What are the must-have tools for a remote software developer?

Over the past few years, the workplace has shifted from traditional, cumbersome offices to remote work. Millions of people moved their workplaces to their homes, where they began to discover tools that made their tasks easier, among these are software developers.

A software developer, as defined by the Rasmussen portal, “is the creative and idea-generating masterminds behind computer programs of all kinds. While some software developers may focus on a specific program or application, others create giant networks or underlying systems that help activate and power other programs.

Remote work in the application and website development market is more common than many realize. There are millions of software developers working from home in one country for a company thousands of miles away.

We are going to review the necessary tools to facilitate the remote work of a software developer:

Communication tools

Slack

It is one of the most efficient applications for a work team or an entire company that works one hundred percent remotely. With Slack, you can organize chat rooms by topic and contact any co-worker directly. You can access it from the browser or download the application for desktop and mobile versions.

Loom

It is the ideal video recording tool to make life easier for every remote software developer. It allows you to simultaneously record your desktop, camera, and microphone, ideal for making tutorial videos to help a co-worker explain some internal company processes.

Zoom

The video conferencing app has exploded in popularity since the start of the pandemic. It offers you free meetings with another person and group meetings of a maximum of 40 minutes, being able to increase the time unlimitedly in the paid version.

To organize tasks

Todoist

Todoist allows you to create tasks with recurring due dates, label them however you want, prioritize them, and create subtasks for each task. You can also delegate tasks by inviting your colleagues to your Todoist environment. It's lightweight, it's flexible, and overall it's a great app to make.

Trello

It is the ultimate tool for organizing the tasks of a work team. Trello's works are divided into projects, where each member can have their own column and each of their tasks is detailed in it, so the other people in the project can know what their colleagues are doing. You can access it from your browser and it is not necessary to download an application to the desktop.

To take notes

Evernote

Launched in 2000 as marketing software, Evernote is the ideal note-taking software. It comes with features like being able to pin any phrase or text from the internet into a note, search for written text in photos and images, and also identify the language in any written text.

Despite some people claiming that Evernote hasn't been updated enough over the years, it's still the most widely used by software developers who work remotely.

Notion

Notion is a large and very complete application. It can work like a company wiki: a central repository where you put all your projects and a place where you keep your documents and tasks. It is totally free in its personal version.

These tools are the basics to start working remotely as a software developer. Always have them present in your browser or download their desktop versions and improve your workday.

We recommend you on video