22 Best Visual Studio Code Extensions for Web Development

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One of the most impressive parts of Visual Studio Code is customizability, especially via extensions. If you're a web developer, you won't be able to live without installing these extensions!

Want to install all of the extensions listed below at once?! Check out The Web Development Essentials Extension

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1. Debugger for chrome

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=msjsdiag.debugger-for-chrome

Believe it or not, debugging JavaScript means more than just writing console.log() statements (although that's a lot of it). Chrome has features built in that make debugging a much better experience. This extension gives you all (or close to all) of those debugging features right inside of VS Code!

If you want to learn more about debugging you should read Debugging JavaScript in Chrome and Visual Studio Code.

2. Javascript (ES6) Code Snippets

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=xabikos.JavaScriptSnippets

I loooove snippet extensions. I'm a firm believer that there's no need to retype the same piece of code over and over again. This extensions provides you with snippets for popular pieces of modern (ES6) JavaScript code.

Side note...if you're not using ES6 JavaScript features, you should be!

3. ESLint

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=dbaeumer.vscode-eslint

Want to write better code? Want consistent formatting across your team? Install ESLint. This extension can be configured to auto format your code as well as "yell" with linting errors/warnings. VS Code specifically is also perfectly configured to show you these errors/warnings.

Check out the ESLint docs for more info.

4. Live server

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ritwickdey.LiveServer

Make changes in code editor, switch to browser, and refresh to see changes. That's the endless cycle of a developer, but what if your browser would automatically refresh anytime you make changes? That's where Live Server comes in!

It also runs your app on a localhost server. There are some things you can only test when running your app from a server, so this is a nice benefit.

5. Bracket Pair Colorizor

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=CoenraadS.bracket-pair-colorizer

Brackets are the bane of a developer's existence. With tons of nested code, it gets almost impossible to determine which brackets match up with each other. Bracket Pair Colorizer (as you might expect) colors matching brackets to make your code much more readable. Trust me, you want this!

6. Auto Rename Tag

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=formulahendry.auto-rename-tag

Need to rename an element in HTML? Well, with Auto Rename Tag, you just need to rename either the opening or closing tag, and the other will be renamed automatically. Simple, but effective!

7. Quokka

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=WallabyJs.quokka-vscode

Need a quick place to test out some JavaScript? I used to open up the console in Chrome and type some code right there, but there were many downsides. Quokka gives you a JavaScript (and TypeScript) scratchpad in VS Code. This means you can test out a piece of code right there in your favorite editor!

8. Path Intellisense

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=christian-kohler.path-intellisense

In large projects, remembering specific file names and the directories your files are in can get tricky. This extension will provide you intellisense for just that. As you start typing a path in quotations, you will get intellisense for directories and file names. This will save you from spending a lot of time in the file explorer :)

9. Project Manager

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=alefragnani.project-manager

One thing I hate is switching between projects in VS Code. Every time I have to open the file explorer and find the project on my computer. But that changes with Project Manager. With this extension, you get an extra menu in your side menu for your projects. You can quickly switch between projects, save favorites, or auto-detect projects Git projects from your file system.

If you work on multiple different projects, this is a great way to stay organized and be more efficient.

10. Editor Config

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=EditorConfig.EditorConfig

Editor Config is a standard of a handlful of coding styles that are respected across major text editors/IDEs. Here's how it works. You save a config file in your repository which your editor respects. In this case, you have to add an extension to VS Code for it to respect these config files. Super easy to setup and works great on team projects.

Read more on the Editor Config Docs.

11. Sublime Text Keymap

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-vscode.sublime-keybindings

Are you an avid Sublime user, nervous to switch over to VS Code? This extension will make you feel right at home, by changing all of the shortcuts to match those of Sublime. Now, what excuse do you have for not switching over?

12. Browser Preview

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=auchenberg.vscode-browser-preview

I love the Live Server extension (mentioned above), but his extension goes another step further in terms of convenience. It gives you a live-reloading preview right inside of VS Code. No more having to tab over to your browser to see a small change!

13. Git Lens

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=eamodio.gitlens

There a bunch of git extensions out there, but one is the most powerful with tons of features. You get blame information, line and file history, commit searching, and so much more. If you need help with your Git workflow, start with this extension!

14. Polacode

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=pnp.polacode

You know those fancy code screenshots you see in articles and tweets? Well, most likely they came from Polacode. It's super simple to use. Copy a piece of code to your clipboard, open up the extension, paste the code, and click to save your image!

15. Prettier

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=esbenp.prettier-vscode

DONT spend time formatting your code...just DONT. There's no need to. Ealier, I mentioned ESLint which provides formatting and linting. If you don't need the linting part, then go with Prettier. It's super easy to setup and can be configured to formatted your code automatically on save.

Never worry about formatting again!

16. Better Comments

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=aaron-bond.better-comments

This extension color codes various types of comments to give them different significance and stand out from the rest of your code. I use this ALL THE TIME for todo comments. It's hard to ignore a big orange comment telling me I've got some unfinished work to do.

There are also color codes for questions, alerts, and highlights. You can also add your own!

17. Git Link

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=qezhu.gitlink

If you've ever wanted to view a file that you're working on in Github, this extension is for you. After installing, just right-click in your file and you'll see the option to open it in Github. This is great for checking history, branch versions, etc. if you're not using the Git Lens extension.

18. VS Code Icons

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=robertohuertasm.vscode-icons

Did you know you can customize the icons in VS Code? If you look in settings, you'll seen an option for "File Icon Theme". From there you can choose from the pre-installed icons or install an icon pack. This extension gives you a pretty sweet icon pack that is used by over 11 million people!

19. Material Icon Theme

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=PKief.material-icon-theme

Fan of Google's Material design? Then, check out this Material themed icon pack. There's hundreds of different icons and they are pretty awesome looking!

20. Settings Sync

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=Shan.code-settings-sync

Developers, myself included, spend a lot of time customizing their dev environment, especially their text editors. With the Settings Sync extension, you can save your setting off in Github. Then, you can load them to any new version of VS Code with one command. Don't get caught without your amazing setup ever again!

21. Better Align

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=wwm.better-align

If you're the kind of person who loves perfect alignment in your code, you need to get Better Align. You can align multiple variable declarations, trailing comments, sections of code, etc. There's no better way to get a feel for how amazing this extension is than installing it and giving it a try!

22. VIM

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=vscodevim.vim

Are you a VIM power user? Bless you if you are, but you can take all of that VIM power user knowledge and use it right inside VS Code. Not the path I personally want to go, but I know how insane productivity can be when using VIM to its potential, so more power to you.