A2 Hosting's Free Software Library

$500+ in FREE Web Development Software

A2 Hosting has packaged the best web development tools for your use, for free. Try one or try them all*! Don't spend $100s or even $1000s for programs that do the exact same thing. Use your money to promote your website instead! Make sure to also visit our Support Library for A2 Hosting's literary suggestions.

The Free "Essential"

• Amaya Web Editor

  Amaya is a WISYWIG web editing tool. WISYWIG is an acronym for What You See Is What You Get. Amaya makes it easy for users lacking HTML knowledge to build a website. If you know how to use a word processing program, then you should be able to use Amaya to build your page. Amaya is available for both Windows and Mac users. Amaya is comparable to commercial web editors costing $199+.

  Please note that Amaya users require an FTP client to publish pages to the web. Our recommended FTP client is FileZilla (find more information below).

  Download Amaya
  Amaya Support Documentation

Free Image Editors & Tools

• GIMP Image Editor

  GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) is a user-friendly, full scale digital image editor. GIMP can be used to easily create, crop, colorize, touchup, resize or perform a number of other important image editing tasks. Compare GIMP to commercial image editing programs that range from $99-$699+ each.

  Window Users – Download GIMP
  Mac Users – Download Gimp
  GIMP Support Documentation

• Color Scheme Creator

  The colors you use for your website serve a key roll in communicating your message to your visitors. The use of colors in an attractive manner ensures that your website will have a professional feel that can properly deliver your distinct message. The correct balance between color and site text aids in the delivery of what your website is saying and/or selling. A2 Hosting recommends Adobe's Color Scheme Creator for the creation of an attractive color scheme.

• Cosmin Color Detector

  Webmasters need either the RGB values or the HTML Hex code to determine an exact color. Simply run Cosmin Color Detector, point your mouse on the object whose color you're trying to determine and the Color Detector will display these important color values. Use the Color Scheme Creator in conjunction with this program to discover attractive, complimentary color schemes.

• Image Converter

  The recommended image file formats to use for a web page are GIF, JPG and PNG. Other file formats are not widely supported by all web browsers and are not suitable for web use. Give this Image Converter a try to see if you are able to convert an image to one of the three recommended file formats.

Free Timesavers

• FileZilla FTP Client

  Use FileZilla to quickly upload files to your web hosting account. Without an FTP client, a webmaster would need to upload each individual file one-by-one within cPanel. Save yourself from the tedium! Log into your FTP account via FileZilla with the information provided in your A2 Hosting Welcome Email. Then drag and drop the files that you would like uploaded into your hosting account.

• Thunderbird Email Client

  Thunderbird is an open source email client. Instead of logging into cPanel each time you would like to read or write email, do it from the convenience of your desktop with Thunderbird. Just configure Thunderbird with the SMTP or POP3 details from your A2 Hosting Welcome Email, as well as the username and password that you create within cPanel for the email address. While not necessarily a web development tool, Thunderbird can save you time contacting the individuals and groups involved with your web projects.

Free Tools for Advanced Users

• Firebug Debugging Tool

  Firebug is a Firefox extension that is used to edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML and JavaScript in real time on any page. Firebug offers the ability to select anything on your screen to see the HTML and CSS behind the selected object.

• Greasemonkey

  Greasemonkey is another Firefox extension that gives users the ability to run scripts on live web pages. These scripts allow you to customize how web pages behave. Useful pre-made scripts can be found here, or you can create your own.

• Putty SSH Client

  Putty gives users the ability to connect to remote systems over the Internet via Secure Shell (SSH). SSH allows data to be sent through an encrypted channel among two computers. SSH, supported in Putty, prevents others from intercepting passwords and private information that you are transferring.

• Eclipse Community

  Eclipse is a non-profit open source community. Their objective is to develop an open platform of extensible frameworks, tools and runtimes to build, run and manage software across its lifecycle. View all of Eclipse's projects here.

* Disclaimer: While A2 Hosting recommends the free software listed above, we do not provide technical support for these programs. We have tried to recommend resources that are not only user friendly, but also contain extensive help manuals or communities to provide assistance if necessary.