Best PCs and Environments for Web Developers in 2021
The Purpose of this Article
In this article, I describe PCs and development environments I recommend for those who want to become a web developer.
I’ll not only list up PCs but also describe why I use them and how.
When you develop web systems, PCs and development environments are the things you will deal with first and continue working with.
It’s useful for you to understand if you want to acquire skills efficiently.
Moreover, this will help you imagine yourself working as a web developer and find a workplace that matches your desire and aptitude.
About me
I’ve been working in Japan as an IT developer for over ten years.
I’ve recently been engaged as a web developer mainly in designing and developing web systems, but previously I was developing enterprise systems such as finance and manufacturing.
The PCs, development environments and those combinations that I’ll describe are based on my experience.
To Wrap Up First
I’m writing my recommendation, assuming you’ll have to get the whole setup from scratch.
However, you don’t necessarily have to buy a new PC immediately, even if your PC is different from the ones in this article.
Read this article and use it as reference as to how to utilize the PCs that you already have or which ones to buy next.
For your First PC I recommend you buy an Apple Laptop that has Intel inside.
The models and display size could be anything you like, but you should make sure it has over 16GB of memories and as much storage as you can buy.
If you are thinking of having a second PC, I recommend a Windows Desktop PC that is BTO or Homebuilt.
These are better value for money and have the flexibility of extended memory and storage.
Finally, I want you to try Cloud Platforms such as AWS, Azure, Google Cloud!
You can make an account on these cloud platforms for free, and you can create your development environments on that for a small fee.
First PC: An Apple Laptop
If you are buying a PC for web development, I recommend you first choose a laptop type Mac, such as MacBook Air, MacBook Pro.
Though this doesn’t come cheap, you should be able to use it for two to five years so you can plan your budget accordingly.
As previously stated, your priority should be to secure over 16GB of memory and as much storage as possible.
Besides that, CPU performance, display size, number of USB-C ports are essential factors too.
However, CPU performance will be limited as long as it is a laptop.
If you really need higher CPU performance, I recommend using desktop PCs as I’ll state next.
Next, you might be interested in determining the display size, but you can connect other displays and use them as multi-display.
So, you can choose it depending on price and portability.
As a matter of fact, many web developers are using Macs with external displays at their offices and homes. I’m doing this too.
If you want to use multiple displays, you should make sure how many displays the Mac will allow you to connect.
Another factor to consider is while more USB-C ports are better than fewer ports, if you want to use a mouse and keyboard via USB, then you can connect these with a USB hub or a USB-C to USB-A adapter.
Or you can also use these devices wirelessly via Bluetooth.
Why I recommend Macs
I’ll give three reasons why I recommend a Mac as your first PC when you are becoming a web developer.
1. As a new web developer, you’ll be able to gather more information on Macs.
Macs are provided solely by Apple, which designs and sells their hardware and OS.
Thus, Macs have limited worldwide lineups than Windows PCs make by many manufactures in various countries.
This quality of Apple may feel limiting if you want to select details freely from many options, but at the same time, it also offers many advantages.
The primary one is the amount of information.
Macs have fewer models which are released globally, making it easier to gather a lot of information for starting web development.
By the way, you typically run into many obstacles when you start a new thing.
These obstacles are easier to deal with once you get the hang of web development, but these could consume your time and be a pain to deal with until you get used to it.
However, the obstacles you run into at the initial stage as a web developer are usually already resolved by other pioneers.
These examples obviously become more prevalent as more people go through the same conditions.
Thus, there is a high possibility that obstacles related to Mac models have already been published on various blogs and Q&A sites.
So, if you choose a Mac, you can tap into these solutions.
2. Macs have user-friendly ecosystems for web development.
Macs are pre-installed with a macOS, a type of UNIX like OS, which is suitable for web applications.
Modern web systems are almost all provided on Linux, which is also a UNIX like OS.
The first world wide web site was invented on UNIX like OS, and Facebook, Twitter, and other popular web services are also provided on Linux today.
The web systems you develop from now on will probably be provided on Linux, similar to the ones I mentioned above.
So, Macs and macOS are an excellent choice for your web development environment in order to deploy on Linux, which are both similar UNIX type OS.
Moreover, as I mentioned above, since many web developers are using Macs, many tools and methods are available on macOS.
For example, my co-workers and I use many toolchains that can be installed via “Homebrew,” a package manager for macOS.
Aside from these UNIX like OS and ecosystems, you might need the following applications.
- Editor / IDE (Integrated Development Environment)
- Visual Studio Code, JetBrains IDEs, etc.
- Graphics Editor
- Adobe Photoshop, Figma, etc.
- Office Suite
- Microsoft Office
With macOS, you have the benefit of both these native applications and toolchains.
3. Macs could be used to develop many systems.
While you’ll be studying web development, you might become curious or have to develop other systems that are not related to the web.
If you happen to get a good job and the recruiter says, “We want you to develop a web application. Additionally, we are hoping you develop smartphone apps.” If so, what will you do?
You’ll probably want to try to develop smartphone apps unless you have resentment about that.
In terms of smartphone apps for Android, this could be developed on both macOS or Windows.
However, in reality, iOS apps require a Mac and macOS to develop.
Moreover, if you need two OSs, a macOS and a Windows, you can run the Windows on the macOS using virtualization technology.
In other words, if you have a Mac, you can manage to use or develop applications for Windows.
On the other hand, Apple ToA will not allow you to run macOS on Windows or create the same exact development environments as Mac for iOS.
Thus, if you want to develop web applications mainly and smartphone apps supplementary, Macs are the right choice.
However, if you want to develop VR applications and 3DCG games, I recommend you choose Windows.
Apple Silicons: Not Yet Recommendable
Apple has been using Intel CPUs for a while, but they have announced Apple Silicon in 2020, a new CPU designed by themselves.
Apple announces Mac transition to Apple silicon
The CPUs on Macs up until now have been made by Intel and were the same as the ones on Windows PCs. However, Apple Silicon is based on Arm Ltd.’s technology, more similar to iPhones and iPads than ordinary PCs.
From a developer’s perspective, when the CPU changes, their “Instruction set architecture” also change, so confusions such as toolchains not working might happen right after release.
Additionally, of course, only a few people will be using these new Macs right after release, so there is limited information available.
New Macs powered by Apple Silicon is rumored to be released at the end of 2020.
Still, I recommend you keep using Macs powered by Intel CPU and wait for a few months to a year until the developing ecosystem matures.
Why I Recommend Laptops
Learning from someone is a good method when you want to learn something from scratch.
If you choose a laptop instead of a desktop as your first PC, you could get someone knowledgeable to look at it when problems occur and give you appropriate advice.
Apple Stores have a Genius Bar. Even if you are using a laptop that is not a Mac, you could get advice if you carry your laptop to the customer support desk at the store you purchased your laptop from.
Likewise, if you want to buy a PC accessory, you can carry your laptop to the store and ask the clerks, “can I use this device on this laptop?”
Besides that, you can carry your laptop to conferences and workshops which would be an advantage.
You could also carry your laptop to an interview and demonstrate to the recruiter the web applications you developed.
Additionally, you can use your laptop at a cafe or in a different room in your home for a change of pace, which is an added benefit.
As stated, ease of carrying is a significant advantage, so I recommend having one laptop.
Incidentally, from a web development perspective, the performance difference of laptops and desktops don’t matter as much as before.
As a matter of fact, there are web developers who develop web applications on only one laptop.
Second PC: Build to Order or Homebuilt Windows PCs
As mentioned above, it is possible to do everything on one laptop.
Although, if you plan to have a second PC, I recommend the following desktops.
Homebuilt PCs
If you want to get a brand new desktop PC, homebuilt is the most flexible and it might even be cheaper.
Does building a PC seem difficult to you? However, you only need a Philips screwdriver.
You select parts such as a CPU, memory, motherboard, SSD and various other parts, connect the cables and terminals and screw the parts together.
Nowadays you can buy the above parts on Amazon and other EC sites, without even having to go to the shops.
However, if it’s your first time, you might also feel building a PC doesn’t look easy.
When you build a PC, it will probably be a process of trial-and-error. In some cases, you might even end up breaking a part.
If you feel such a risk is not worth your time, I recommend selecting BTOs as I’ll describe later.
Besides, some shops sell whole sets of PC parts for you to assemble a desktop PC.
This is a good choice if you lack the confidence to select parts or don’t want to spend the time.
BTO
Also called “Make to Order.”
This is an approach using a shop built PC sold with pre-selected PC parts.
Thus, you get the latest performance PC at a low price that is nearly equivalent to the cost of the parts and assembly.
I’m not that familiar with the latest situation, but tour could find many e-commerce sites when you google “Build to Order.”
Some shops line up models according to categories such as “Low Cost,” “High Performance.” “Gaming,” and others, so you could choose the most suitable one.
Why I Recommend Homebuilt or BTO PCs?
Why do I recommend homebuilt or BTO instead of ready-made PCs?
Of course, you don’t need to replace your PC if you already have one.
Moreover, if you are blessed with the chance of being able to acquire a ready-made PC at a bargain, you can make use of such deals.
However, having a PC homebuilt or BTO brings the following advantages.
The Benefits of Having a Desktop 1: Offload Your Tasks and Data
As of 2020, laptop performances are high, so you don’t need to worry about web development on those.
However, memories and storages can’t be extended on Apple laptops, and Windows laptops' extensibility is also limited.
If you have a desktop PC besides a laptop, you can transfer archived data and distribute heavy tasks on the desktop.
Homebuilt or BTO PCs especially have much flexibility, so you can extend storage and add devices by attaching parts.
As you probably already know, you need to set up a basic home network to use two or more PCs, but this network is a subset of ordinary offices, so setting up basic networks will be a useful skill to have.
The Benefits of Having a Desktop 2: A Fallback when Your Laptop is Broken
These days, sending back and repairing a laptop might end up taking a long time.
If you have another PC, you’ll be able to continue working while waiting for the repair.
Furthermore, if your other PC is BTO or homebuilt, you could repair it yourself by buying the parts and replacing them.
The Benefits of Having a Desktop 3: Make a More Comfortable Development Environment
When you get used to developing, you might feel like coding with more displays and listening to music.
Even in this case, you could improve graphic cards and use multiple displays. You could also add storage and memory.
Why I Recommend Windows?
Why do I recommend Windows as your second PC even though I recommended Macs as your first PC?
The reasons are good value for money and extendibility.
Most Macs don’t allow replacement storage after buying.
Because the storage tips are soldered to the board.
Moreover, if you expand the storage to maximum capacity upon purchase, the price goes up about one whole PCs' worth.
The only exception is Mac Pro which the storage could be replaced after purchase, but this one has a tower shape, and the minimum price starts at $5.999.
This model is not suited for web development.
On the other hand, Windows PCs are available from a few hundred dollars.
Additionally, on Windows PCs, each part can be replaced, so you’ll be able to increase the performance by adding and replacing parts.
However, you should keep in mind the following points about Windows.
About Windows Licenses
Actually, I’m a Visual Studio Subscriptions user, so I’m not that familiar with the Windows Licenses for general consumers.
If anyone knows any good articles on this topic, please tell me.
Windows is not a free OS. There are several variations to the license.
You need to be watch out because some licenses will only allow certain PCs or parts.
Windows Home or Windows Pro
Windows has several editions.
The Home edition, the cheaper one, is enough for most situations.
However, if you choose the Pro edition, the following features might be useful from a development perspective.
One of them is Hyper-V.
This is a virtualization feature made by Microsoft that runs Linux and other OSs on Windows.
There are ways to use virtualization on the Home edition but Pro edition is easier to virtualize.
The other one is Remote Desktop.
On Pro edition, you can connect your Windows from other PCs via Remote Desktop.
This feature is useful for example, when you are using a laptop in the living room, and you want to run a small task from the desktop PC in your den.
Moreover, you can place the desktop at the back of your desk without a display and keyboard and use it as a server.
Using Cloud Services
My final recommendation is to use cloud services.
If you have at least one PC, you can start using cloud services.
Nowadays, there is almost no situation where cloud services aren’t used.
In terms of web systems, cloud services are even starting to be utilized by enterprise systems such as banks, governments, and others.
I’m sure the company you’ll work for is using some kind of cloud services.
Gartner says, in 2019, cloud services have the following shares.
Gartner Says Worldwide IaaS Public Cloud Services Market Grew 37.3% in 2019
- AWS:
45.0 % - Azure:
17.9 % - Alibaba Cloud:
9.1 % - Google Cloud Platform:
5.3 % - Tencent:
2.8 %
I’ve been using AWS, Azure, Google Cloud. Many companies are also using them, and you could start using them with just one credit card.
If I have the opportunity later, I wish to describe cloud services themselves and how to use them.
For now, I would like you to know that you could run a Linux virtual machine on the cloud and use it as a web development environment.
This is the most basic case of cloud use, and you could try it from a few cents per hour.
I recommend you try to use cloud services to get used to web systems in the 2020s.
Precautions Using Cloud
Cloud services are very useful but you want to pay attention to two points.
Both points are related to cost.
Point 1: You Should Stop Your Resources after Using
Cloud service charges are basically paid by the hour, including resources such as Linux virtual machines.
Even a Linux virtual machine that only costs a few cents an hour will end up being thirty to fifty dollars if you keep running it for a month.
You should turn off or terminate the resources you have used, and you may want to check your billing dashboard regularly not only on that day.
Setting up billing alert emails is also useful.
Point 2: Don’t Let Your Credentials Leak
You can connect to the cloud from anywhere.
This is a point both useful and dangerous which is different from your home or office PC network.
If anyone gets hold of the credentials you issued, they are able to steal your identity and create resources on the cloud.
For example, there is a risk of impostors mining cryptocurrencies in your name and you’ll be responsible for the payment.
Fortunately, I haven’t experienced such incidents, but you hear stories of credentials being published as sample codes occurring every year.
People and organizations aiming to steal your credentials exist, and they will immediately get hold of this information the moment you let it leak.
So, you need to take care to not allow credentials to leak.
Other Methods
In this section, I’ll describe other less common methods that can seem to be a cost-effective option at first.
Linux Pre-installed PCs
Several manufactures are selling Linux pre-installed PCs.
I’ve never purchased this, but when considering the fact that web systems are running on Linux, these PCs seem like a perfect development environment.
However, the fact that several applications related to web development, for example, Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Office can’t be used could be a critical problem.
Another problem is that there is very little information available because there are only a small number of shipments.
Many Linux OSs are free, so you could install them on your desktop anytime.
Or, you could try Linux via Virtual Box, Hyper-V, and other virtualization software.
Both methods are safer than buying a Linux pre-installed PC.
Chromebook
Chromebook is a cheap and lightweight laptop.
This laptop is designed mainly to run the Chrome browser. The OS is Chrome OS, and is Linux based.
However, Chrome OS is a specialized Linux distribution that is not the same as others when developing and running web applications.
And, this laptop has the same problem as the one I mentioned above: it can’t run Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Office.
Raspberry Pi
Raspberry Pi is a cheap and small computer designed for education, not a dessert.
You could buy the highest model of this series for less than $100, and you can use it as a regular PC by connecting displays and a keyboard.
However, Raspberry Pi is powered by an Arm CPU, so the “instruction set architecture” is different from typical PCs and Intel Macs.
In Closing
In this article, I described the PCs and development environment for developing web applications I recommend based on my experience.
If I have the opportunity later, I wish to describe each item in more detail.
Again, I’m sure you would be able to get good results by choosing other PCs and other development environments.
It will make me happy if this article provides tips and helps improve skills to those of you who are trying to build your own PCs and development environment.
Moreover, by arranging your development environment as I’ve described in this article, your work style and your development style will probably become more clearer.
As you become able to visualize the kind of web developer you want to be more clearly, it will become easier to find the workplace that matches you accurately.
I hope the contents I described in this article will help you clarify your career goals.