Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Eclipse
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
Eclipse is a free and open source integrated development environment (IDE).N/A
NetBeans
Score 7.0 out of 10
N/A
NetBeans is a free and open source platform and integrated development environment (IDE).N/A
Visual Studio
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
Visual Studio (now in the 2022 edition) is a 64-bit IDE that makes it easier to work with bigger projects and complex workloads, boasting a fluid and responsive experience for users. The IDE features IntelliCode, its automatic code completion tools that understand code context and that can complete up to a whole line at once to drive accurate and confident coding.
$45
per month
Pricing
EclipseNetBeansMicrosoft Visual Studio
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Professional
$45.00
per month
Enterprise
$250.00
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
EclipseNetBeansVisual Studio
Free Trial
NoNoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
EclipseNetBeansMicrosoft Visual Studio
Considered Multiple Products
Eclipse
Chose Eclipse
Personally, I like Eclipse more than the less heavy one, it is a development environment that allows applications to be developed from a set of modules, which can be done independently. It offers common reusable services for desktop applications, allowing developers to focus on …
Chose Eclipse
NetBeans is the closest competitor I've found to Eclipse for Java development. IntelliJ IDEA is good as well but it isn't free. NetBeans is a free competitor that has split the Java community, and a lot of it comes down to preference, like the famous vim vs. emacs wars. I would …
Chose Eclipse
Eclipse used to be the defacto standard for code development. But in recent years, as it has started focusing on its other products, like Orion and Che, it's core IDE (with focus on the 'I'), has seen a slowdown in its prominence. It cannot be compared to just the massive …
Chose Eclipse
Eclipse and NetBeans are open-sourced and does not require a license to use the software. However, Eclipse has a wide selection of plugins to choose from to integrate any tools within the workspace, making development more accessible, and reducing the developer effort.
Chose Eclipse
Eclipse could be replaced by NetBeans or WebStorm, but these last two don't have an ABAP development tools plugin (not that I know of at least).
Chose Eclipse
Eclipse beats all other Java IDEs in my honest opinion. I've tried NetBeans (among others) in the past for Java projects, but didn't see the same value which Eclipse provides. I have moved over to Visual Studio Code for Node.js, React Native and other JavaScript specific …
Chose Eclipse
As compared to NetBeans, Eclipse is much faster. NetBeans needs to have JDK 1.8 which sometimes creates problems if your system already has a higher version installed, besides it has a glassfish server which is hard to configure. Integration of MySQL or other database is …
Chose Eclipse
I think Eclipse is best for Java while the other products, for example, NetBeans, is good for PHP. Visual Studio is really good for C#. I would still say Eclipse is really good overall, but awesome for Java developers.
Chose Eclipse
Eclipse stands out with its feature set, reliability, and being completely free of charge. I have previously used NetBeans but had reliability issues with it, at least on Windows version. IDEA has modern UI and is significantly more user friendly than Eclipse; however, the free …
Chose Eclipse
Compared to IntelliJ IDEA, Eclipse is free of charge and that is the main advantage for me. Over the time I got used to Eclipse, I didn't want to switch even though I could, because all I need is there and it works like a charm. Compared to NetBeans, I found the community of …
Chose Eclipse
Eclipse is far better than NetBeans. But when compared to IntellijIdea Eclipse is a good choice when it comes to handling large projects and costs. Eclipse has room to improve on its UI and IntelliSense.
Chose Eclipse
IntelliJ is a good IDE as well. Any motivated user can't go wrong focusing on one and then deeply learning it, and it will pay off in productivity. Note of course that one is free the other is not! I find Eclipse is stronger at managing very large projects.
Chose Eclipse
Visual Studio is a better solution for larger applications and organizations. Eclipse is free and good for small companies/applications. VS also integrated well with the Microsoft environment. However, Eclipse is not tied to any environment and can be used with multiple OS …
Chose Eclipse
Above all, the great variety of plugins that eclipse offers you for your developments, allowing you to consume personalized libraries that can help you in your development. Also its implementation is simpler and faster allowing you to establish a development environment even …
Chose Eclipse
First thing, Eclipse is free. So zero cost as compared to other alternatives. Eclipse has tons of tools/plugins for better development/testing, helping devs, making their lives easier.
Chose Eclipse
Eclipse offers all the features in the other IDEs but without any cost. It also is memory efficient as compared to other IDEs. Various themes are available in eclipse and we can customize it according to our needs very easily. The Windows Toolkit allows us to build desktop …
Chose Eclipse
As I already said, Eclipse might not have all the features supported by IntelliJ. However, the variety of plugins available in Eclipse make it much flexible to work with. Another main reason to go for this product was because of price (free). Since I worked for a startup, the …
Chose Eclipse
Visual Studio Code can also be used for CDS development. It is quite lightweight and useful when developing for web environments. Eclipse however, has an ABAP environment as well as the HANA tools. This makes Eclipse (in my opinion) a better solution for a more well-rounded …
Chose Eclipse
These are all very similar in what they can do, and so they all stack up very similarly. I personally have found that Eclipse did a little bit better when it came to programming with java and so that is why we went with it for the classes coding in Java.
Chose Eclipse
The installation, adaptability, and ease of usage for Eclipse are pretty high and simple compared to some of the other products. Also, the fact that it is almost a plug and play once the connections are established and once a new user gets the hang of the system comes pretty …
Chose Eclipse
For no license, Eclipse is a very good start. IntelliJ has much greater support and tools for many things like connecting to all kinds of databases and SaaS platform such as Salesforce. Code refactoring is also very cool on IntelliJ compared to Eclipse. For Python and Django …
Chose Eclipse
Because it has amazing debugging functionalities that helps you to write well- tested and efficient reusable code. Ease of installation of Eclipse is very easy and has documentation which helps. It has great tools to work with XML and thus helps in creating schemas for various …
Chose Eclipse
We compared Eclipse primarily with IntelliJ, and the thing we liked about Eclipse was the support for plugins which makes it really customizable. The other features that we liked were the multitasking, filtering and debugging which are very carefully designed by keeping in mind …
Chose Eclipse
The only alternative to Eclipse in the way that I require is Studio, which Eclipse blows out of the water in every respect (syntax, compiling, debugging, file management, server connections, etc). I've used many other IDEs that are much more feature-full and modern that I would …
NetBeans
Chose NetBeans

I originally began coding with Eclipse, but found debugging to be difficult to implement; switched to NetBeans and never really looked back. When coding for specific projects (for instance Android or a Java class ) Eclipse seems to have a better foothold on integration of …

Chose NetBeans
NetBeans is easier to use. It has a simpler UI and it's more similar with other IDEs than Eclipse. I never liked Eclipse's workspace concept, with NetBeans you just have projects. Overall I would say using NetBeans requires less learning since it's UI is more logical and you …
Chose NetBeans
I have been using NetBeans for many years and I am very comfortable with it. NetBeans is a Java IDE and for different languages ​​such as PHP, Javascript, JavaFX, C / C ++, etc. unlike Eclipse, which is more useful only for Java. NetBeans helps the developer to develop their …
Chose NetBeans
NetBeans goes with other IDE's in market like Eclipse, Rational Application Development and more.

I prefer NetBeans since it's a lighter version than RAD and Eclipse for building/developing Java and J2EE applications. It also has dynamic support for JavaScript, HTML, PHP.
Chose NetBeans
NetBeans holds its own in comparison to other IDEs. Versus IntelliJ and Eclipse, it's a matter of preference and familiarity.
Chose NetBeans
IntelliJ IDEA is more feature-rich and has professional support available, but comes with increased licensing costs.
Eclipse is widely used, and some of our developers still prefer Eclipse over NetBeans. However, developers spend more time working around IDE bugs when using Eclip…
Chose NetBeans
Netbeans has a larger number of plugins than Eclipse does which makes development easier. It provides a lot of support for enterprise Java based applications. It has a powerful user interface which makes it easier to navigate through the software. It provides support for the …
Chose NetBeans
I would say NetBeans only shines when it comes to smaller projects. I prefer using Eclipse and Intellij over NetBeans when it comes to developing larger projects.
Chose NetBeans
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 …
Chose NetBeans
Netbeans is great as a stand-alone java ide and for compiling your java code. The platform provides easy access to better make use of your repos. Between the other ide, NetBeans is easier for us to integrate with android SDK. The only problem is the UI and for all other code …
Chose NetBeans
It is supported primarily by Oracle and is free. This is a very important plus. Also, many things come embedded. You don't have to worry about adding library or framework. Finally, one of my favorite features is you can design the interface with drag and drop. This feature is …
Chose NetBeans
The biggest pro of NetBeans for us is that it is free and open-source, and this is why we decided to go with it over other similar products.
Chose NetBeans
Formatting becomes easy. File navigation becomes easy. Can compile code in IDE itself.
Chose NetBeans
All above mentioned is good for web development and Netbeans is an IDE which can do a lot more than normal text editors. File navigation is also easy in Netbeans.
Chose NetBeans
NetBeans is free, open source and offers a lot of open source plugins. If you don't have money to invest in a proprietary IDE, you can use NetBeans as the main IDE. Also, it's backed up by a great community and Apache so you know that it will receive upgrades and updates to …
Chose NetBeans
Easy to use. Not really proprietary to a single vendor or language.
Chose NetBeans
Both are very good IDE's especially for Java. Both have great integrations. I chose NetBeans because of the better integration with Glassfish.
Visual Studio
Chose Microsoft Visual Studio
I selected Visual Studio IDE because of its fast syntax analysis capabilities, the ease of which I can install, update and remove packages from my application. The IDE comes with an integrated SVC plugin which allows the fast synchronization of my code. NetBeans falls down in …
Chose Microsoft Visual Studio
PyCharm is a one programming language tool. If you program in multiple languages Visual Studio if much better. Until a few weeks ago, if you were developing in Java, Eclipse was the IDE to use, but now that Visual Studio supports Java, I would look to see if Visual Studio might …
Chose Microsoft Visual Studio
I've used evaluated IBM Rational Developer for i, IBM Rational Application Developer, Android Studio, Eclipse for Java, and a few others. Visual Studio is the best. Other tools require longer setup times, don't always have all the tools integrated into the IDE or require …
Chose Microsoft Visual Studio
I used Eclipse and NetBeans when working as a Java developer. Both IDEs are inferior developer experiences with slower performance and downright chaotic user-interfaces. If the nature of the project would allow adoption of Visual Studio over these alternatives, I would highly …
Chose Microsoft Visual Studio
We are currently using Eclipse at my current workplace and I find that Visual Studio was a better choice as it could be integrated with other tools to accomplish a task and the user interface was really good. Visual Studio was somehow quick in performing different tasks like …
Chose Microsoft Visual Studio
The only other IDE I've been using in the past is Eclipse. In my opinion VS IDE is more solid software, especially after years of development; but also it's more complicated. Eclipse, as I remember, used to be easier to learn and simpler, but less powerful.
In a few words:
  • Visua…
Chose Microsoft Visual Studio
Compared to a lot of these options (which are free except WebStorm), Visual Studio definitely leads the pack as far as its completeness of feature set. There are deep integrations with the Microsoft ecosystem with Visual Studio that the others can't really compete with, as …
Chose Microsoft Visual Studio
While I am not a Java developer, I have used NetBeans in the past. I found the NetBeans interface to be more intuitive than the Visual Studio IDE. However, it was also more limited in scope. VS Code, on the other hand, is simplicity itself. It is excellent as just a text …
Chose Microsoft Visual Studio
Eclipse, PyCharm, NetBeans I have used during my internship for smaller applications but to have a full end-to-end application with ease to connect to database and deployment I believe Visual Studio is way better than other available IDE in this space.
Although your options get …
Chose Microsoft Visual Studio
I have used Eclipse and PyCharm for smaller projects. However, VS IDE is more for a bigger company/organization. It is an enterprise software that is perfect for a company who can pay the money to use and maintain it. Eclipse and PyCharm are more for non-business use as they …
Chose Microsoft Visual Studio
We choose Visual Studio IDE because it is easier to set up with C# and more stable. Each time we use Eclipse to make a program, we had bad behavior. Maybe that was our computer setup but we finally go with something more stable and more useful for our company.
Chose Microsoft Visual Studio
Eclipse is also very good but it's more suitable for Java development. Our requirement is more towards .Net, C# and hence Microsoft Visual Studio works well for us. If your primary requirement is Java and cross platform, Eclipse works well. But our specific requirement makes …
Chose Microsoft Visual Studio
Eclipse is primarily used for Java development, and Android Studio is used for Android app development. Since our work is mainly focused on .NET applications, we use Microsoft Visual Studio to develop our software solutions. Microsoft Visual Studio IDE is way above the rest of …
Chose Microsoft Visual Studio
Microsoft Visual Studio works well with the Windows operating system an there is less need to install other third party packages to work with the above IDE's. You don't need to install a separate C compiler.
Chose Microsoft Visual Studio
Much superior integrations, better UI, and overall development experience. Debugging and testing in other tools was a frustrating experience, but proved much more satisfying in Visual Studio.
Chose Microsoft Visual Studio
Some of the editors are suitable for a particular programming language . For example PyCharm is suited for Python .
Visual Studio has support for many languages and Visual Studio is comparatively light weight from most of the IDE . The ability to get extensions and use them is …
Chose Microsoft Visual Studio
The only downside in VS compared to these is that it doesn't hava Java support. If it had i doubt i would have to use any other IDE than VS. Overall it has the largest amount of features and support/integration for different environments, and also has the most friendly UI.
Chose Microsoft Visual Studio
It's a well [maintained], mature IDE, which has the benefit of being a [software] which only the most skilled developers works on, instead of being open source. It has a lot of very useful features, which most free IDE-s don't. Also, it has many options from commercial …
Chose Microsoft Visual Studio
The main reason why we can't choose the Visual Studio IDE is that the entity framework provides excellent solutions. Besides, there is a very strong community of users. The Visual Studio IDE has a very user-friendly display. Creating functions and creating classes is much more …
Chose Microsoft Visual Studio
Visual Studio was my preferred IDE before Rider became mature enough to replace it. Rider's performance, source control tools, and built-in refactoring make VS limited to specific use cases where Rider doesn't support.

Chose Microsoft Visual Studio
Visual Studio is simpler and very easy to use. It has more features integrated and also contains more platforms to develop (Android, Windows, Web, Data Science, C#, .NET, etc). It has two versions: one is the community version, that is free, and a professional version for …
Chose Microsoft Visual Studio
Because it is the product that offers the most stable synchronization and compatibility in the market with Windows OS, in addition to a graphic environment and a variety of fundamental advanced options.
Chose Microsoft Visual Studio
There are very few native Windows development IDE these days. We had only evaluated Embarcadero Delphi which is very easy to use, but it looks like a 90's IDE. Other IDE to develop for Windows only offers mostly C++ development (QT).
Best Alternatives
EclipseNetBeansMicrosoft Visual Studio
Small Businesses
Visual Studio
Visual Studio
Score 8.7 out of 10
PyCharm
PyCharm
Score 9.2 out of 10
PyCharm
PyCharm
Score 9.2 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Visual Studio
Visual Studio
Score 8.7 out of 10
PyCharm
PyCharm
Score 9.2 out of 10
PyCharm
PyCharm
Score 9.2 out of 10
Enterprises
Visual Studio
Visual Studio
Score 8.7 out of 10
PyCharm
PyCharm
Score 9.2 out of 10
PyCharm
PyCharm
Score 9.2 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
EclipseNetBeansMicrosoft Visual Studio
Likelihood to Recommend
9.8
(74 ratings)
7.8
(22 ratings)
9.1
(118 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(3 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(3 ratings)
9.0
(2 ratings)
9.3
(15 ratings)
Support Rating
6.8
(19 ratings)
8.5
(4 ratings)
8.8
(15 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
EclipseNetBeansMicrosoft Visual Studio
Likelihood to Recommend
Open Source
I think that if someone asked me for an IDE for Java programming, I would definitely recommend Eclipse as is one of the most complete solutions for this language out there. If the main programming language of that person is not Java, I don't think Eclipse would suit his needs[.]
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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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Microsoft
When working with base C# code for desktop and web projects, then Microsoft Visual Studio is ideal as it provides the libraries and interfaces needed to quickly create, test and deploy solutions. It is when slightly more complex scenarios are required that issues can arise. The built-in integration for things like PowerBI Paginated Reports and dashboards is far from ideal.
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Pros
Open Source
  • Eclipse organizes imports well and does a good job presenting different programming languages.
  • Eclipse auto formats source code allowing customization and increased readability.
  • Eclipse reports errors automatically to users rather than logging it to the console.
  • Eclipse has coding shortcuts and auto-correction features allowing faster software development.
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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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Microsoft
  • I like how the tabs and panels are organized; everything is gathered together so you can find what you're looking for quickly.
  • If you can't find something, there's a thorough search engine that searches all of Visual Studio's features.
  • The Team Foundation Server feature is fantastic since it allows us to easily deploy and roll back changes on the server.
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Cons
Open Source
  • While the DB integration is broad (many connectors) it isn't particularly deep. So if you need to do serious DB work on (for example) SQL Server, it is sometimes necessary to go directly to the SQL Server Studio. But for general access and manipulation, it is ok.
  • The syntax formatting is sometimes painful to set up and doesn't always support things well. For example, it doesn't effectively support SCSS.
  • Using it for remote debugging in a VM works pretty well, but it is difficult to set up and there is no documentation I could find to really explain how to do it. When remote debugging, the editor does not necessarily integrate the remote context. So, for example, things like Pylint don't always find the libraries in the VM and display spurious errors.
  • The debugging console is not the default, and my choice is never remembered, so every time I restart my program, it's a dialog and several clicks to get it back. The debugging console has the same contextual problems with remote debugging that the editor does.
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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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Microsoft
  • Would be great if there was a better way to save and restore open tabs.
  • The built-in test runner can be improved, for example, by adding the ability to save a set of commonly run tests, etc.
  • Better integration for Microsoft SQL server would be great.
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Likelihood to Renew
Open Source
I love this product, what makes it one of the best tool out in the market is its ability to function with a wide range of languages. The online community support is superb, so you are never stuck on an issue. The customization is endless, you can keep adding plugins or jars for more functionalities as per your requirements. It's Free !!!
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Open Source
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
VS is the best and is required for building Microsoft applications. The quality and usefulness of the product far out-weight the licensing costs associated with it.
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Usability
Open Source
It has everything that the developer needs to do the job. Few things that I have used in my day-to-day development 1. Console output. 2. Software flash functionality supporting multiple JTAG vendors like J-LINK. 3. Debugging capabilities like having a breakpoint, looking at the assembly, looking at the memory etc. this also applies to Embedded boards. 4. Plug-in like CMake, Doxygen and PlantUML are available.
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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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Microsoft
I love the overall usability of Microsoft Visual Studio. I’ve been using this IDE for more than 20 years, and I’ve seen it evolve by leaps and bounds. Today, with AI and code-suggestion/completion features, developers no longer need to remember countless libraries, methods, or language syntax, or invest a huge amount of programming effort to complete a project. It truly offers everything a developer needs to program, debug, test, and deploy in a single IDE.
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Support Rating
Open Source
I gave this rating because Eclipse is an open-source free IDE therefore no support system is available as far as I know. I have to go through other sources to solve my problem which is very tough and annoying. So if you are using Eclipse then you are on your own, as a student, it is not a big issue for me but for developers it is a need.
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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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Microsoft
There are many resources available supporting Visual Studio IDE. Microsoft whitepapers, forum posts, and online Visual Studio documentation. There are countless demonstration videos available, as well. If users are having issues, they can call Microsoft Support, but depending on the company's agreement with Microsoft, the number of included support calls will vary from organization to organization. I've found that Microsoft support calls can be hit or miss depending on who you get, but they can usually get you with the right support person for your issue.
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In-Person Training
Open Source
No answers on this topic
Open Source
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
IT is very complicated to understand all the functions that the environment has if you are not familiar with this type of development environments. It is important to select a good in-person training to achieve to understand all the possibilities and the capacity of the application. In this case, you will be able to develop a lot type of different applications.
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Online Training
Open Source
No answers on this topic
Open Source
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
If you are not accustomed to develop in this type of development environments it would be complicated to follow all the parts of the course because if the course does not include a great tour with all the concepts to develop you will not have the option to understand all the functions.
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Alternatives Considered
Open Source
The installation, adaptability, and ease of usage for Eclipse are pretty high and simple compared to some of the other products. Also, the fact that it is almost a plug and play once the connections are established and once a new user gets the hang of the system comes pretty handy.
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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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Microsoft
I personally feel Visual Studio IDE has [a] better interface and [is more] user friendly than other IDEs. It has better code maintainability and intellisense. Its inbuilt team foundation server help coders to check on their code then and go. Better nugget package management, quality testing and gives features to extract TRX file as result of testing which includes all the summary of each test case.
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Return on Investment
Open Source
  • This development environment offers the possibility of improving the productivity time of work teams by supporting the integration of large architectures.
  • It drives constant change and evolution in work teams thanks to its constant versioning.
  • It works well enough to develop continuous server client integrations, based on solid or any other programming principle.
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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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Microsoft
  • Using the integration between Visual Studio and our source control service, the cost of re-work and losing code is drastically reduced.
  • Paid versions of Visual Studio enable developers to be so much more productive than hacked-together open source solutions that it's hard to imagine developing in Windows without it.
  • When combined with support subscriptions and the vast array of free online help options available, Visual Studio saves our developers time by keeping them coding and testing, not wasting their time trying to guess their way out of problems or spend endless hours online hoping to find answers.
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