Top 10 Amazing Web Developments Tools You Should Know

Whatever your toolset looks like, it's always beneficial to take a peek at what's out there and what’s new in front-end tooling. You might even have a set of CSS and JavaScript utilities that you go back to time and again.

We've organized the list into sections, to make it easier to navigate. You can use the links to jump straight to the section you're interested in, or just browse the whole list. Let's roll out 10 of the most interesting and practical web development tools that you should know about.

1. lax.js

Trigger animations, transitions and parallax effects to pages while the user scrolls. Get started with the presets or create custom effects. Vanilla JavaScript plugin to add responsive and mobile-friendly. Add play/pause functionality to animated GIFs on a page.

2. Freezeframe.js

Trigger play/pause via hover, click, touch event or by an external element that serves as a play/pause button. Add play/pause functionality to animated GIFs on a page.

3. Hotkey

Trigger an action on a specified element by means of a shortcut key, combination of keys or sequence of keys pressed by the user. The documentation has suggestions to ensure good accessibility.

4. Moveable

You can enable grouping and snap-to-guides functionality. Make any element on the page draggable, resizable, scalable rotatable or even warpable (like the perspective tool in a graphics editor).

5. FrenchKiss.js

One example customisation it offers is the ability to deal with a language that has multiple pluralisation rules. A super-fast internationalisation library with an extensive API.

6. Rallax.js

This has good performance and an easy-to-use API for starting effects, stopping, speeding up and the ability to chain .when() methods for queuing actions. Parallax shouldn’t be used heavily but a simple dependency-free solution like this one is a good option.

7. fslightbox.js

Offers React and Vue versions and the ability to upgrade from the free version if you want to get your hands on more features. A vanilla JavaScript lightbox plugin that can display images, HTML5 video and YouTube embeds in an attractive and usable overlay.

8. Simple-keyboard

The demo keyboards are gorgeous but you can also style one easily to suit your brand. An elegant, responsive virtual keyboard component that offers ready-to-use demos of both mobile- and desktop-style keyboards.

9. indigo-player

A modular, easy-to- customise JavaScript video player with advertisement support out-of-the-box so you can enable pre-roll, mid-roll or post-roll sponsors for embedded videos.

10. autoComplete.js

Offers loose and strict search modes, customisable minimum number of characters before offering suggestions, optional callback functions and more. A small library to add auto-complete functionality to a form field.