A long time has passed since JavaScript on the web was mainly used for popups and animations that made your Netscape browser cough. Today, JavaScript is the most popular language for the development of websites and web-based applications, and it will continue to rule the web stack in 2020 and beyond.

If you’re a JavaScript developer working with one of the JetBrains IDEs (WebStorm or Intellij Ultimate Edition), you are in luck. Both JetBrains and the community offer a plethora of free and premium plugins to make your JS programming work faster, easier, and more fun.

The challenge is finding the best plugins for JavaScript development on Jetbrains IDEs. Who wants to sit there and go over hundreds of plugins to pick the best? Well, I do! To save you the time and trouble, the Codota team scoured the deep web and gathered the best and most useful plugins for JavaScript development in WebStorm and Intellij, and because I’m just that nice I even categorized the list. You’re welcome.

It’s worth noting that not all the plugins in this list are necessary for your daily development work. So before you hurry and install everything, be sure to read the description and install only the plugins you see having a real contribution to your productivity. After all, it is well known that overloading one’s IDE with unnecessary plugins will only slow it down.

Looking for IntelliJ plugins in general? Check out this blog post on the best IntelliJ plugins.

General Coding Tools & IDE Tweaks

The tools in this category are not JavaScript-exclusive but are useful and recommended for any developer coding on Intellij IDEs in any language.

This neat and colorful plugin adds Rainbow Brackets / Rainbow Parentheses to your IntelliJ based IDE, that are always helpful with nested elements.

2. Codota (now supporting node.js)



Our own AI assistant for Java development now supports node.js as well. So if you want a plugin that draws from millions of open source Java and node.js programs and your context to help you code faster, more efficiently and with fewer errors? We’re here with a plugin and service to give you just that.

Ever saved your work at the end of the day without having a clue how your day was actually spent coding? Well, this little plugin will surely help you get a grasp on where your time goes. It measures the time spent working on different projects, in different editors, and languages.

JavaScript Tools

Adapting your Intellij IDEA for JavaScript development isn’t hard, especially with plugins that add JS development specific tools and shortcuts to your IDE.

This useful plugin is a collection of shortcuts, tools and commands intended to save time and add efficiency when developing JavaScript on Intellij IDEs.

Size matters and when it comes to CSS and JS assets, smaller is better. This plugin puts compression of those assets a menu item click away.

JSON Parser is a lightweight plugin for validating and formatting JSON strings in your IDE without having to constantly switch over to the browser.

This extension for the Chrome browser lets you see changes you make in HTML or CSS files in the browser right away, without reloading the page. To enable it, you will also need to install its counterpart – LiveEdit by JetBrains.

Frameworks & Beyond

One of the main strengths of JavaScript is its adaptability to different products, requirements and development tasks. JavaScript frameworks, libraries and runtime environments come in many shapes, colors and flavors, and we’ve included a few must-have Intellij or Webstorm plugins for each.

Node.js

Every JavaScript developer out there is familiar with Node.js, the open source server-side JavaScript runtime environment. So even if you don’t currently write server-side JavaScript, you’ve probably come across it and will come across it again.

To run Node.js applications from the IDE and debug them using the built-in visual debugger you will need to install this handy plugin from JetBrains themselves.

Another helpful Node.js plugin by JetBrains that lets you run and debug Node.js applications in remote environments.

Vue.js

A framework made popular through both its adoptability and adaptability, Vue is one of the frameworks most commonly used for building web UIs and is easy to learn for anyone familiar with CSS and HTML.

To add Vue.js support to your Intellij IDE or Webstorm, you’ll need to install this plugin by JetBrains. It will add the features normally included in a framework or language plugin such as code completion and component navigation.

To add Vue.js support to your IDE, you’ll need to install this plugin by JetBrains. It will add the features normally included in a framework or language plugin such as code completion and component navigation.

Based on Vue.js, Quasar is an open source framework enabling web developers to quickly create responsive websites and apps with full Material Design 2.0 Support. Even though this framework in not included in the JetBrains plugins marketplace, it’s worth checking out, and there’s even a guide to adding Quasar to your WebStorm IDE.

React

Developed and maintained by Facebook, React is a JavaScript library for building user interfaces for websites and applications. If you’re developing React in your Intellij IDEA or Webstorm, these plugins can come of use.

This plugin adds React CSS Modules support for components written in JavaScript and TypeScript. It features completion and error highlighting for CSS classes used, intention to create missing CSS class from usage in React, and Integrates React references to CSS class names with ‘Find Usages’, ‘Rename’, and ‘Go to Declaration’.

According to its developers, this plugin brings you “visual primitives for the component age” and can be useful if you’re looking to make visually pleasing interfaces at record speeds directly from your IDE.

Exactly what it says on the box – a handy collection of React snippets for your Intellij IDEA or WebStorm IDE.

Angular & AngularJS

Angular is a cross platform development framework developed by Google. It started out as AngularJS, but has since grown and expanded its capabilities.

To integrate the framework in your Intellij IDEA or Webstorm IDE, you’ll need to download and install this plugin. It adds code completion, component navigation, a snippet library and more directly into your IDE.

Want neater, cleaner source trees? Then this is the plugin for you. It quickly groups files that have the same name and different extensions into a virtual folder by the same name.

Other Plugins

Previously known as Jade, this plugin by JetBrains adds support for the Pug template language to your Intellij IDE of choice. Also, their logo is cute.

Another framework with an adorable mascot is Ember.js, an open source web development framework loved by brands like Netflix and Heroku. This plugin adds support for it in Intellij IDEs.

GraphQL is an open-source data query and manipulation language for APIs, and a runtime for fulfilling queries with existing data. This plugin adds support for GraphQL language to your Intellij IDE including tagged template literals in JavaScript and TypeScript.

Adds support for PostCSS to your IDE of choice so it will recognize .pcss files and enable code completion and syntax highlighting.

Databases

Apps and websites store information in databases and access it all the time. So even if you swear you’re never touching backend, knowing your way around a database schema is necessary for any web developer. These tools will help you get it all done from your IDE.

This extensive and advanced database development, scripting, and navigation tool lets you develop and maintain various types of databases including Oracle, MySQL and others.

MongoDB is a popular database for JavaScript applications, and this tool will let you access Mongo databases and perform CRUD operations on Mongo collections directly from your Intellij or Webstorm IDEs.

Testing & Linting

If you build it, they will come. The bugs and build errors, that is. You know well that your job isn’t over when the code is typed in, and now comes the hardest part of development: testing and debugging. Luckily, these plugins can save you time by integrating popular testing frameworks and debugging tools into your IDE and adding helpful tools and shortcuts to them.

Dubbing itself “a spectacular test runner for JavaScript”, Karma is a productive testing environment for developers. If that’s your test runner of choice, this plugin will integrate it into your Intellij IDE.

Developed by Google and JetBrains, this plugin brings JavaScript unit testing support by the means of JsTestDriver integration into your Intellij IDEA or WebStorm.

ESLint is an open source JavaScript linting utility and this plugin will add integration for it to WebStorm and other Idea family IDE with JavaScript development support. Once installed, it will show errors and warnings inside the editor.

Oh no! How could we list so many plugins and forget <your favorite plugin / tool here>? Well, that’s only because we wanted to leave room for you to grab all the glory for introducing it in the comment section, of course.







