Now that I have been at the freelance web-design business for the last several years, I have had some experience with a variety different programs. Some of them are very expensive, others are free. Here I have tried to make it easy for you and compiled a list with links to their respective locations:
Design & Image Editing:
Adobe Photoshop - $649 or $999 for the extended version
Photoshop is the most expensive program you need- but you will want this piece of software. There are a lot of different image editing tool but this is the industry standard. Sometimes you can get a student discount, or even get your company to buy it for you.
Text/Code Editing:
Mac
TextWrangler - Free: This is a great piece of software for writing your code if you don’t want to spend any money.
TextMate - $50: If you are serious about building websites, you should probably invest the 50 bucks in this software. It is highly customizable, can generate basic templates, and has code helpers and bundles to boot.
Windows
HTML Kit - Free: This is another neat little piece of software that will help you write your code and keep it organized. Not the best there is, but hey- it’s free!
EditPlus - $35: While I cannot personally testify to the usefulness of this application, I have read some pretty good reviews for this one.
FTP Client:
Mac
Classic FTP - Free: This is a viable option if you don’t want to spend any money. Works fine, but Transmit (see next) is much faster and more efficient.
Transmit - $29.95: This is my favorite FTP client for the Macintosh. Definitely worth the money.
Windows
FileZilla - Free: This is my favorite FTP client for Windows. Quite the bonus that it’s free! It is also available for the Mac, but that version is much too buggy in my opinion.
Domains & Hosting:
GoDaddy.com - My go-to source for domains. Easy to manage, great customer service, and very affordable. No monthly fees, either. Make sure you get coupon codes before purchasing.
I would not recommend getting hosting from GoDaddy (too many limitations) but from…
HostGator - My go-to source for hosting. Again- easy to manage, great customer service and very affordable.
I hope that this list can be of help to any other freelance web designers out there. I wish I had found this list when I first got started…