Developers get a lot of choice. These categories split by the part of the job each tool helps with.
Writing code
Code Assistants
Code Assistants suggest, complete and explain code, usually inside your editor. Generated code can look right and be subtly wrong or insecure, so read it, run it and test it as if a stranger wrote it.
Developer Tools
Developer Tools is the general category for tools that help build, debug and ship software.
App Builders and Website Builders
App Builders generate mobile and web apps from a description. Website Builders do the same for sites. No-Code Platforms let people build without programming. They're quick for a prototype. Find out how easily you can export your code, or whether you're locked in.
Coding Education
Coding Education has tools for learning to program.
Quality and safety
Code Review
Code Review tools read pull requests and flag bugs and style problems. Treat the output as a second pair of eyes, not a replacement for a person.
Software Testing
Software Testing generates tests and automates QA.
Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity covers threat detection, vulnerability scanning and security operations.
Infrastructure and data
DevOps
DevOps tools help with infrastructure, deployment and incident response.
Database Tools
Database Tools help you query, design and manage databases, including turning plain English into queries. Never point a new tool at a production database without limits on what it can change.
API Tools
API Tools help design, test and document APIs.
Web Scraping
Web Scraping extracts structured data from websites. Check the target site's terms and robots rules, and respect privacy laws, before collecting data.
Browser Extensions
Browser Extensions are AI assistants inside your browser. They can see the pages you visit, so check what permissions they ask for.
Building AI itself
If you're building an AI product rather than using one, see Categories for building with AI.
Safety checklist for code tools
- Don't paste secrets such as API keys, passwords or customer data into a hosted assistant.
- Check whether your code is stored or used for training, and whether a business plan changes that.
- Check the license of generated code if you're working on a commercial or open source project.
- Review every change before it goes live.
