30 Great Web Applications for Designers

Browsers are the single most compatible piece of software most people run on their computers. Think about how many web services we can access each day, everything from a basic blog to the more complex websites and services. Unlike most desktop apps, the browser can serve multiple purposes, from playing music, to watching videos, to designing websites.

There are a large number of web services available for designers, but only a few are on the list of many designers. Many of these apps have been around for some time, have proven to be time-savers, accessible from anywhere with an Internet connection, and capable of getting the job done.

Although the list below includes some of the top websites for designers and developers, we also encourage you to leave a comment and share your thoughts on those provided. We also want recommendations for the websites you regularly use, and how they have made your life as a designer or developer easier.

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The Best Web Applications for Designers

1. Dropbox

Dropbox makes it easy to share documents and files with your clients. As soon as you hit the “save” button, the file will be updates on the server, great for submitting revisions to clients. An iPhone app is also available, and all your files are accessible online. Sure, you need to have the desktop application in order to make sharing files easier, but a majority of it is done online.

2. Google Analytics

Featuring a large number of features to dive into your visitor stats, designers can use this to see how to better integrate graphics and elements into their websites, where users are clicking, and more importantly, what works and what doesn’t. It is free, and is the leader in the analytics space for everything it offers.

3. PX to EM

When it comes to designing websites or your own applications, you have to know how to properly space and code all the elements. This online tool will allow you to easily compare the pixels to EMs to percents and points. A conversion will be presented after you select your body font size, and CSS will also be generated.

4. Picnik

Don’t have access to your favorite photo application on your computer, but want to quickly add effects to an image or resize it? Picnik makes it possible, allowing all this and much more. It is free, but there is a premium version available, packing more effects and online storage.

5. Font Viewer – MyFontBook

The built-in font viewers on most operating systems are fairly hard to find, and if you don’t have the time to bring it up, just fire up your browser and point it to MyFontBook, which displays all your fonts installed within the timeframe of a minute. You can input sample text, search your installed fonts, and see what the font will look like in various formats.

6. Verb

Working as a team or by yourself and have a lot to accomplish? Verb lets you do al that and more. The service is free, with an iPhone app coming soon. It’s ideal for freelance designers and coders who want to manage themselves, through an efficient interface offering task management and sharing capability.

7. Typetester

With TypeTester, you can compare screen type, and how your font will be rendered across all browsers and using different sizes, leadings, spacing, and alignments. There really isn’t much to using the app – just input what you want the font to look like, and it’ll do the rest.

8. Carbonmade

Creating an online portfolio shouldn’t be hard. You want a place to showcase all your work, but you are swamped with clients, so you don’t have time to design one for yourself. Or, maybe you’re more of a developer and don’t have the design skills, but still want to show off some of your work. Carbonmade makes it easy, giving you customization options and a clean interface. Free and premium plans are available.

9. FreshBooks

More than a million people have now taken advantage of FreshBooks, making it the leading time and invoice tracking software for designers and developers. You can send and manage invoices online, track time online and on the go, use their iPhone app, and lead a professional business. A free, limited version is available, but you can only manage three clients at a time. Their “Time Machine” version is great for small businesses, offering up to 5,000 clients and access by twenty staff.

10. Springloops

Code together, showing your results instantly, and make the next leap online. Springloops will help you protect your web projects and aids in the development of projects. Collaborate with others, deploy and preview, and present your changes to others. Basecamp has also been integrated into the tool.

11. RescueTime

When you’re serious about productivity, RescueTime makes it easy, recovering an average of three hours and fifty-four minutes per week per person. It is ideal for people who get easily distracted, allowing them to focus on what needs to be completed. Plans range from free to more complete business and enterprise plans.

12. Kuler

Kuler lets you share, create, and explore color themes, great for people who are designing a website or simply want to create a project designed around color. It is free online and can be used alongside any of Adobe’s Creative Suite 4 desktop applications.

13. Photoshop Online

If you want a simple, but effective tool to share your designs and work online, look no further than Photoshop.com. It offers 2GB of free storage for your photos and designs, along with expandable options. You can use it in conjunction with the desktop equivalents.

14. Posterous

Sharing information with others quickly is key in anything you do online. At times, you may want to get feedback from others on “general” designs, so Posterous comes in handy, offering no-account signup. Connect through Google and other services and easily attach photos, video, MP3s, and other files.

15. Iterasi

Although Iterasi is for more serious designers, it can help you track and understand your online presence. Track your brand, competitor, industry, or any other topic. Monitor your progress, see what others think about your brand or products, and more.

16. LogMeIn

You need to access information left on your smartphone, but you it is at your house (although on). Using LogMeIn, you can access it and information from any other computers (both PCs and Macs are supported). Just install the desktop client, and you can access and change all your files from wherever you are.

17. Screenr

Instantly share screencasts on Twitter and through other networks. Without requiring sometimes costly software, you can create professional presentations online, without the need for any downloading. It is completely free, and the videos can be played on Mac, PC, and iPhones/other devices.

18. Wufoo

Face it – designing forms isn’t always easy, and integrating them into your designs can be difficult to say the least. Additionally, depending on what platform you may be using, you have to integrate it into the back-end management system, and even more problems arise out of this. Wufoo allows you to do al this, and more. Professional plans (up to 10GB storage, unlimited forms/report) can be purchased.

19. WebbyChat

Share information, connect with others, and collaborate easily online. Although the free plan is somewhat limited (ten simultaneous chatters and no control features), the larger plans can certainly help to increase user participation on your websites and with your clients.

20. PHPanywhere

Although many designers focus on the design process, there are many web designers who also do the coding and integration into their website. With this site, you can code anywhere and anytime, bringing work with you anywhere. Syntax highlighting, code completion (soon), FTP explorer, unlimited undo/redo, and a familiar desktop environment are included.

21. Adobe BrowserLab

Comparing websites between browsers and operating systems, ensuring that the code and design are compatible with all is something everyone loves to hate. It takes a large amount of time, and it is a pain to install all the browsers, especially those that you can’t download anymore because they aren’t supported (IE6). It is fairly easy to use, but it is more about the look, rather than the feel of how everything works.

22. Are My Sites Up?

You see a new design emerge on your site, but you weren’t even working on a re-design. There are no images, and error messages appear throughout the site. Is your Internet connection down? Has your browser stopped responding? Have your clients sent you a message informing you that the demo you sent can’t be accessed? Use this site to determine when and why your site went down, and it features a number of plans, starting at free (up to five sites, twenty-five checks per day) to $75/year (100 sites, fifteen minute checks).

23. Pingdom Tools

Speed is important when designing websites, and you want to have all the images and code optimized. This site offers an in-depth look at what is causing your site or projects to load slowly. Yu can save the tests and browse through how fast other sites are loading.  It is similar to the in-browser tools available within WebKit.

24. Zoho Suite

If you had to choose from any of the services on this list, it would be beneficial to choose Zoho, as it offers invoice, discussions, meeting, online word processing, spreadsheets, website monitoring, and mail. You can try nearly everything for free, with more collaboration options available for business/paid users.

25. iPlotz

Wireframing is essential for site re-designs when your clients want a specific look and navigation structure. If you aren’t able to provide this in a professional manner, you may very well lose your customers. With this service, you can create and share clickable, navigable mockups and wireframes for prototyping websites and software applications. Free plans are restricted to one project/five wireframe pages, plans go up to $495 for the desktop/online access suite.

26. FiveSecondTest

What areas of your design stand out the most? This service is completely free to use, and you are given an unlimited number of tests for each account. Simply create a new test, share the tests with others, and get instant feedback on what needs to be changed and improved on your design. It’s great for people who want to optimize landing pages, run A/B tests, and more.

27. Campaign Monitor

Ideal for larger businesses, this service lets you track your campaigns for an affordable price. Everything is online, and you only “pay when you send.” It is used by leading companies to target their campaigns. It is great for designers who involve marketing and design into their emails.

28. DropSend

DropSend is a professional and consume file sending system, allowing you to store up to 500GB of files online ($99/month) or send up to 2GB files with their free accounts. If you work between two computers and have a fast connection, this is the way to go.

29. Wix

Create stunning Flash websites for free, without any technical skills required. All the templates created will be search engine friendly, compatible with social networking sites and ideal for presenting your projects or work online.

30. jQuery UI – ThemeRoller

Create jQuery user interface elements online, which are all compatible across all modern browsers. They are designed to be stylish and user-friendly in terms of design, and this online app cuts out some of the work in designing these elements on your own.

Conclusion

Although we have tried to include all the resources we find useful within this list, there are most certainly others that you have tried. Feel free to share them with us within the comments.