Top 10 Developer Experience Tools

Developer experience or developer productivity?

Developer experience, developer productivity - which comes first and which comes second? We’re in the camp that argues that developer experience comes first. When developers can just code and worry less about the rest, everything should fall into place, productivity too.

Get the basics first

Tools come second - first you need to line up some basics.

Ensuring swift builds and easy visibility into code changes, whether local or remote, is key. Investing in tools that streamline building, testing, merging, and deployment without configuration headaches is essential for quick feedback loops, fostering better productivity.
Minimizing technical debt is vital to avoid surprise dependencies and maintainable codebases.
Centralized collaboration tools are also invaluable, facilitating teamwork and access to up-to-date documentation and requirements.
Simplifying infrastructure management is equally important, as complex setups can hinder development and frustrate managers. Here, platform engineering and internal developer portals play a crucial role, providing solutions to streamline workflows and ensure standards compliance. Ultimately, prioritizing these aspects can greatly enhance the developer experience and overall productivity.

Now it’s time for the tools that make the developer experience better

Postman

Postman stands out as an indispensable tool for driving a better developer experience across the board. Its intuitive interface and robust features streamline the process of API development, testing, and collaboration, making it an essential asset for developers. With Postman, developers can effortlessly create and share API requests, collaborate with team members on collections, and automate testing workflows, thereby reducing manual effort and accelerating the development cycle. Its extensive documentation capabilities also ensure that developers have access to clear, concise documentation, facilitating seamless integration of APIs into their projects. Overall, by leveraging Postman, teams can enhance collaboration, improve efficiency, and deliver high-quality APIs, ultimately leading to a superior developer experience.

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GitHub Copilot

GitHub Copilot leverages AI to provide real-time code suggestions and completions directly within the code editor. By analyzing context and patterns from millions of lines of code, Copilot offers developers instant assistance in writing code snippets, speeding up development workflows and reducing cognitive load. Its ability to generate accurate and contextually relevant code significantly boosts productivity and helps developers focus on solving higher-level problems rather than getting bogged down in syntax details. With GitHub Copilot, teams can iterate faster, collaborate more efficiently, and ultimately deliver better-quality code, making it an invaluable tool for enhancing the developer experience.

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Sourcegraph

Sourcegraph offers a unified platform for code search, navigation, and intelligence. Its powerful code search capabilities enable developers to quickly find relevant code snippets across repositories, eliminating the need to sift through multiple codebases manually. Additionally, Sourcegraph provides advanced code navigation features, such as jump-to-definition and find-references, which streamline code exploration and understanding. With intelligent code suggestions and contextual documentation, developers can accelerate their workflows and make informed decisions while writing code. Furthermore, Sourcegraph integrates seamlessly with popular version control systems and code hosting platforms, fostering collaboration and enabling teams to work more efficiently. By empowering developers with enhanced visibility and productivity tools, Sourcegraph significantly enhances the developer experience and drives innovation within software development projects.

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Toggl Track

Toggl Track proves invaluable in safeguarding developers from unproductive meetings by offering precise time tracking capabilities. With Toggl Track, developers can meticulously monitor their time allocations, allowing them to discern how much time they spend in meetings versus actual productive work. Armed with these insights, developers can make informed decisions about which meetings are essential and where their time is best utilized. By providing visibility into time usage, Toggl Track empowers developers to prioritize their tasks effectively, thereby minimizing wasteful meetings and maximizing productivity within their workflow.

DevDocs

Missing documentation is a huge problem. DevDocs is a comprehensive and accessible documentation hub. By consolidating documentation from a vast array of programming languages, libraries, and frameworks into a single, searchable platform, DevDocs eliminates the need for developers to navigate through multiple documentation sources. Its intuitive interface and lightning-fast search functionality streamline the process of finding relevant information, allowing developers to quickly access the resources they need without disruption. Furthermore, DevDocs offers offline access and customization options, catering to individual preferences and ensuring accessibility even in offline environments. Ultimately, by providing a centralized and user-friendly documentation solution, DevDocs significantly improves developers' efficiency, productivity, and overall satisfaction with their development process.

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GetDX

How can you improve the developer experience if you can’t measure it or understand what developers are actually doing? GetDX is a comprehensive insights platform. Developed by the researchers behind DORA and SPACE, GetDX offers both qualitative and quantitative measures to help leaders understand and enhance developer productivity effectively. By focusing on the intricacies of developer experience, GetDX provides a suite of tools that capture data from surveys and systems in real-time, allowing leaders to pinpoint areas of friction and drive tangible improvements. With a strong focus on strategy, implementation, and ongoing support, GetDX empowers organizations to adapt to changing environments and achieve significant business impact. Leveraging expertise from previous successful ventures and partnerships with renowned researchers, GetDX redefines the landscape of developer productivity measurement, propelling companies toward remarkable outcomes such as drastically reduced lead times and accelerated software delivery rates. Through features like DevEx 360, PlatformX, and Data Cloud, GetDX offers a holistic view of developer experience, enabling organizations to optimize productivity and drive continuous improvement.

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Confluence

Confluence offers robust collaboration and documentation features tailored to the needs of software development teams. With Confluence, developers can easily create, organize, and share project documentation, including specifications, design documents, and technical requirements. Its intuitive interface and customizable templates streamline the process of capturing and disseminating crucial information, ensuring that developers have easy access to the resources they need. Furthermore, Confluence's integration with popular development tools such as Jira, Bitbucket, and GitHub fosters seamless collaboration and alignment across teams, enabling developers to work more efficiently and effectively. By centralizing documentation and facilitating collaboration, Confluence significantly improves developer productivity, knowledge sharing, and overall satisfaction with the development process.

Grafana

Grafana significantly enhances the developer experience by providing a powerful platform for monitoring and observability. With its intuitive interface and customizable dashboards, Grafana empowers developers to visualize metrics and gain insights into the performance and health of their applications in real-time. By centralizing data from various sources and enabling developers to create dynamic visualizations, Grafana facilitates proactive monitoring and troubleshooting, allowing developers to identify and address issues quickly. Additionally, Grafana's extensibility through plugins and integrations with popular data sources further enhances its versatility, enabling developers to tailor monitoring solutions to their specific needs and workflows. Overall, Grafana streamlines the monitoring and observability process, enabling developers to make informed decisions, improve application reliability, and deliver better user experiences.

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CircleCI

CircleCI automates the continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) process, thereby streamlining development workflows and reducing manual effort. With CircleCI, developers can set up automated pipelines to build, test, and deploy code changes quickly and reliably. Its intuitive interface, coupled with robust configuration options, allows developers to define complex workflows and customize build environments to suit their project requirements. CircleCI's integration with version control systems, such as GitHub and Bitbucket, enables seamless collaboration and ensures that every code change undergoes automated testing before being merged, thus maintaining code quality and reducing the risk of introducing bugs. By automating repetitive tasks and providing real-time feedback on code changes, CircleCI empowers developers to iterate faster, release updates with confidence, and focus on building innovative solutions, ultimately enhancing the developer experience.

Port

Time for giving ourselves some credit. An internal developer portal significantly enhances the developer experience by centralizing access to essential resources, tools, and documentation within an organization. By providing a single point of entry for developers to discover and access APIs, libraries, SDKs, and other services, an internal developer portal reduces the time and effort spent searching for information across disparate systems. Furthermore, it fosters collaboration and knowledge sharing by enabling developers to share best practices, code samples, and tutorials, facilitating faster onboarding and skill development for new team members. Additionally, an internal developer portal can streamline the process of requesting and provisioning access to resources, improving developer productivity and accelerating time-to-market for new projects. Overall, by providing a cohesive and organized environment for developers to access resources and collaborate effectively, an internal developer portal significantly enhances the developer experience within an organization.

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Example JSON block

{
  "foo": "bar"
}

Order Domain

{
  "properties": {},
  "relations": {},
  "title": "Orders",
  "identifier": "Orders"
}

Cart System

{
  "properties": {},
  "relations": {
    "domain": "Orders"
  },
  "identifier": "Cart",
  "title": "Cart"
}

Products System

{
  "properties": {},
  "relations": {
    "domain": "Orders"
  },
  "identifier": "Products",
  "title": "Products"
}

Cart Resource

{
  "properties": {
    "type": "postgress"
  },
  "relations": {},
  "icon": "GPU",
  "title": "Cart SQL database",
  "identifier": "cart-sql-sb"
}

Cart API

{
 "identifier": "CartAPI",
 "title": "Cart API",
 "blueprint": "API",
 "properties": {
   "type": "Open API"
 },
 "relations": {
   "provider": "CartService"
 },
 "icon": "Link"
}

Core Kafka Library

{
  "properties": {
    "type": "library"
  },
  "relations": {
    "system": "Cart"
  },
  "title": "Core Kafka Library",
  "identifier": "CoreKafkaLibrary"
}

Core Payment Library

{
  "properties": {
    "type": "library"
  },
  "relations": {
    "system": "Cart"
  },
  "title": "Core Payment Library",
  "identifier": "CorePaymentLibrary"
}

Cart Service JSON

{
 "identifier": "CartService",
 "title": "Cart Service",
 "blueprint": "Component",
 "properties": {
   "type": "service"
 },
 "relations": {
   "system": "Cart",
   "resources": [
     "cart-sql-sb"
   ],
   "consumesApi": [],
   "components": [
     "CorePaymentLibrary",
     "CoreKafkaLibrary"
   ]
 },
 "icon": "Cloud"
}

Products Service JSON

{
  "identifier": "ProductsService",
  "title": "Products Service",
  "blueprint": "Component",
  "properties": {
    "type": "service"
  },
  "relations": {
    "system": "Products",
    "consumesApi": [
      "CartAPI"
    ],
    "components": []
  }
}

Component Blueprint

{
 "identifier": "Component",
 "title": "Component",
 "icon": "Cloud",
 "schema": {
   "properties": {
     "type": {
       "enum": [
         "service",
         "library"
       ],
       "icon": "Docs",
       "type": "string",
       "enumColors": {
         "service": "blue",
         "library": "green"
       }
     }
   },
   "required": []
 },
 "mirrorProperties": {},
 "formulaProperties": {},
 "calculationProperties": {},
 "relations": {
   "system": {
     "target": "System",
     "required": false,
     "many": false
   },
   "resources": {
     "target": "Resource",
     "required": false,
     "many": true
   },
   "consumesApi": {
     "target": "API",
     "required": false,
     "many": true
   },
   "components": {
     "target": "Component",
     "required": false,
     "many": true
   },
   "providesApi": {
     "target": "API",
     "required": false,
     "many": false
   }
 }
}

Resource Blueprint

{
 “identifier”: “Resource”,
 “title”: “Resource”,
 “icon”: “DevopsTool”,
 “schema”: {
   “properties”: {
     “type”: {
       “enum”: [
         “postgress”,
         “kafka-topic”,
         “rabbit-queue”,
         “s3-bucket”
       ],
       “icon”: “Docs”,
       “type”: “string”
     }
   },
   “required”: []
 },
 “mirrorProperties”: {},
 “formulaProperties”: {},
 “calculationProperties”: {},
 “relations”: {}
}

API Blueprint

{
 "identifier": "API",
 "title": "API",
 "icon": "Link",
 "schema": {
   "properties": {
     "type": {
       "type": "string",
       "enum": [
         "Open API",
         "grpc"
       ]
     }
   },
   "required": []
 },
 "mirrorProperties": {},
 "formulaProperties": {},
 "calculationProperties": {},
 "relations": {
   "provider": {
     "target": "Component",
     "required": true,
     "many": false
   }
 }
}

Domain Blueprint

{
 "identifier": "Domain",
 "title": "Domain",
 "icon": "Server",
 "schema": {
   "properties": {},
   "required": []
 },
 "mirrorProperties": {},
 "formulaProperties": {},
 "calculationProperties": {},
 "relations": {}
}

System Blueprint

{
 "identifier": "System",
 "title": "System",
 "icon": "DevopsTool",
 "schema": {
   "properties": {},
   "required": []
 },
 "mirrorProperties": {},
 "formulaProperties": {},
 "calculationProperties": {},
 "relations": {
   "domain": {
     "target": "Domain",
     "required": true,
     "many": false
   }
 }
}

Microservices SDLC

Scaffold a new microservice
Deploy (canary or blue-green)
Feature flagging
Revert
Lock deployments
Add Secret
Force merge pull request (skip tests on crises)
Add environment variable to service
Add IaC to the service
Upgrade package version

Development environments

Spin up a developer environment for 5 days
ETL mock data to environment
Invite developer to the environment
Extend TTL by 3 days

Cloud resources

Provision a cloud resource
Modify a cloud resource
Get permissions to access cloud resource

SRE actions

Update pod count
Update auto-scaling group
Execute incident response runbook automation

Data Engineering

Add / Remove / Update Column to table
Run Airflow DAG
Duplicate table

Backoffice

Change customer configuration
Update customer software version
Upgrade - Downgrade plan tier
Create - Delete customer

Machine learning actions

Train model
Pre-process dataset
Deploy
A/B testing traffic route
Revert
Spin up remote Jupyter notebook

Engineering tools

Observability
Tasks management
CI/CD
On-Call management
Troubleshooting tools
DevSecOps
Runbooks

Infrastructure

Cloud Resources
K8S
Containers & Serverless
IaC
Databases
Environments
Regions

Software and more

Microservices
Docker Images
Docs
APIs
3rd parties
Runbooks
Cron jobs

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Top ten developer experience tools

Developer experience or developer productivity?

Get the basics first

Now it’s time for the tools that make the developer experience better

Postman

GitHub Copilot

Sourcegraph

Toggl Track

DevDocs

GetDX

‍

Confluence

Grafana

CircleCI

Port

Previous article

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Book a demo right now to check out Port's developer portal yourself

It's a Trap - Jenkins as Self service UI

How do GitOps affect developer experience?

It's a Trap - Jenkins as Self service UI. Click her to download the eBook

Learning from CyberArk - building an internal developer platform in-house

Example JSON block

Order Domain

Cart System

Products System

Cart Resource

Cart API

Core Kafka Library

Core Payment Library

Cart Service JSON

Products Service JSON

Component Blueprint

Resource Blueprint

API Blueprint

Domain Blueprint

System Blueprint

Microservices SDLC

Development environments

Cloud resources

SRE actions

Data Engineering

Backoffice

Machine learning actions

Engineering tools

Infrastructure

Software and more

Check out Port's pre-populated demo and see what it's all about.

Contact sales for a technical product walkthrough

Open a free Port account. No credit card required

Watch Port live coding videos - setting up an internal developer portal & platform

Check out Port's pre-populated demo and see what it's all about.

Contact sales for a technical product walkthrough

Open a free Port account. No credit card required

Watch Port live coding videos - setting up an internal developer portal & platform

Let us walk you through the platform and catalog the assets of your choice.