It’s a bit of a misnomer even to differentiate mobile web development from web development in 2015. It’s old news, everyone has a smartphone, and people increasingly use it as their primary way of using the web. Since the bulk of development is done on desktops and will be so for the foreseeable future, as developers, we’re left to pick up the task of testing our websites many configurations. Fortunately, with simulators/emulators, these can be tested with very close precision for the major platforms without investing in the hardware. Once properly configured, these virtual devices are always just a few clicks away.

Both Android and iOS can be simulated on OS X relatively hassle-free. Windows Phone on has more stringent requirements that make it more difficult and cannot be run on older hardware, even when Windows is the native operating system.

I’ve assembled several blog posts I’ve written into a singular guide that’ll get anyone up and running for simulators the three major platforms.

iOS 

Tools Needed: OS X, Xcode (Virtual Machine Software for Windows, Linux)

How To Get Started:  Using the iOS Simulator in Xcode 6 for web development

Android:

Tools Needed: GenyMotion

How To Get Started: A better Android Simulator for Web Development: GenyMotion

Note: You can use GenyMotion with Google Play to download other popular browsers

Windows Phone:

Tools Needed: Windows 8.1, Visual Studio Express, (Virtual Machine Software for OS X, Linux)

How To Get Started: Setting up Windows Mobile 8.1 for Front End Development