Here are some open-source or free Developer tools I use to accomplish full-stack development.
Of course, there are two schools of thought regarding full-stack in itself.
First, it's the older one regarding the old WAMP which is an acronym for WordPress.
(WordPress - just kidding) Web, Apache, MySql, and PHP.
Web might be wrong as I'm drawing a blank on that one.
The second version is the newer thought on "full-stack" regarding the Node.js, TypeScript, and Angular versions.
This one is heavily influenced by JavaScript language.
I'm mostly talking about "free" tools since "open source" may be the source code for the tools that are readily available to other developers.
Since I don't see many distributions of Eclipse, I'm just assuming it's free, though people can add plugins.
So, in the First scenario, I'll begin with fullstack development tools by talking about the free tools I've used.
I'm a Java Developer, therefore, it's the best and most widely used IDE Eclipse.
Eclipse:
Eclipse has been around for a long time and it overtook my first free IDE I cut my teeth on Netbeans Java IDE.
After that, however, my first gig as a developer, I was introduced to IntelliJ professionally.
That ended once my gig ended and I went back to Netbeans.
But I digress. Eclipse today should be the first IDE to get your hands on.
MySql Workbench:
For working with the database, MySql workbench is free and is useful for testing my queries before adding them to my application.
In previous days, Part of the full-stack experience is the ability to setup the database.
This brings me to the next free application tool.
MySql:
Mysql is a free database application which is a fantastic tool to have in your full-stack arsenal.
It's the bread and butter of most professional enterprises which is free.
Of course with the paid version, it'll come with more perks.
It's been around for a long time and it's robust enough to handle large company needs to a mere hobbyist working a project.
Tomcat:
The 'A' in WAMP stands for Apache.
Think of the free Tomcat as the equivalent of Apache with its core abilities for Java language.
It's needed for when you deploy your web app to a server that's front-facing to the World Wide Web.
It's an integral part of the first wave of full-stack development.
These make up the first part of the free "open source" tools useful for a full stack developer.
Now to the more current, as of May 28, 2025, full-stack representation of Node.js centric tools.
Node.js:
This is the backbone of many of the applications based on JavaScript that help with full-stack development today.
Node.js is a package management system that gives access to TypeScript and Angular.
Once Node.js is installed you pretty much have covered WAMP for being a server itself and environment similar to Java's Virtual Machine.
Angular:
Angular works on top of Node.js as a packaged library which takes the place of serving up webpages via TypeScript.
It's a component-driven higher version of TypeScript in that its feature is of a total MVC implementation.
Visual Studio:
This is a free IDE tool made by Microsoft I believe, which allows the development of the code of Angular, TypeScript and Node.js.
It gives the code color schemes and auto-complete features of the Java versions mentioned previously.