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I used NetBeans for Java development, and I find quite good. But still, I continue to look for better opportunities, and I stumbled upon "free" version of IntelliJ IDEA.

So, my question: Is that IntelliJ "Community Edition" more powerfull than NetBeans, and if yes, how? Is it worth spending time to learn it?

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closed as not constructive by Jerry Coffin, Hovercraft Full Of Eels, Adam, CrazyCoder, Graviton Mar 3 '11 at 3:25


not sure about "powerful", you need to compare features and see if there's any feature missing that you must have. other than that, IntelliJ is certainly the best. –  irreputable Mar 2 '11 at 22:11
Could you be more specific about where is it better? Speed? Ease of use? More extensions? Or what? –  Rogach Mar 2 '11 at 22:13
I'll go on record as saying that the "power" of something like an editor or IDE is impossible to define in a way that allows an objective answer to a question like this. In fact, just about any possible answer will ultimately come down to personal preference and taste. –  Jerry Coffin Mar 2 '11 at 22:14
@Jerry Coffin - by "power" I meant number of good features and their reliability. –  Rogach Mar 2 '11 at 22:15
@Rogach: that's purely subjective, and that's what everyone is telling you, but you don't seem to be accepting this for some reason. –  Hovercraft Full Of Eels Mar 2 '11 at 22:18
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3 Answers

up vote 20 down vote accepted

Just go ahead and use IntelliJ for a week. If you love it, you love it.

In the beginning, one of the point people often raised about IntelliJ is that you don't have to learn it. It just helps you when and where you need it. It's almost as if the designers of the IDE are also programmers and they know what we really want.

Most of these helps are preverved today (and copied by Eclipse and Netbeans). So I don't think your experiment with IntelliJ will be wasting a lot of your time, even if in the end you decide against it.

And it's going to be an absolute shame if IBM and Oracle crushed IntelliJ. They are the cooperations that patent things like how to draw a line on screen, yet they have no conscience whatsoever when it comes to blatantly copysteal legitimate innovations from a small company in Russia. It's not like IntellJ can launch a legal battle against these two giants, that's suicidal.

So as a programmer myself, I appeal to all programmers to ditch Eclipse and Netbeans.

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I tried it for a week and switched back to netbeans. The reason being that most some of the features that i need are not available on the CE. e.g css and javascript editing. If i had money, i would buy the full version. but for now, i will do with netbeans. It has nearly everything i need and its 100% free. –  joshua Jul 30 '11 at 7:43
If you are a student you can always get the Free Edition for Students –  Abderrahmane TAHRI JOUTI Feb 18 '13 at 13:42
Is the student edition free? I guess it is $99 –  Kumait Nov 4 '13 at 9:13
I was an Eclipse/Netbeans user for 3-4 years. I've recently tried out Intellij IDEA (about 6 months now) and I never looked back. It was that good! –  Chan May 27 at 7:10
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I don't know how to quantity "better" or "more powerful" than anyone else here, but I can endorse IntelliJ. I would say it's definitely worth learning. I buy a personal license every year. It pays for itself many times over.

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+1: The community edition is somewhat hobbled, but the personal license is worth it. –  Don Roby Mar 2 '11 at 22:34
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I'd check out the feature matrix here first, and check to make sure the technologies/frameworks are either supported in the community edition, or you can live without IDE support. I can say, personally, the lack of Grails support in the community edition is what's preventing me from switching, so check out the list first and make sure you're happy with what it provides.

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