5+ Free development resources for Students
Tags: free, dev, tools, student
Published: 2018-11-12 23:38:32

---
title: 5+ Free development resources for Students
published: true
description: If you're currently a student, you might not know this, you have free access to some pretty amazing tools. Here's a few of them.
tags: free,dev,tools,student
cover_image: https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/x1jokdn2gnee99pqcp29.jpeg
---

## Free for students

If you're a University student you could have access to some really neat tools for free, for you to develop and explore the CS world.

Usually, to get these tools, you will need an **official institutional email address**. However you can also provide your student card or some other proof.

Here are a few!!!

### 1. JetBrains IDEs

In my opinion, these are some of the best IDEs in the market right now. They have incredible UI and features and they actually make me enjoy my school assignments a bit more.

Tools such as [IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate](https://www.jetbrains.com/idea/) for **Java** based applications, [PhpStorm](https://www.jetbrains.com/phpstorm/) for **PHP**, [PyCharm](https://www.jetbrains.com/pycharm/) for **Python** and my personal favorite which I have recently started using and can't get enough [CLion](https://www.jetbrains.com/clion/) for **C/C++**.

![JetBrains IDEs](https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/tyjsu8upqo26uw9o72zk.png)

They also have a really [interesting plugin](https://www.jetbrains.com/education/) (still in beta) for their IDEs which will help you learn your chosen language with exercises from inside your IDE.

### 2. GitLab for education

GitLab is becoming a great tool for collaborating and developing on great projects. Their focus is currently on simplifying the DevOps lifecycle. This is a great way to start acquiring a DevOps mindset for your future once you get on the job market.

> GitLab is the first single application for the entire DevOps lifecycle. Only GitLab enables Concurrent DevOps , unlocking organizations from the constraints of the toolchain. 

[GitLab for education](https://about.gitlab.com/solutions/education/) allows your educational institution to use [GitLab Ultimate and Gold](https://about.gitlab.com/pricing) for free.  
Unfortunately only institutions may apply (students can't apply directly), however you can still have your projects hosted on GitLab with full functionality if you make them open source or with the free functionality for private projects.

### 3. GitHub Education

[GitHub Education](https://education.github.com/students) offers a great set of development tools for free for students. From text editors like [Atom](https://atom.io/) to Git graphic tools like [GitKraken](https://www.gitkraken.com/), to cloud services that provide CI, email services, hosting and a lot more. 

All you need to apply is to fill in a form explaining how you plan to use GitHub. Note that if you use an institutional email your chances of getting accepted are higher.

![Github Education](https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/cksbw6m4bhep6v2tw9hc.png)

### 4. Fastlane

If you're into mobile development, fastlane is sure to catch your interest.
Fastlane allows you to automate a lot of tedious task related to the development and release process of mobile applications.

It is an open-source platform developed along with Google's Firebase team. 

>The easiest way to build and release mobile apps.
fastlane handles tedious tasks so you don’t have to

![fastlane](https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/shuizl8u12ntgyjqgzm1.png)

### 5. Microsoft Imagine

This is the former Microsoft Dreamsparks, you have probably heard of it as it's been around for a while.  
They provide lots of tools and services. From free **Azure cloud services** to **VS Code** tools, free **Windows server** OS, **Xamarin** and some training resources.  
These are great resources if your preferred stack is **.NET**

### Conclusion

As you can see there are lots of free resources, especially for students. So make sure you take advantage of these while you still can.

Do you know any great free resources I've missed on this list? Share them in the comments :D