Front-end development is a handful of fun, which is why it's vital to have the proper tools to make the process easier. The focus here is to provide you with a list of free tools and resources for learning and practicing. We will be looking at tools in regards to education, free assets and websites where you can freely practice your arts. So let's get right into it...
FreeCodeCamp
I don't think I need to say much more about this organization. Most website developers that are on a tight budget start with FreeCodeCamp. Don't assume that just because an education is "free" at FreeCodeCamp that it is also cheap. For developers, FreeCodeCamp offers a ton of free but priceless resources.
It has more than 10 certified courses where you will be required to work on projects to be certified. I personally took two classes from FreeCodeCamp, so I can attest to the caliber of their instruction. I highly recommend that you go and check their website out if you are a beginner developer or if you want to grow more as a developer.
Roadmap.sh
Have you ever started learning something and wondered what you should do next or lost track of what you were doing? I'm not sure about you, but I have. Utilizing Roadmap.sh is a straightforward fix.
All types of developers can find paths on Roadmap.sh. You can look up the frontend development path so you won't have to be concerned about losing track the next time you begin learning.
Frontend Mentor
Ok so you know where you need to go and you have the resource to learn what you want to learn. All you need to do now is practice your skills. As with any skill, practice makes perfect, also works in the development sphere. Just going through tutorials and reading books won't make you a better developer. You need to start working on actual projects. That is where frontendmentor.io comes in.
Frontend mentor has a bunch of free projects to work on that have been classified based on skill level. Once you have decided which project you want to work on, you can then download starter files to get you started on the project. I highly recommend that you use this platform if you want to truly improve your frontend development skills.
Pixabay
Looking for high quality free images for your websites? Say no more. Pixabay.com has over 2.7 million high quality stock images, videos and music. There are lots of free images on this site that could help enhance the quality of your website.
Unsplash
Again I don't think I have to say a lot about this website. Unsplash boast a 3 million plus collection of free high quality images on its site. Personally I find unsplash.com to be better than the previously mentioned pixabay. I can say I have found almost every type of picture I have ever needed for a website on Unsplash, and honestly the quality is just amazing that it is hard to believe that it is free. Seriously go check it out for your self if you don't believe me.
Coverr
Enough with the pictures let's get to videos. If I'm being completely honest, I couldn't believe my eyes when I first saw coverr.co. You can search, download, and use the royalty-free videos from Coverr as you see fit. The videos' quality is simply... indescribable.
Google Fonts
Google Fonts is a well-known and widely used tool. I know most of you probably know this but I can't have a full list about fonts and icons without Google Fonts being on that list. As the name suggests google fonts is part of the Google company and it provides different fonts and icons for developers to use on their projects. The fonts can be tested on more than 135 languages and are open-sourced. If you haven't heard of this site I don't know what you are waiting for, go add it in your bookmarks list.
SVG Repo
I really like svgs. Seriously. If you are like me I suggest you go check out svgrepo.com. SVG Repo boast more than 300,000 svg icons and vectors on its site. Some of the svg icons are categorized and if that doesn't suit you, there is always the search bar on the top of the page. I have used icon's from this site and they have served me well. Here is an example of a categorized group of svgs on the site.
Boxicons
Boxicons is a website that has icons specifically designed with web development in mind. The icons are pretty easy to use. You have the options of installing boxicons using npm or yarn, using the code directly on your css styles sheet and more.
Heroicons
Another web development focused site that hosts multiple icons is Heroicons. Heroicon has "hand-crafted SVG icons by the makers of Tailwind CSS". You can either copy the svg code or the jsx code and use icons directly on your website.
CSS Box Shadows
Here is a collection of different box shadows so that you don't have to write the code yourself. These have been lifesavers for me in past projects and I hope they do the same for you.
Free Frontend
The truth is most of our lives as developers is copy/paste, so here is a whole collection of free code for all your frontend development needs.
Land Book
If you are wondering what Land Book is, it is basically where you go for inspiration. Go gaze at the works of others and you will have some creative force arise within you, give it a try you will see what I mean.
That was a long list. Thank you for reading and I hope you found atleast one of these helpful. Good luck on your journey!
