Hi,
Do you guys have any recommended setup on budget for programming like web development? Anyone still use macbook air 2015 for coding? Thanks.
Visual Studio is free and more than capable. You can also use MAMP to run a local web server.
There are also free versions of JetBrains IDEs. For example there is a free version of WebStorm https://www.jetbrains.com/webstorm/whatsnew/ - although this is a preview version with beta features, the full Pro version is not free.
2015 ipad air should be more than ok.
I use a 2011 ipad air, and it still works fine,
MBA 2017 here. Base model. Probably ok for web dev.
Free text editors:
VSCode
Atom (slow, I prefer VSCode but YMMV)
Sublime Text (well, it’s really $80 USD, but free trial is unlimited length so 
)
Vim (if you like command line)
There’s also a Live Server plugin for VSCode.
iTerm and vim! Both free! But frankly anything that can run a text editor will get the job done. Did some light editing of a website this morning via terminal and a 2011 MacBook.
And don’t forget that BBEdit has a free tier that is quite nice, and some colleges offer free site licenses for students.
I had heard a lot about BBEdit from MPU and other tech sites so I decided to check it out. It’s definitely one of the best performance-wise (objectively! I tested BBEdit, Sublime, VSCode and Atom using Activity Monitor. the latter 2 hogged my CPU).
I didn’t (and don’t) like the UI, personally. But the free tier is generous, so I would encourage OP to try it out and see if they like it.