Mac Developer Tools

Code editors, IDEs, version control, terminals, databases, containers and virtualisation for development on macOS.

macOS is a common choice for development, especially for iOS and Mac apps, and it also runs the same open-source tooling used on Linux.

Part of the Web Developer and Software Developer toolkits, which explain when you would use each tool.

Code Editors

Editors for everyday coding.

Visual Studio Code
Lightweight, extensible code editor for almost any language.
FreeWin / Mac / Linux
Neovim
A modern, extensible fork of Vim.
Open SourceWin / Mac / Linux
Vim
A powerful, keyboard-driven text editor.
Open SourceWin / Mac / Linux

Full development environments.

Track changes and collaborate.

Work at the command line.

TerminalBuilt into macOS
Run shell commands, scripts and command-line developer tools.
Open:Terminal (in Applications > Utilities, or Spotlight)
All versions of macOSApple documentation
iTerm2
A powerful replacement terminal for macOS.
Open SourceMac

Languages and runtimes.

Python
Popular programming language for scripting, data and automation.
Open SourceWin / Mac / Linux
Node.js
A JavaScript runtime for servers and tools.
Open SourceWin / Mac / Linux

Install and manage developer tools.

Homebrew
The standard way to install command-line tools and many apps on macOS.
Open SourceMac / Linux

Test and document APIs.

Browse and query databases.

DBeaver Community
A universal database tool.
Open SourceWin / Mac / Linux
TablePlus
A native database client for many database engines.
FreemiumWin / Mac / Linux

Build and run containers.

Docker Desktop
Build and run containers locally with a desktop dashboard.
FreemiumWin / Mac / Linux
Podman
A daemonless container engine.
Open SourceWin / Mac / Linux

Run other systems in virtual machines.

VirtualBox
A cross-platform desktop virtualisation app.
Open SourceWin / Mac / Linux