Great Free eBooks for Developers

These are some of the very best free eBooks that I think every developer can learn something from. I tried to cover a variety of different topics including Javascript, UI design and web security best practices.

Hopefully you'll find these useful!

1. Web UI Design Best Practices

Some of you developers out there aren't really interested in UI design. And if you are "just" a backend developer - that's totally fine. But if you are a frontend or fullstack developer it's really important to know about basic UI design principles.

It will simply make you so much better as a developer.

Besides basic design principles this eBook will give you advice and tips from experienced UI & UX design experts, practical tips for UI elements and analysis of 33 UI design examples from popular websites including Apple, Airbnb, Skype, Amazon and Spotify.

2. OWASP Web Security Testing Guide

"The Web Security Testing Guide (WSTG) Project produces the premier cybersecurity testing resource for web application developers and security professionals.

The WSTG is a comprehensive guide to testing the security of web applications and web services. Created by the collaborative efforts of cybersecurity professionals and dedicated volunteers, the WSTG provides a framework of best practices used by penetration testers and organizations all over the world."

Too often us developers are too focused on building the functionalities of the application and completely forget to pay attention to security. In fact - according to OWASP - 90% of web-applications have some security vulnerabilites.

If you wan't to be sure that your web-applications are secure and not prone to hacks then you should definately read this book!

Download it as PDF or read it straight in OWASP website.

3. Flavio Copes eBooks

Flavio Copes has written a series of practical handbooks for different technologies such as Javascript, React, Python, HTML, CSS, Svelte, Next.js, Deno, Vue and even Linux terminal commands.

These eBooks are totally free for you to download as long as you sign up for Flavios weekly newsletter. Newsletter comes once a week and there Flavio shares his newest tutorials. He writes one tutorial a day.

Flavios eBooks are high quality and updated reguraly so you won't get any outdated info.

4. Eloquent Javascript

This book has 5 star rating on Amazon with over 900 reviews. That should tell you guys something already. The book is extremely well constructed and it's not afraid to tackle the more difficult concepts eighter. It is without a doubt one of the best books ever written on Javascipt.

5. Speaking JavaScript

Speaking JavaScript: An In-Depth Guide for Programmers is another 5 star rated book in Amazon and you can read it free on speakingjs.com.

The book is targeted at developers who are already familiar with programming and want to learn Javascript so if you are totally new to programming, this might not be the best book to start with.

Also - Speaking Javascript doesn't include any ES6 features. ES6 has many features that every Javascript developer should know so you'll have to learn those elsewhere.

6. PHP: The Right Way

If you are interested in learning PHP - This book will teach you everything you need to know to get started.

PHP: The Right Way is an easy-to-read, quick reference for PHP popular coding standards, links to authoritative tutorials around the Web and what the contributors consider to be best practices at the present time.