IntelliJ IDEA vs. WebStorm vs. Vim

IntelliJ IDEA is very well suited for developers working on Java, Javascript, and related technologies. It is the best IDE I've found so far for software development in Java. IntelliJ IDEA is specifically well suited for web software development using Java as it provides default configurations for web frameworks like Spring and Spring Boot. For other use cases, I feel it is more than good enough.

Incentivized

WebStorm is a great product for programming and development. It has all the capabilities needed for education, as well as for professional deployment. I use it in the classroom with my students, who benefit from the comprehensive drop down menus and the integrated spell check. It also has a clean user interface that allows for customization.

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If you're doing any sort of text editing, you should consider Vim--once you climb the learning curve, you'll be faster and more efficient at everything you do. Also, Vim is my default search/replace tool--whenever I need to make changes throughout a document, most often, I'll copy and paste into a Vim window so that I can take advantage of regexp-based replacements. Vim isn't for the faint of heart, though--it's hard to learn and super complex. If you use a text editor once or twice a month, or just need a simple way to strip out formatting, Notepad will get you where you want to go without all the confusion.

Incentivized

• Compared to Eclipse, basically it is a easier to learn which results in faster learning curve. Good for small or mid-sized projects. Generally speaking developers can be productive in a short training and use.
• Very rich plug-in capability, such as out of the box support for version control systems.
• User friendly interface. Responsive and interactive than other IDE tools.

Incentivized

• This is the only editor in my opinion which gives you the full development experience if you want to code in JavaScript.
• WebStorm supports many different linters including "standards". This has been such a blessing for our team. All our PRs look perfect now.
• WebStorm is very good in design. I love coding in it.
• It has terminal built right into it. I know many other editors also provide this, but I really like how seamlessly the terminal works out of the box.
• Most of the plugins you will ever need is already installed right off the box. I haven't installed anything new so far.
• The rename/reformat functions are very intelligent. I feel very confident renaming something new.
• There is a "validation" inspector which reports anything as small as spellings. This helps us keep our codebase very-very clean.

Incentivized

• The efficient modal editing makes it very fast to write/edit code as I think of it.
• The customization and wide range of plugins let me do very specific things and automate parts of my workflow.
• The fact that it runs inside a terminal simplifies my window management and just becomes another Tmux window in my workflow.

Incentivized

• IntelliJ IDEA wins as long as the language is Java. Outside that , e.g., in other languages, it is not so advanced.
• It is licensed, with a steep licensing cost. All features are not included in the free edition.
• It is not as light as Eclipse, so in a weak system, it can be a pain.

Incentivized

• Didn't find any apparent issue overall, except sometimes the WebStorm is running too many default validation check in the backend and response is slow, typically when we keep WebStorm running for some time, and if we restart the WebStorm it will take long time to be "warm up", perhaps, some JetBean team can consider some performance improvement

Incentivized

• Without a doubt the hardest program to learn. It is a completely different paradigm of thinking compared to other editors
• By default it doesn't have lots of fancy features you would find in larger IDE programs like code completion and linking
• It lives in the command line so a user has to be comfortable with this interface

Incentivized

VS Code is maturing and has a Scala plugin now. The overall experience with VS Code - for web development at least - is very snappy/fast. IntelliJ feels a bit sluggish in comparison. If that Scala plugin for VS Code is deemed mature enough - we may not bother renewing and resort to the Community Edition if we need it.

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It's an irreplaceable part of my toolkit and isn't that expensive per year.

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There is always room for improvement, but I haven't met any IDE that I liked more so far. Even if it did not fit a use case right out of the box, there is always a way to configure how it works to do just that.

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Great in debugging, testing, developing and maintaining softwares in a number of languages. Great support for many languages and their syntaxes. Great support of many third party extensions and plugins like GIT and html plugins. The RAM usage of WebStorm however could be really improved, it literally takes almost all of the RAM of my machine with 16GB RAM

Incentivized

I don't consider the steep learning curve to be a hinderance on the overall usability. I would rate this a ten, but to be honest a lot of people do get hung up at the beginning and just abandon it. However, for people who have made the moderate effort to get over the hump, nothing can be more usable.

Incentivized

Customer support is really good in the case of IntelliJ. If you are paying for this product then, the company makes sure that you will get all the services adequately. Regular update patches are provided to improve the IDE. An online bug report makes it easier for the developers to find the solution as fast as possible. The large online community also helps to find the various solutions to the issues.

Incentivized

I gave this rating because I have never needed their customer support, which is the highest level of support I suppose. When a product works just fine out of the box and everything you may need is well documented, it's a paradise for the customer. But I've seen some questions asked on their portal, and I've seen thorough answers given to the questions and the willingness to support the customer with follow-ups and everything else.

Incentivized

The support is somewhat lacking; Vim doesn't really have support outside of its forums. The forums, while notably good, aren't equal to real support though, and the steep learning curve makes you wish there was a help desk that would assist with all of the basic questions. There are several handy books and guides that can be found, and most implementations of the product come with "vitutor" which walks you through its usage.

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This installs just like any other application - its pretty straight forward. Perhaps licensing could be more challenging - but if you use the cloud licensing they offer its as simple as having engineers login to the application and it just works.

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Highly recommend the JetBrains Toolbox, it remembers your recent projects and launches from the task bar.

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In summary, IntelliJ is more polished and feature-rich out of the box, especially for Java development. Eclipse is extensible but can be rougher around the edges. IntelliJ costs money for advanced features, while Eclipse is free. IntelliJ offers many developers a better experience, but Eclipse remains a viable open-source alternative.

Incentivized

VS Code is free and more popular. Popularity helps in that you can do pair programming more easily because you all use the same [tool]. It's also easier when trying to guide someone (especially a junior developer). However, Webstorm comes with more out-of-the-box and is generally faster and more effective. Webstorm has been around for many more years as well.

Incentivized

I think it comes down to usability (and frankly, just preference). There's an old adage that Emacs is a good Operating System with a poor Text Editor! Jokes aside, when looking at different text editors, such as Emacs or Nano, Vim is the one that is usually always preferred because of how simple it is to learn. The learning curve of Vim compared to other text editors just makes it such a natural choice.

Incentivized

• Boosts productivity: IntelliJ IDEA is efficient to operate, and with its shortcuts and customization, the possibilities to improve your productivity are endless.
• Clean code: IntelliJ IDEA will catch or syntax errors, or even suggest a way something could be written better, or call our your duplicated code or unused imports.
• An easy learning curve for new guys: It's much easier to use than some of the competition, so it helps the new guys hit the ground running by being easy to operate and understand.

Incentivized

• Our UX guys love the Emmet support provided by WebStorm and enjoy cranking out prototypes quicker than they could before.
• I love the standardization provided by the tslint support. When all the devs code to the same standard, it makes our code more maintainable.
• The test support makes it easier to write and execute tests, lowering the barrier to entry of creating test suite around our code. Testing makes maintenance of any codebase far more effective and efficient.

Incentivized

• Steep learning curve means lower than average efficiency at the beginning.
• After getting familiar, it is so efficient that you will never want to use other editors.
• Good return on investment for serious editor/developers, may not be good for casual ones.

Incentivized