Brackets vs. NetBeans

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Brackets
Score 9.3 out of 10
N/A
Brackets is a free and open source text editor developed at Adobe under the MIT license, featuring inline editing, live preview, and a wide range of extensions.N/A
NetBeans
Score 7.8 out of 10
N/A
NetBeans is a free and open source platform and integrated development environment (IDE).N/A
Pricing
BracketsNetBeans
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BracketsNetBeans
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
BracketsNetBeans
Considered Both Products
Brackets

No answer on this topic

NetBeans
Chose NetBeans
Formatting becomes easy. File navigation becomes easy. Can compile code in IDE itself.
Top Pros
Top Cons
Best Alternatives
BracketsNetBeans
Small Businesses
BBEdit
BBEdit
Score 8.7 out of 10
PyCharm
PyCharm
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Vim
Vim
Score 9.2 out of 10
PyCharm
PyCharm
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Vim
Vim
Score 9.2 out of 10
PyCharm
PyCharm
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
BracketsNetBeans
Likelihood to Recommend
9.8
(14 ratings)
7.8
(22 ratings)
Usability
10.0
(2 ratings)
9.0
(2 ratings)
Support Rating
9.5
(5 ratings)
8.5
(4 ratings)
User Testimonials
BracketsNetBeans
Likelihood to Recommend
Open Source
Brackets can handle most text editing problems, at least if you have a file small enough that it opens. But with so many free and open-source editors out there, it is easy to have multiple tools that fit specific niches. If you are editing HTML and CSS, get Brackets.
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Open Source
NetBeans is extremely user friendly and easy to start developing complex applications. Adding and configuring external libraries is much simpler than in Eclipse. It is highly cost effective and most of the latest framework based libraries required are automatically downloaded to the projects. The overall tool is also light weight and consumes less memory as compared to other competitor tools.
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Pros
Open Source
  • The Live Preview feature is extremely helpful. You can make tweaks to your CSS and then see how it affects the pge you're coding.
  • The recently added file tree feature is really a time saver. You can move files with a drop and drag feature without ever minimizing the program.
  • One of my favorite features is the ability to update the core program with extensions. Some of the extensions are simple, like adding themes, while others are a offer a little more assistance like creating Lorem Ipsum text for you.
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Open Source
  • Debugging - Save time hunting down errors by stepping through the code to find the root of a problem.
  • Refactoring - Easily rename classes and variables or make other structural changes using built-in refactoring tools.
  • Service management - NetBeans integrates seamlessly with web application servers like Tomcat and GlassFish.
  • Source control - Works well with Git and other version control tools.
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Cons
Open Source
  • Can be a little slow to open and render larger files at times relative to a similar application running on the same computer.
  • Some plugins have performance or quality issues (not the fault of Brackets per se, but with the ecosystem of extensions).
  • Color schemes, styling ease of use could be improved. For example, provide out-of-the-box schemes like "high-contrast, night-time, bold."
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Open Source
  • NetBeans [should] work smoothly with systems having less RAM. Systems with less RAM face trouble with NetBeans.
  • File open history also requires improvement. Once NetBeans is restarted, all files are closed automatically and there is no shortcut to open last opened files.
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Usability
Open Source
As far as usability, text editors are about as simple as you can get in the GUI world. The little features that make Brackets unique are intuitive enough that you don't really need a manual to find them and come to rely on them. If anybody knows enough about coding and markup enough to be looking for different editors, they will be up to speed before the download finishes.
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Open Source
Netbeans enhances my coding work, shows me where I have errors and helps find variable instances. I would be lost without find/replace in projects functionality as I use projects as templates for new projects. Occasionally the code hints aggravate me, but I understand that it is actually making me a better coder, working to get the 'green light' of a clean file with no errors or clumsy code.
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Support Rating
Open Source
Brackets has a very extensive support site. Everything is organized nicely for easy navigation. If you can't find an answer you can easily file an issue with them and they will be quick to respond. What's cool is you can also message them on Slack, if you request an invite first. Slack is a very popular program right now so it's great having that integration.
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Open Source
NetBeans has a very strong user community. We can find solutions here for almost all the problems we face. In addition, we can forward NetBeans Support teams the problems we cannot solve. We can get quick feedback from the support teams, but I generally try to solve my problems by following the forums.
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Alternatives Considered
Open Source
Brackets can be considered as the barebones version of a more complex piece of software like Dreamweaver. We selected Brackets due to the simplicity of the UI and the ease of use. In our case we do not need all the additional tools and gadgets that other, more complex software packages offer. We need something that's quick, easy, uncluttered and focuses specifically on our needs, which are seeing code and editing code. In this case no frills and complex UIs are required.
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Open Source
It works very smoothly as compared to other tools . The problem of restarting and reimporting the projects is not in the netbeans IDE . The front end development features are good . Netbeans connector is one of the best thing which enables us to deeply integrate netbeans IDE with google chrome browser
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Return on Investment
Open Source
  • ROI is great. The version of the tool we are using is free so not a whole of lot “investment” went into it. And the work we can accomplish with it more than makes up for the “cost.”
  • The ease of use makes it simple for anyone new to the tool to start using it and contributing to the project.
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Open Source
  • By working on Netbeans I just learned one more tool and can teach others about it. One should learn every tool so that it might help someday if another editor is not available and you have to use different software for your work.
  • Compiling code became easy as it is not a feature of normal text editors. Only IDE can do this.
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ScreenShots