What features does Firebug have that Chrome's Developer Tools do not have? [closed]

Answer 1

I think the development tools are similar but I've had trouble forcing Chrome to not cache anything. Even setting the Chrome "Disable cache" setting didn't work 100% of the time; I'm not sure why.

I didn't have this issue with Firefox/Firebug, so I am still using it.

Answer 2

The mouse selection firebug has is great, but I can't seem to find it in the Chrome Developer Tools.

It bothers me because I can't find a hot key for it in firebug, whereas chrome lacks it completely.

I am a noob developer, so the mouse is still used most of the time when developing.

Answer 3

Firebug has the possibility to have other plugin attach to it such as Firecookie. For the rest they are pretty similar, it's all about taste in my opinion.

Answer 4

I used Firebug from the start and it was a godsend like the invention of fire. But then Chrome came out with its debugger and I tried it. I kept using Firebug, but kept an eye on Chome's dev tools and finally could not longer come up with a reason not to switch after JSON tools were added in v12.

Chrome's DevTools kick butt because it has:

• Built in Timeline, Profiler and Heap analyzer
• Built in Audit tool
• Can access and edit Local/SessionStorage, Cookies, SqlLite DB's, WebSQL, AppCache etc...
• WebSockets network sniffing
• JS debugger has some more features (e.g. WebWorker breakpoints)
• JS debugger let's you edit JS on the fly and run it (JSFiddle w/o the fiddle)
• Each window gets a devtools window if you like; Firebug is a singleton
• Firebug perturbs the page by slowing its loading down and by injecting CSS for its inspector feature

UPDATE: 2 years later I have to congratulate the Firefox team for making huge inroads. That said, the Chrome team and debugger make huge leaps forward on a monthly basis, leading the industry. I'd update the above list, but frankly it would fill the entire page.

Answer 5

The Chrome Developer Tools took over the features of Firebug, so all the main features and familiarity are there (such as the $0, and console object).

There are some small differences, such as the DevTools do not have a CSS panel (although CSS stylesheets can be manipulated in the Elements panel).

The Chrome tools additionally have the Timeline, Profiles and Storage panels. The Timeline panel logs loading, CSS rendering, and JavaScript parsing. The Profile panel profiles resource usage and the Storage panel shows and allows changes in the site's database, local storage, session storage, and cookies.

Finally, both tools have their own minor variances, which make various actions a tiny bit easier or harder. My advice is to use Firebug for Firefox, and DevTools for Webkit browsers, since only Firebug Lite works on Chrome, and it lacks many features the normal Firebug has (and the DevTools are built into Chrome).

Answer 6

Objectively seen Firebug 2.0 has many small features, which the Chrome DevTools do not have. Some of them are listed here:

Console panel

• Displays XMLHttpRequests including the whole request information
• Displays cookie changes
• Some more Command Line API functions
• Separate Command Editor

HTML panel

• Inline editing with auto-completion for attibutes and CSS styles
• Options to control whether to highlight changes, expand them and scroll them into view
• Options to control entity display
• Quick Info Box

CSS panel

• Displays the page's style sheets in a formatted way
• Selectors side panel

DOM panel

• Displays all DOM properties in one place
• Displays closures
• Allows to filter the display by properties, functions, etc.

Net panel

• Allows to stop on XmlHTTPRequests
• Shows cache information per request

Cookies panel

• Create and edit cookies
• Control over cookie permissions
• Shows raw and formatted size of cookies
• Allows to stop script execution on cookie change
• Export cookies in standard format

General

• Open HTML, CSS and JavaScript in external editor
• Allows to customize shortcuts

A "feature" that goes beyond the usability is that Firebug is open source. So everyone can participate on it.

Having said that, the Chrome DevTools (as well as the Firefox DevTools) have many more features and other smaller and bigger advantages over Firebug as the team behind Firebug is very small in comparison to the teams behind the other DevTools.

Also, Firebug 3+ integrates into the built-in Firefox DevTools, which means those versions inherit all the features of the Firefox DevTools and may add additional features.