The Best Browsers For Web Developers In 2022

Ankita Sharma
Catalysts Reachout
Published in
6 min readOct 29, 2022

A web browser is the second most important tool after interactive development environment (IDE) for website developers. It’s simply indispensable for plenty of tasks, from searching the Web to debugging scripts. Unfortunately, not all browsers are equally useful. To make them more productive, web developers need a tool with analysis and debugging capabilities. In addition, websites are created for users who visit them via browsers. Consequently, using a browser is essential for any web developer.

Mozilla Firefox Developer Edition

Mozilla has been regularly delighting its users with new products. In addition to the usual browser, there are versions designed for people involved in the development and creation of new features in web browsers. One of such products is Firefox Developer Edition. This browser version has more features, compared to the standard option, as well as higher performance and handy developer tools that will be useful for building an open-source.

In terms of performance, Mozilla Firefox Developer Edition shows impressive results, and therefore, the fastest possible page loads are guaranteed. In some tests, such as WebGL, Asm.js, the browser delivers the best performance among its counterparts. Not by a few points but as much as one and a half or even two times. At the moment, it’s the most popular browser for website developers and geeks. At least it leads in many surveys among the developers themselves. And that’s quite justified since it’s a really powerful, albeit underrated web browser. By the way, Mozilla Firefox Developer Edition can display your resource’s CSS grid, which is quite rare if not unique.

Here are a few things that set this browser apart from its counterparts:

  • Best JavaScript debugger;
  • Master CSS Grid;
  • Built-in Web IDE;
  • Independence from corporations that manipulate user data;
  • Browser support on a variety of OS;
  • Great page load speed;
  • Increased performance;
  • Ability to synchronize devices;
  • Modern solutions for browser interface/personalization;
  • Current list of add-ons and extensions;
  • Detects inactive CSS on the page, etc.

Unlike other browsers, Firefox Developer Edition has a design tool called CSS grid. With its help, developers can distribute areas on the screen into separate blocks containing information, change their position and design.

Firefox Developer Edition is available for all known platforms. Achieving a faster program became possible after its engine was completely redesigned. The developers practically wrote new code from scratch. The new CSS engine is much faster and smarter than its predecessor, incorporating the best of other popular browsers. High performance provides an algorithm that distributes the load evenly on all cores of your computer. Thus, the speed can be increased by 2, 4, and, on some devices, up to 16 times.

Polypane

It offers the perfect balance between a classic user browser and a developer-oriented masterpiece. However, many would say that this unique browser is designed primarily for website developers. This means that it’s virtually stuffed with features that are useful for website creators:

  • Ability to model a website with multiple windows for different screens, from mobile to 5K monitors;
  • 80 site accessibility tests to make it enjoyable for everyone;
  • Support for most popular CMS;
  • Support for popular frameworks extensions, e.g. React, Angular, Vue, Svelte, and many others.

Poly pane is a browser built from scratch for creating websites and apps. It’s the only browser that allows you to develop a website for all viewports and devices at once, providing a better overview of them. You can use it in your everyday life as well, however, that way you won’t be able to understand all of its powerful development functionality. Interact with one panel — and all other panels will automatically follow your actions. Scrolling, clicking, and hovering are automatically distributed among the panels. You can easily ensure that your site works as intended in all browsing windows. A single click is all it takes to make a screenshot with a full view of your site (at all screen sizes) and share it with anyone you want. Layout debugging, CSS stress testing, and dev tools based on Chromium — Poly pane has everything you need to build advanced websites and custom mobile apps

Poly pane pays special attention to making the resource affordable, therefore, it comes with a free trial period. If you want to continue using the advanced features in the long run, however, you will have to pay. Poly pane is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Sizzy

Sizzy is a browser with great functionality, focused on speeding up the development workflow. Its developers promised to make this process more productive, and it seems like they did a great job. The list of features offered by Sizzy is quite long, but some of them deserve special attention:

  • Everything is in sync. Simulation and the ability to take a screenshot of a web page on multiple devices simultaneously;
  • Element analysis on all devices with Universal Inspect Element;
  • Website speed tests under different conditions;
  • Spotlight function to operate the website using the keyboard;
  • Session Manager for switching between users.

If you’ve been looking for a feature-rich browser with tools no other browser has, Sizzy is your perfect solution. It’s built for developers and used by employees at Philips, GoDaddy, Comcast, Basecamp, Zapier, and others. However, the browser is only available on a monthly/annual paid subscription with a two-week free period.

Sizzy is available for macOS, Windows, and Linux.

Blisk

Compared to Opera, Chrome, and Firefox, Blisk doesn’t get as much attention on the Internet. Nevertheless, it’s worth considering if you are a beginner. The browser was specifically designed by Ukrainian Developers to give web designers their first workspace where they can develop and test modern apps as quickly as possible.

Blisk has all the features that can help you create a true web masterpiece. Here are just a few of them:

  • Displays mobile and desktop site version side by side and at once;
  • Shows how your resource will look on any smartphone;
  • Developer tools are similar to Chrome;
  • Built-in page inspector lets you check any element on the screen.

Blisk is the only developer-focused web browser that gives you access to all the features you need to create a sensational online experience. You can see how your site or app will look on almost any phone, from Google Pixel to iPhone. What’s more, there are options for viewing in landscape or portrait mode. Blisk also shows mobile and desktop designs side by side so you can compare the experience users get when they visit a website, no matter what device they use.

Google Chrome

By now, you have likely heard of Google Chrome. In fact, you might even be using Google Chrome as your preferred and trusted browser in everyday use. However, did you know that Google Chrome can also be used for developers? Google Chrome provides plenty of tools, extensions, and features for everyday users, but it also includes plenty of features for developers and designers who are interested in building or editing websites and applications of their own.

If you are already using Google Chrome or if you are thinking of using Google Chrome as a developer, consider the features that come with the browser, such as:

.Extensions: Google Chrome’s Extensions are available completely free of charge. From Google Dev to specific developer extensions that are useful for managing or inspecting websites, Google Chrome’s Extension library is massive and ever-expanding.

  • Real-time editing: Inspect and begin editing a website in real-time with Google Chrome’s real-time editing features.
  • Translations: You can also use automatic translation services which are built-in to Google Chrome to help translate pages you are creating and/or editing for your websites with just a click.

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