Apache NetBeans vs NuSphere PhpED

Apache NetBeans is a development environment, tooling platform, and application framework for Linux, macOS, and Windows. Its editor highlights code by syntax and meaning and supports refactoring. Editors, wizards, and templates cover Java, PHP, and other languages, with plugins and linked support for JavaFX and JavaScript. The NetBeans Platform is a modular framework for Swing applications, with state saving, menus, toolbars, keyboard shortcuts, and window management. The IDE and Platform are free for commercial and non-commercial use under the Apache License; the listed plan is free. Apache NetBeans 31, dated August 10, 2026, supports running on JDK 26, 25, or 21, with initial support for JDK 27. Downloads include platform-independent binary and source ZIPs, plus linked installers for Windows, macOS, and Linux. Those installers are provided by committers for convenience, not as Apache Software Foundation releases. The release page provides SHA-512 hashes and PGP signatures. Windows/ARM is not fully supported, and older releases are no longer supported.

NuSphere PhpED is an integrated development environment for PHP, HTML, CSS, XML, Smarty, XHTML, and other languages on Linux, macOS, and Windows. The editor supports PHP 5.3–8.4 with syntax highlighting, code folding, Unicode editing, search, and a diff viewer. Its debugger handles local and remote sessions, breakpoints, call stacks, variables, and parallel debugging. Performance Explorer offers sampling-based timeline, call-tree, flame-graph, and stack-chart views, alongside line-level profiling. Deployment supports FTP, FTPS, SSH/SFTP, WebDAV, and Windows Share. The database client works with SQLite, MySQL, MSSQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, and InterBase. Integrations include PHPUnit, jQuery, extJS, Tortoise SVN, Tortoise CVS, PHP Documentor, HTML Tidy, Code Formatter, HTML Validator, and a CVS client. NuSphere offers a free, fully functional 14-day PhpED 23.0 trial. Personal costs $81, paid once, Professional $129, paid once, and Team4 $387, paid once for four licenses. Professional includes one year of support and major-version upgrades.