Top 10 Best IDE for Python

Developed by Czech company JetBrains, PyCharm is an IDE specific to Python. PyCharm is a cross-platform IDE. Therefore, users may download any of the Windows, Mac or Linux versions depending on their requirements. Honestly, PyCharm is considered to be one of the best IDE for Python and justifiably the most widely used.

In addition to the common features, PyCharm provides additional features like:

• Specialized project views allowing quick switching between files
• Facilitates Web Development along with Django, Flask, and web2py
• PyCharm is equipped with more than 1000 plug-ins, so programmers can write their own plug-ins to extend its features
• It provides two versions for download, the Community version which is free and the paid Professional version. Programmers can download the corresponding versions as per their requirements

Spyder is an open-source, cross-platform IDE developed by Pierre Raybaut in 2009. Designed mainly for data analysts and scientists, it is considered to be a powerful scientific development IDE which is written in Python.

• Spyder is integrated with many of the scientific Python libraries namely SciPy, NumPy, Matplotlib, Pandas, etc.
• Pertaining to its scientific use, Spyder provides advanced support for editing, analysis and data exploration
• It also allows static code analysis wherein the analysis is performed without actually executing the code
• The features of this IDE can be expanded further through its plug-in system and API.

Created by originally by Alex Totic in 2003, PyDev was then captained by Fabio Zadrozny as its main project head. It is basically an open-source third-party package which serves as a plug-in for Eclipse to enable it for Python development.

PyDev has many special features such as:

Remote Debugger (files which are not launched in Eclipse can be debugged)
Code folding (selectively hide or display sections of code)
Python 2.x and 3.x syntax

Rodeo is an open source Python IDE developed by Yhat. It is built in particular for machine learning and data science.

• Rodeo makes it very convenient to load data and compare data
• It also allows data experimentation
• It is furnished with Python tutorials to guide the users
• Cheat sheets are provided for material reference
• File and package search is made very handy

Sublime-Text is a cross-platform IDE developed in C++ and Python. In addition to Python, it provides support for other languages as well. The features of this IDE can be enhanced using plug-ins.

It provides various features such as:

• “Goto Anything” feature that allows quick access to files, symbols or lines
• Its command palette provides robust matching for keyboard invocations
• Python-based plugin API
• Allows simultaneous editing
• Preferences can be made project specific

This IDE was created by Wingware. It is a lightweight IDE designed to allow quick programming. come in three variants namely:

Wing Pro – paid version for professionals
Wing Personal – free version for students and enthusiasts
Wing 101 – simplified free version for beginners

Wing provides special features such as:

• Automatic Multi-process and child process debugging
• Remote debug process
• Module Browser
• Refactoring
• Auto-completion available for non Python files as well

Eric is written in Python and is free software. Its source code is available freely and can be studied and recreated by anybody.

Provides some quality features such as:

• Format-able window layout
• Format-able syntax-highlighting
• Code-folding
• Furnished with a class browser
• Built-in support for unit testing
• Built-in support for Django

Atom is an open source free IDE built using web technologies. Atom is based on the Electron framework which is built by GitHub which in turn is written in CoffeeScript and Less.

Specific features of Atom include:

• Enables support for third-party packages and themes so as to format the editor
• Atom’s APM allows installation and management of packages
• Provides support for a number of languages other than Python such as C, C++, Java, HTML, etc
• Exception reporting package

Thonny is an IDE developed for beginners. It provides step-by-step assistance to the programmer.

Has many features such as:

• Separate windows are provided to execute function calls
• Line numbers are available for the user to keep a track of each line
• Log of user actions is available so as to assist the user in future
• Statement stepping without breakpoints

IDLE is written completely in Python and it comes as a default implementation along with Python. Its name is presumed to be in honor of Eric Idle who is one of the founding members of Monty Python. This IDE is considered to be extremely suitable for the education industry due to its simplicity.

IDLE also provides some remarkable features such as:

• Availability of python shell with syntax highlighting
• A multi-window text editor
• Program animation or stepping (refers to executing one line of code at a time)
• Breakpoints are available to ease debugging

- Call stack is clearly visible