as well.
- Bootply- In my opinion, the code repository included in Bootply is excellent to work with and it serves an addition. Bootply has impressive drag and drops components that developers will be able to customize as they wish. Bootply also includes wonderful jQuery plugins, micro-libraries, FuelUX and much more. BootPly provides paid as well as free services.
Conclusion
The list does not end here, I could easily go on and on. But these are some of my favorite Bootstrap editor/tools to work with. I am pretty sure that these tools will definitely help in boosting your web development productivity. Keep watching the space to know more regarding the same!