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IntelliJ IDEA vs. ReSharper vs. Microsoft Visual Studio

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    IntelliJ IDEA

    Score9.2 out of 10
    N/AIntelliJ IDEA is an IDE that aims to give Java and Kotlin developers everything they need out of the box, including a smart code editor, built-in developer tools, framework support, database support, web development support, and much more.

    $19.90

    per month

    ReSharper

    Score10 out of 10
    N/AReSharper is a code analysis and debugging tool available as an extender to Visual Studio. Its features are also present in JetBrain's .NET IDE, Rider.

    $13.90

    per month per user

    Visual Studio

    Score8.8 out of 10
    N/AVisual 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
    IntelliJ IDEAReSharperVisual Studio
    Editions & Modules
    For Individual Use (Monthly billing)
    $19.90
    per month
    For Organizations (Monthly billing)
    $71.90
    per month
    For Individual Use (Yearly billing)
    $199
    per year
    For Organizations (Yearly billing)
    $719
    per year
    For Individuals
    $139
    per year per user
    For Organizations
    $349
    per year per user
    Professional
    $45.00
    per month
    Enterprise
    $250.00
    per month
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    IntelliJ IDEAReSharperVisual Studio
    Free Trial
    YesYesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsAll Products Pack (For Individual Use) – $299 /1st year, $ 239 /2nd year and $ 179 /3d year onwards All Products Pack (For Organizations) – $979 / year——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    IntelliJ IDEAReSharperVisual Studio
    Considered Multiple Products
    JetBrains
    Chose IntelliJ IDEA
    Back in the day, there weren't too many PHP IDEs with proper syntax and code checks, but PHPStorm and IDEA worked great. So great that when I needed a Java IDE the next time, I gave it a go and have never looked back since (okay, I did keep checking the competition and …
    Incentivized
    Chose IntelliJ IDEA
    IntelliJ stacks better against Eclipse or vs code because it provides better code suggestions, out-of-the-box SonarLint integration, and built-in support for version control with git. It also has a vast collection of plugins that can increase developer productivity, reduce …
    Incentivized
    Chose IntelliJ IDEA
    IntelliJ IDEA is the most specific and oriented towards my line of work, however, after using it for years - it's also my preferred IDE that I use for personal projects as well. Jetbrains other IDE offerings are almost as good and I do use them from time to time but IntelliJ …
    Incentivized
    Chose IntelliJ IDEA
    IntelliJ IDEA has several benefits over vs code when it comes to Java applications, including in-built Java compilers, Maven lifecycle support, Lombok preprocessing, and sonar integration. While vs code is largely generic, IntelliJ IDEA has focused primarily on Java …
    Incentivized
    Chose IntelliJ IDEA
    IntelliJ has the richest and most complete set of features out of all the IDEs I've tried. There is the most compatibility across different languages and caters to different compilation strategies. The updates come very regularly, so we know that the product is constantly …
    Incentivized
    Chose IntelliJ IDEA
    UI--IntelliJ IDEA is the winner.
    IntelliSense--Again, IntelliJ IDEA is the winner.
    Performance and CPU usage - IntelliJ IDEA has a lot of room to improve on this. Eclipse handle the large projects more effectively than IntelliJ IDEA.
    Incentivized
    Chose IntelliJ IDEA
    IntelliJ surpassed every single competitor. The only viable alternative I still use is VisualStudio Code build in a browser for demo purposes... other than that, IDEA does everything better, faster, and in a more comfy way. This is the best IDE out there. This is just as good …
    Incentivized
    Chose IntelliJ IDEA
    For allowing me to modify to my own taste my graphic interface as my preferential option, in addition to having a wide field for high caliber project in any programming language.
    Incentivized
    Chose IntelliJ IDEA
    I selected IntelliJ IDEA over Eclipse and NetBeans because of the easy to use interface, great customizable features, and it comes with features for the development of Android applications. It is the most stable IDE among the 3, it has never crashed since the moment that I have …
    Incentivized
    JetBrains
    Chose ReSharper
    ReSharper does what it does very well because it operates inside the IDE you are already using. It provides advanced features that function far above and beyond what Visual Studio Professional offers and does not require you to learn another IDE like JetBrain's excellent IDE Rid…
    Incentivized
    Microsoft
    Chose Visual Studio
    IntelliJ IDEA is also a development IDE, but it is much more limited. The tools and methods of execution and debugging are much more complex, and there is not much support.
    Incentivized
    Chose 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 …
    Incentivized
    Chose 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 …
    Incentivized
    Chose 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 …
    Incentivized
    Chose 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 …
    Incentivized
    Chose Visual Studio
    No added value. If Visual Studio costs too much then I see the point. But otherwise there is just no need for any other tool. IntelliJ is a mess, buggy and counter intuitive. Or maybe it's because java is not a particularly cool language...
    Incentivized
    Chose Visual Studio
    Both are good but for Microsoft, you need to use Visual Studio IDE.
    Incentivized
    Chose 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.
    Incentivized
    Chose Visual Studio
    Also VSCode; these are all IDE that support the creation of web APIs and web applications; and it can support C# (for example VSCode) but Visual Studio IDE has a better set of integrated tools in the same environment. A developer adopts it very naturally, so a person can be …
    Incentivized
    Chose Visual Studio
    Visual Studio can do what all of these alternatives can do and does them well. PowerApps is RAD and you just can't tweak apps like you can in Visual Studio. Xamarin is now supported in Visual Studio and IntelliJ is javascript which you can create inside of Visual Studio. Would …
    Incentivized
    Chose Visual Studio
    It was better integrated with technologies we used, worked more reliably, had better IntelliSense.
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    94%
    Would buy again
    31 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    98%
    Would buy again
    40 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    90%
    Delivers good value for the price
    27 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    40 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    97%
    Happy with the feature set
    32 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    41 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    96%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    22 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    32 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    30 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    36 Answers
    Best Alternatives
    IntelliJ IDEAReSharperVisual Studio
    Small Businesses
    Visual Studio
    Score8.8 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    IntelliJ IDEA
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    PyCharm
    Score9.3 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    PyCharm
    Score9.3 out of 10
    Enterprises
    WebStorm
    Score9.6 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    WebStorm
    Score9.6 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    IntelliJ IDEAReSharperVisual Studio
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.5
    (59 ratings)
    10.0
    (4 ratings)
    9.1
    (118 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    Usability
    9.7
    (9 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.2
    (15 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.9
    (15 ratings)
    -
    (0 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)
    Implementation Rating
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    IntelliJ IDEAReSharperVisual Studio
    Likelihood to Recommend
    JetBrains
    This is a superb tool if your project involves a lot of backend development, especially in Java/Spring Boot and Kotlin. The support for the front end is great as well, but some developers may prefer to use the GitHub copilot add-on. I especially love using the GitHub copilot add-on. It may be less appropriate if your project requires heavy use of HotSwaps for backend debugging, as sometimes the support for that can be limited.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    JetBrains
    ReSharper is the best all-in-one tool for Visual Studio that I have encountered. It contains many features not found in Visual Studio Enterprise, and those features already in Visual Studio provide much better implementations. I would recommend this to all developers, with the only people who will find it a detriment are developers running older, slower machines (due to ReSharper's resource requirements).
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    JetBrains
    • Unit testing: Fully integrated into IntelliJ IDEA. Your unit tests will run smoothly and efficiently, with excellent debugging tools for when things get tricky.
    • Spring integration: Our Spring project using Maven works flawlessly in IntelliJ IDEA. I know firsthand that Apache is also easily and readily supported too. The integration is seamless and very easy to set up using IntelliJ IDEA's set up wizard when importing new projects.
    • Customization: IntelliJ IDEA comes out of the box with a bunch of handy shortcuts, as well as text prediction, syntax error detection, and other tools to help keep your code clean. But even better is that it allows for total customization of shortcuts you can easily create to suit your needs.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    JetBrains
    • Shortcuts are awesome. Navigation through the code gets really easy.
    • I use it every day: go to the last modified position, go to the next error, find usages. All refactoring shortcuts!
    • Color identifiers let me identify variables from constants, methods, properties, and types. I use this feature and I can not live without it.
    • Move code by scope is handy.
    • Adding missing references automatically.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Read full review
    Cons
    JetBrains
    • Finding if a feature exists or not in IntelliJ IDEA can be challenging.
    • For example, if we know how to format a particular file, the command is Ctrl+Alt+Shift+L, but if we don't, then finding it is difficult.
    • Setting up a project interpreter and directory structure might not be intuitive at first.
    • Git integration can be improved. For example, it isn't easy to rebase using UI in IntelliJ IDEA.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    JetBrains
    • Sometimes it gives suggestion that are not suitable for code that you wrote
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    JetBrains
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    JetBrains
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    JetBrains
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    JetBrains
    ReSharper is very familiar if you already know Visual Studio. JetBrains does have an excellent IDE (Rider); however, since ReSharper is an extension to Visual Studio, you only need to learn what their tools add, not a whole new way of working. I have found the extension's interface to be straightforward, although perhaps due to the massive range of features, navigating the menus is a little time-consuming until your muscle memory kicks in. Maybe a feature search tool would help make usability a 10 out of 10?
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    JetBrains
    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
    Read full review
    JetBrains
    No answers on this topic
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    JetBrains
    No answers on this topic
    JetBrains
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    JetBrains
    No answers on this topic
    JetBrains
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    JetBrains
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    JetBrains
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    JetBrains
    Eclipse is just so old, like a dinosaur, compared to IntelliJ. There are still formats that Eclipse supports better, especially old and/or propriety ones. Still, most of the modern software development needs can be done on IntelliJ, & in a much better way, some of them are not even supported on Eclipse.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    JetBrains
    ReSharper does what it does very well because it operates inside the IDE you are already using. It provides advanced features that function far above and beyond what Visual Studio Professional offers and does not require you to learn another IDE like JetBrain's excellent IDE Rider. My only wish is that ReSharper had a Visual Studio Code plugin!
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    JetBrains
    • Easier to find bugs and debugs, thus reducing man hours and generating immediate dollar impact.
    • Coding time is lessened, which in turn again reduces man hours and generates immediate dollar impact.
    • Refactoring code is more innovative and easy here, resulting in more maintainable code.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    JetBrains
    • ReSharper is our go-to tool for file formatting. All of our code process must be formatted correctly, and ReSharper makes that an easy to access keyboard shortcut.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    IntelliJ IDEA Screenshots

    Screenshot of IntelliJ IDEA interface overview: the Project tool window (left) outlines the code structure and the Editor (right) is used to read, write, and explore the source code.Screenshot of IntelliJ IDEA analyzing the context. It then suggests the most applicable and relevant code.Screenshot of the Search Everywhere window, where users can search for files, actions, classes, symbols, settings, UI elements, and anything in Git, all from a single entry point.Screenshot of IntelliJ IDEA's support for frameworks with dedicated assistance for Spring and Spring Boot, Jakarta EE, JPA, Reactor, and other popular frameworks.Screenshot of the AI Assistant that provides features for software development. It can explain code, answer questions about code fragments, provide code suggestions, generate documentation, and commit messages.Screenshot of the interface to run queries, connect to databases, browse and export data, and manage schemas.