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Best Developer Tools for Windows (2026)

Our pick of the best developer tools for Windows this year, ranked by real popularity and rating. Whether you want a free favorite like Visual Studio Code, Python, Notepad++ or something new, every app below is a safe, clean, free download. Click any to grab the latest version.

  1. 1Visual Studio Code icon

    Visual Studio Code

    Microsoft

    A lightweight but powerful source code editor with huge extension support.

    ★★★★★★★★★★4.8Free

    6.1M downloads

  2. 2Python icon

    Python

    Python Software Foundation

    A versatile, beginner-friendly programming language.

    ★★★★★★★★★★4.8Open source

    4.7M downloads

  3. 3Notepad++ icon

    Notepad++

    Don Ho

    A lightweight, tabbed source-code editor and Notepad replacement for Windows.

    ★★★★★★★★★★4.7Open source

    4.2M downloads

  4. 4Git icon

    Git

    Git Project

    The distributed version control system that powers modern development.

    ★★★★★★★★★★4.7Open source

    3.4M downloads

  5. 5Node.js icon

    Node.js

    OpenJS Foundation

    A JavaScript runtime built on Chrome's V8 engine for building fast apps.

    ★★★★★★★★★★4.6Open source

    2.9M downloads

  6. 6VirtualBox icon

    VirtualBox

    Oracle

    Run virtual machines for Windows, Linux and more on your PC.

    ★★★★★★★★★★4.4Open source

    2.6M downloads

  7. 7FileZilla icon

    FileZilla

    Tim Kosse

    A fast, reliable FTP, FTPS and SFTP client for transferring files.

    ★★★★★★★★★★4.4Open source

    2.4M downloads

  8. 8XAMPP icon

    XAMPP

    Apache Friends

    An easy-to-install Apache, MySQL, PHP and Perl stack for local development.

    ★★★★★★★★★★4.4Open source

    2.4M downloads

  9. 9Android Studio icon

    Android Studio

    Google

    The official IDE for building Android apps, with an emulator and profilers.

    ★★★★★★★★★★4.4Free

    2.1M downloads

  10. 10Anaconda icon

    Anaconda

    Anaconda

    The data-science toolkit bundling Python, R and hundreds of packages.

    ★★★★★★★★★★4.4Freemium

    2.1M downloads

  11. 11PuTTY icon

    PuTTY

    Simon Tatham

    The classic SSH and telnet client for Windows, tiny and dependable.

    ★★★★★★★★★★4.5Open source

    2M downloads

  12. 12Sublime Text icon

    Sublime Text

    Sublime HQ

    A slick, blazing-fast code editor loved for its speed and multiple cursors.

    ★★★★★★★★★★4.6Trial

    1.7M downloads

  13. 13Docker Desktop icon

    Docker Desktop

    Docker Inc.

    Build, ship and run containerized applications on your desktop.

    ★★★★★★★★★★4.4Freemium

    1.6M downloads

  14. 14Unity Hub icon

    Unity Hub

    Unity

    Manage Unity editor versions and projects for game development.

    ★★★★★★★★★★4.2Freemium

    1.6M downloads

  15. 15Eclipse IDE icon

    Eclipse IDE

    Eclipse Foundation

    A veteran open-source IDE for Java and many other languages.

    ★★★★★★★★★★4.1Open source

    1.6M downloads

  16. 16Ollama icon

    Ollama

    Ollama

    Run large language models like Llama locally with a single command.

    ★★★★★★★★★★4.7Open source

    1.6M downloads

  17. 17IntelliJ IDEA icon

    IntelliJ IDEA

    JetBrains

    A powerful Java and Kotlin IDE with deep code intelligence and refactoring.

    ★★★★★★★★★★4.7Freemium

    1.5M downloads

  18. 18Windows Terminal icon

    Windows Terminal

    Microsoft

    A modern, tabbed terminal for PowerShell, CMD, WSL and more.

    ★★★★★★★★★★4.6Open source

    1.5M downloads

  19. 19WinSCP icon

    WinSCP

    Martin Prikryl

    A popular SFTP, FTP and SCP client with a dual-pane file manager.

    ★★★★★★★★★★4.6Open source

    1.4M downloads

  20. 20Godot Engine icon

    Godot Engine

    Godot

    A free, open-source game engine for 2D and 3D games.

    ★★★★★★★★★★4.6Open source

    1.4M downloads

Browse the full Developer Tools catalog for more.