Top 20 Best Visual Studio (VS) Code Extensions for Developers | Best VS Code Extensions for Web Development

VS Code extensions allow you to add many languages, tools, and debugging support to your coding journey. VS Code is largely extensible, so inventors can fluently plug into VS Code’s stoner interface and laboriously share in their rendering requirements. It helps to streamline the development workflow.

Let’s try to comprehend the top 20 VS Code extensions developers should be aware of in 2023, taking into account their extensive features and capabilities. Based on your project’s requirements, this will assist you in selecting the best VS Code extension. These 20 best VS Code extensions for web development are highly recommended to be used by every software developer/engineer:-

1. JavaScript (ES6) Code Snippets:-

It’s a time-saving extension that will be appreciated by any JavaScript Developer. Instead of repeatedly inputting the code, you may obtain it all in one place. This also consists of TypeScript/TSLint-validated code as well, guaranteeing that your projects are constantly using the most recent tools. Nonetheless, it is one of the best VS Code extensions for JavaScript developers.

2. Remote SSH:-

Remote SSH extension allows you to construct your development environment using the dual combination of any remote workstation with an SSH server. This helps you to streamline the development or troubleshooting operations in numerous settings. The source code is not required for your local workstation as this extension immediately executes commands and other required dependencies on the remote machine.

3. Auto Close Tag:-

In both HTML & XML, closing a tag after it has been opened is a challenging process. Many times we face a lot of difficulty due to this. Therefore, automatically closing the HTML & XML elements is the best solution for you. It’s the best VS Code extensions for HTML and CSS.

4. Path Intellisense:-

Path intellisense is a terrific tool that simplifies file paths. You won’t have to fill out all of your filenames or look through directories to determine whether ones are suitably marked utilizing autocomplete. In inserts filenames automatically.

5. Better Comments:-

Commenting is a fundamental component of programming; without it, you will never be able to comprehend your own code or other people’s code too. This plugin allows you to organize comments by classifying them as highlighted text, questions, to-do, and errors/warnings, making them easier to grasp later on while walking through the project.

6. Bracket Pair Colorizer:-

It matches the corresponding parentheses in your code with the same color. It makes you feel comfortable in coding when using parentheses. Though, you can easily find out the matching pairs if you are lost in the code. The major advantage is that it supports many programming languages like C++, Python, Java & JavaScript. With this extension, other developers can easily understand your code.

7. Angular Snippets (Version 13):-

This add-on for VS Code includes snippets for Angular for TypeScript and HTML.

8. Python Snippets:-

A snippet bundle to make you more effective in working with Python. If you don’t utilize a method, don’t worry this plugin offers a lot of code examples for each Python method. This extension not only snippets but also will be beneficial for learning Python programming language. You will master all Python methods with a lot of code samples. For example, if you want to utilize the string replace method then only use .replace.

9. CSS Peek:-

CSS Peek is a popular Visual Studio Code extension that allows developers to peek into CSS classes and IDs directly from their HTML files. This powerful tool enhances productivity by providing a quick and efficient way to inspect and modify CSS styles without the need to switch between different files. By hovering over a CSS class or ID in an HTML file, CSS Peek displays a popup window showing the corresponding CSS rules defined in external style sheets or embedded within a <style> tag. This feature saves time and effort by eliminating the need to manually search for the relevant CSS code. CSS Peek provides customizable keyboard shortcuts to enhance productivity. For example:

Peek: load a CSS file inline for rapid adjustments (Ctrl+Shift+F12)

Go To: navigate directly to a CSS file (F12)

Hover: Show the direction when hovering over a symbol (Ctrl+hover)

10. Prettier Code Formatter:-

The Prettier extension is a formatter that helps in maintaining a consistent code style. Now you can change the settings with the keyboard shortcuts. It also includes fixing the mix of single and double quotes or without purpose usage of semicolons.
This extension supports the following languages/frameworks:
HTML, CSS, JavaScript, TypeScript, JSON, Vue, Angular, etc.

11. Icons:-

Icons allow you to generate meaningful icons to assist differentiate between files and directories. This makes your it more visual, making it easier to work as a group, come back after a while, or indeed just make the experience further fun. For example, you may alter the color of a default folder icon with the command palette. There are a number of distinct icons extensions including:
vscode-icons, material icon theme, simple icons.

12. Relative Path:-

You simply require the file’s name and the extension will call the relative path from your location to that target file.

13. GitLens:-

The GitLens supercharges Git inside VS Code which allows you to visualize code authorship via Git. GitLens is fantastic for other people to understand their code. Then one person can know these three states: who, why, and when the code was modified. You can validate the history of a codebase.

14. Import Cost:-

The Import extension utilizes Webpack in order to distinguish the imported size. It’s actually the size of the imported packages.

15. Markdown All in One:-

Markdown All in One is a really useful plugin for all things markdown related. Everything you need for markdown (shortcuts, table of contents, autopreview and more). Markdown is widely used in many technology and this extension makes work easier and increases productivity and efficiency. With Markdown All in One, you can use shortcuts to edit text and add features like bold, italics, etc. It also offers useful automation for working with topics like lists and algebra.

16. Colorize:-

This extension Colorize is VS Code extension that helps in visualizing CSS color files. It improves productivity for a front-end developer. This extension allows you as a front-end developer to perceive CSS colors through a colored background. This add-on generates and delivers a live background color update for CSS colors.

17. Docker:-

Through Docker extension we can construct, manage and deploy containerized apps. It provides a one-click debugging of Node.js, Python and .NET inside a container. Containers are the go-to choice if you wish to boost your deployment speed and the portability of your applications.

18. GitHub Copilot:-

GitHub Copilot is an AI pair programming that offers ideas/suggestions while coding. GitHub Coplilot is powered by the OpenAI Codex AI system, trained on public internet text and billions of lines of code. You just need to start typing a few terms and the extension would generate all the code for you

19. Live Server:-

When I initially started learning web development, I wanted this feature. It creates a light Node.js server and offers your HTML page with all assets from the specified directory. It’s a quick development server with live browser reload. You can start or stop live server anytime with a single click from the status bar in VS Code.

20. Tabnine AI Autocomplete:-

Tabnine is an AI code helper that helps you a better coder. Tabnine will speed up your development with real-time code. It uses machine learning technology and provides support with all languages.

Conclusion:

High productivity, speed, and precision can be attained in our daily development lives with the usage of the right tools. These 20 Visual Studio Code Extensions can improve one’s performance, speed & accuracy as described above. I hope it will help in your professional progress and make you a better & successful developer.

Note: These top 20 best VS Code extensions that we have discussed above are the most popular extensions as per the research/surveys, that are used in the daily life of developers, so it may change.