Website development has become much more of a demanding task than in the past. So much that it's not uncommon to have a team of people doing the various aspects of the project.
If you're a "lone ranger" kind of developer you know that you need help so we've put together a list of website development tools that are priceless (literally, they have no price because they are free!). These help 10 Pound Gorilla daily and can help you be more efficient and produce a better product.
Firebug
http://getfirebug.com/
Firebug is a must have for any website development project. It allows you to view every aspect of your web pages and understand what code is affecting each part. You can monitor the network activity, inspect elements in the DOM, tweak the layout and CSS styles, debug your javascript, and more. It's meant as a plugin for Firefox but a lite bookmark version is available for other browsers.
960 Grid
http://960.gs/
The 960 Grid System is an effort to streamline web development workflow by providing commonly used dimensions, based on a width of 960 pixels. They provide design templates as well as code templates to speed up the structure and layout development and allow more focus for the design.
ScriptSrc
http://scriptsrc.net/
ScripSrc lets you quickly and easily get the most current library of some of the most widely used frameworks like jquery and mootols. What's also really great about it is that you just have to click on the desired library and it copies the script tags to your clipboard for you.
Lorem Ipsum
http://www.lipsum.com/
Lorem ipsum is dummy text often used in printing and typesetting but if your putting together a website and haven't quite got all the copy yet, this can be a great resource to generate some quick dummy text to help see what the website should look like.
TypeTester
http://www.typetester.org/
Type Tester is a good tool to get your website fonts in order. It lets you preview different web safe fonts with different settings of size, leading, color, etc. Once you've got a look you really like it will give you the css for that text.
W3c Validator
http://validator.w3.org/
Web standards make web development easier. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) creates the web standards. Make a habit of validating your web pages with a validation service. Validation keeps your documents up to the standards, and free for errors.
NetRenderer
http://ipinfo.info/netrenderer/
NetRenderer is a screen shot service that allows you to preview your website in different versions of Internet Explorer. It's ideal for Mac and Linux workstations that are unable to install IE but it's even good for pc designers and developers who don't want multiple computers just to test their site compatibility. Though there are numerous browser screen shot services out there, this one is free and to process a large number of jobs in parallel and in real time, it also has great firefox plugin.
Google Analytics
http://www.google.com/analytics/
Google Analytics is the one of the most widely used web analytics solution that gives you deep insights into your website traffic and online marketing efforts. Find out what advertising is resulting in the most traffic and which leads are most qualified. With Google Analytics, you or 10 Pound Gorilla can write more targeted ads, strengthen your marketing strategies and create higher conversions making the money you spend more effective.