# tools
Developer tool reviews without hidden sponsorship.
VS Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, ESLint, Prettier, Biome, JetBrains IDEs. Reviewed on real projects, not on marketing pages. When Cursor is worth the subscription, when the free tier of Copilot covers the job, and when you should turn the whole lot off and pair-program with a person.
# coverage
What the tools pillar covers.
Editors
VS Code (still the default). Cursor (the paid fork with AI baked in). JetBrains IDEs (WebStorm, PhpStorm) where they still earn their price. Zed and Helix for the terminal-native.
AI coding assistants
GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Claude Code, Cody. Honest coverage of when they earn their keep and when they generate confident-sounding wrong code. Real prompt logs where they help.
Linters and formatters
ESLint, Biome, Prettier, dprint. When Biome is ready to replace ESLint (nearly), when Prettier is worth the round-trip on save (yes, on any team of more than one).
Build tools and bundlers
Vite, esbuild, swc, Rspack, Bun bundler. Real benchmarks, real bundle-size numbers on a real Next.js production build.
# what is landing
Upcoming tool reviews.
- GitHub Copilot review 2026: is the paid tier worth £10/mo?
- Cursor review 2026: the AI-first editor tested against a real work week.
- Biome vs ESLint + Prettier: which linter stack ships now.
- VS Code extensions worth installing (and eight to remove).
Reviews land through waves 1b-1e.
# editorial standards
How tool reviews are written.
No free vendor licences. Every paid tool reviewed here is on a retail subscription paid by the editorial team. If Cursor is £16/mo and we are running it on a five-seat team, that is £80/mo on the invoice.
If a tool is sponsored, it will say “sponsored” in the title, in the byline, and in an Amber bar above the fold. Sponsored posts are capped at one per quarter and are never verdict pieces (a sponsored review is a lie of omission).
# frequently asked
Tools FAQs
Do you cover Cursor and Copilot honestly?
Yes. Both reviews list the moments the tool actively helped, the moments it wasted time, and the pricing in GBP. Neither review is sponsored. We use both tools day-to-day, so the review reflects a working developer perspective, not a demo.
VS Code or JetBrains?
VS Code for JavaScript, TypeScript, React, and most web work. JetBrains WebStorm or IntelliJ for large existing codebases where the refactor tools pay for themselves. Cursor for AI-assisted VS Code; Zed if you want the fastest editor and can live with a smaller extension pool.
ESLint config recommendations?
For a new TypeScript project: typescript-eslint strict preset, eslint-plugin-import, eslint-plugin-react if React, eslint-plugin-jsx-a11y if user-facing. Skip Airbnb; skip Standard; skip Prettier as a plugin (run Prettier separately).
Are AI tools worth the cost?
Copilot at £8 to £16 per month pays back in the first day for most working developers. Cursor at £16 to £32 per month pays back if you use the chat and inline edit features (not just autocomplete). Enterprise plans for either need a real evaluation.
What is the workflow you use daily?
VS Code with Copilot, pnpm for package management, Turborepo for monorepos, Vite for local dev, Playwright for E2E, TanStack Query for data, WordPress plus WP-CLI for content sites, Next.js or Astro depending on the project. Nothing exotic.
Do you review paid tools?
Yes. Every paid tool review lists the actual price in GBP, the free-tier limits, and the moment where paying starts to pay back. We buy the paid tier on our own card before reviewing it.