I know, there is even a PHP extension for Eclipse, but I’ve started preferring Netbeans. You can call it a personal taste. This article is for people who have not yet found a good PHP IDE and still sticking with editors.

So, looking at the Netbeans IDE, it supports creation of new PHP projects as well as projects from existing sources. This is very useful if you’re using some sort of PHP framework, and want to have access to the entire pre-built directory structure from within the IDE. You can simply right click on a directory and create a new php file etc. I know, this feature looks silly, but I’ve struggled when editors would provide directory listing, but no option to create a new file there!

The loading time of Netbeans is better than Eclipse based editors like Aptana, and a little less annoying. Netbeans provides with a Navigator, which enlists PHP functions and variables for easy reference. This feature is very useful when you’re coding large applications.

I really don’t have that much to say about Netbeans, neither do I intend to specify each feature that it offers, since the Netbeans website does a good job at it. The main point is, it provides a good environment and better flexibility than a simple editor. I don’t suggest throwing away the editors, they’re always useful for small changes, as I’ve mentioned.

If you were dearly searching for a good free PHP IDE, I suggest you to take a look at PHP Netbeans.