IntelliJ IDEA vs. NetBeans

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
IntelliJ IDEA
Score 9.3 out of 10
N/A
IntelliJ 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.
$16.90
per month
NetBeans
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
NetBeans is a free and open source platform and integrated development environment (IDE).N/A
Pricing
IntelliJ IDEANetBeans
Editions & Modules
For Individual Use
$16.90
per month
All Products Pack (For Individual Use)
$28.90
per month
For Organizations
$59.90
per month
All Products Pack (For Organizations)
$77.90
per month
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
IntelliJ IDEANetBeans
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsYearly subscriptions: For Individual Use – $169 /1st year, $ 135 /2nd year and $ 101 /3d year onwards For Organizations – $599 /1st year, $479 /2nd year and $ 359 /3rd year onwards All Products Pack (For Individual Use) – $289 /1st year, $ 231 /2nd year and $ 173 /3d year onwards All Products Pack (For Organizations) – $799 /1st year, $623 /2nd year and $ 467 /3rd year onwards
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
IntelliJ IDEANetBeans
Considered Both Products
IntelliJ IDEA
Chose IntelliJ IDEA
I definitely prefer using IntelliJ IDEA over other IDEs, such as Eclipse or NetBeans. It's mostly personal preference but I really like a lot of convenient features, its appearance and the ability for fine customization. It has almost every feature of any other IDEs and even …
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 …
Chose IntelliJ IDEA
The number of features provided by the IntelliJ and looking at those amazing features it's very clear that everyone will choose IntelliJ over Eclipse and NetBeans. But if you don't have a good machine with a high RAM size then it will be difficult to use this tool on your …
Chose IntelliJ IDEA
Before IntelliJ IDEA developers were using NetBeans or Eclipse for the development. There are many reasons to change from that application to IntelliJ. Firstly, both Eclipse and NetBeans are free and they are not providing support as IntelliJ supports for its users. Eclipse and …
Chose IntelliJ IDEA
Previously we were using Eclipse but due to the ease of understanding and easy to navigate user interface with drop downs, wizards they are better in IntelliJ moreover for experienced developers migrating to IntelliJ as compared to Eclipse. It has an easy to understand UI and …
Chose IntelliJ IDEA
Compared to the other alternatives, IntelliJ is more complete, modern and robust. The other alternatives are dated and do not have features that exist by default in IntelliJ.
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.
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 …
Chose IntelliJ IDEA
Against competition I can say about IntelliJ that:
1. It is definitely faster and efficient than other IDEs. Comparing with Eclipse it emerges as a clear winner in terms or raw performance.
2. More feature Rich with great support for modern technologies. It has great support for …
Chose IntelliJ IDEA
They are memory friendly. The boot-up really fast as compared to IntelliJ IDE. Open-source and freely available to use is one of the major reasons if someone can switch from IntelliJ. Vast community support is available in case of any issue. They occupy less space as compared …
Chose IntelliJ IDEA
Out of all three, IntellIj is the best. The other two are light weight but don't have the plugins or code quality that Intellij provides.
Chose IntelliJ IDEA
IDEA has great roadmap, every update brings useful features. Support is great. Excellent documentation. It's full-featured as it comes out of the box and even if you can't find something you'll get it via plugins.
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.
Chose IntelliJ IDEA
IDEA is much more intuitive, user-friendly and feature-rich than any of the other IDEs that I have encountered so far. It's not just the Ultimate - the Community Edition has the same UX (just missing a few features), and although the community may be smaller, JetBrains has an …
Chose IntelliJ IDEA
To be honest, I've used IDEA for so long and am happy to the extent that I don't look at the competitors anymore. IDEA lets us do what we need to do quickly and efficiently. Support from JetBrains is good with an excellent early access programme and regular releases. There's …
Chose IntelliJ IDEA
There are a number of alternatives to IntelliJ IDEA on the market, some free, some paid. Overall, IntelliJ IDEA is easier to use and far more full-featured as it comes out of the box. It provides a simpler level of customization and the ability to share this customization with …
NetBeans
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
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
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
NetBeans holds its own in comparison to other IDEs. Versus IntelliJ and Eclipse, it's a matter of preference and familiarity.
Top Pros
Top Cons
TrustRadius Insights
IntelliJ IDEANetBeans
Highlights

TrustRadius
Research Team Insight
Published

IntellliJ IDEA, from JetBrains and Apache NetBeans are IDEs, both of which primarily support Java development. NetBeans is an open source option supported by its community, with a large number of community-built plugins available to support specific use cases. IntelliJ IDEA is also available for free via the Community Edition, but the paid Ultimate edition provides advanced features, and users are supported directly by the developer. Both IDEs are used across companies of all sizes, with IntelliJ IDEA being more widely adopted overall. The IntelliJ ID paid edition is far more popular across larger enterprises willing to bear the cost to enjoy official support, along with its advanced features.

Features

Both IntelliJ IDEA and NetBeans are well regarded and actively used IDEs, however each option presents some distinct advantages.

IntelliJ IDEA is praised for its themes, particularly its dark theme; it is described by users as being pleasant on the eyes, and thus far easier to work with and ergonomic relative to other options. It is generally strong in every other area important to choosing an IDE as well: its plugin library is extensive, it integrates capably with any tool that a developer is likely to use in tandem with it, and offers direct database connectivity. Finally, its code completion feature, IntelliSense, helps developers code better, and is reliable for generating basic code.

Compared to IntelliJ IDEA, NetBeans is similarly praised for its ease of use and strong integration with version control options (e.g. Git). It also boasts code complete options with in-built defactoring and debugging that work. Notably, it works for Java but is not as Java-focused as IntelliJ IDEA.  NetBeans also supports C/C++ and PHP development. Lastly, NetBeans includes the Visual Web Pack, which supports rapid development with drag-and-drop binding to data sources, and is well-regarded.

Limitations

NetBeans and IntelliJ IDEA present users with some limitations to consider.

IntelliJ IDEA is primarily Java-focused, and also is described by users as a resource hog, consuming high CPU and loads of memory while running. Additionally, its installation files are larger than other IDEs, leading to a tedious startup process, and upgrades that take a fair amount of time to complete. Because the Ultimate edition presents a cost, it can give the solo-dev pause when there are many free options available.

NetBeans also presents resource usage issues, however these reports are primarily about performance in the course of working with large projects, with some speculating that the IDE is not terribly memory efficient. The IDE can be slow to open, and unstable when handling large projects. Additionally, the downside to being free and open source is that users do not receive individual-level white glove support. Support is available at the community level only.

Pricing

Apache NetBeans is available free, and is extensible with free plugins as well. IntelliJ IDEA’s Community Edition is free, but the more desirable IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate JVM IDE is available for $499 the first year, $399 the second, and $299 each subsequent year per user. For $649 per user IntelliJ IDEA is available in JetBrains’ “All Products Pack,” which bundles the Java IDE with a suite of related developer tools and IDEs (CLion, PyCharm). The second year cost for the bundle is $519, and the cost for each subsequent year is $389 per user.

Best Alternatives
IntelliJ IDEANetBeans
Small Businesses
PyCharm
PyCharm
Score 9.3 out of 10
PyCharm
PyCharm
Score 9.3 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
PyCharm
PyCharm
Score 9.3 out of 10
PyCharm
PyCharm
Score 9.3 out of 10
Enterprises
PyCharm
PyCharm
Score 9.3 out of 10
PyCharm
PyCharm
Score 9.3 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
IntelliJ IDEANetBeans
Likelihood to Recommend
8.5
(55 ratings)
7.8
(22 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
5.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.1
(4 ratings)
9.0
(2 ratings)
Support Rating
8.9
(15 ratings)
8.5
(4 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
IntelliJ IDEANetBeans
Likelihood to Recommend
JetBrains
For a modern software project, where you want to store everything as code, from the backend to the frontend, to the DB patch scripts, to the documents, API specs, diagrams, infrastructure-as-code, etc. IntelliJ is basically your one-stop. In the same IDE, you can write code, write a spec, draw diagrams, make changes to patch scripts, infrastructure definition.
Read full review
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.
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.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
Cons
JetBrains
  • 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.
Read full review
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.
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.
Read full review
Open Source
No answers on this topic
Usability
JetBrains
The user interface for IntelliJ Idea is phenomenal. It's got the usual JetBrains interface but it works well to support all Java processes. All in all, it is a solid product and to be expected from JetBrains who creates this integrated development environment software. It allows me to test in the IDE and run other manual workflows automatically such as install packages.
Read full review
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.
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.
Read full review
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.
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.
Read full review
Open Source
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
JetBrains
Microsoft Visual Studio Code (VS) requires a lot of textual configuration, where IntelliJ IDEA provides a graphical interface with configuration options displayed. This matters a lot to me as I don't want to hunt around the internet to remember how to set different parameters that I don't use very often. This may be the biggest reason I don't use VS. Eclipse was great for when I was in college, but the power offered by IDEA is so much better that I haven't actually looked back since.
Read full review
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
Read full review
Return on Investment
JetBrains
  • IntelliJ wasn't provided as complimentary, but the pricing was reasonable. We're healthcare organization of which our applications used to be mission critical and affect to patient safety, we were willing to pay the price.
  • With the pricing, business support was good and well conducted during the project.
  • Overall it was cost-effective as it saved our developers' time in general. (We don't have quantitative measure but we got feedback from them)
Read full review
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.
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 inspections to help find probable bugs and dead code, detect performance issues, and improve the overall code structure by providing quick-fixes for any code that contains potential concerns.Screenshot of IntelliJ IDEA's support for frameworks with dedicated assistance for Jakarta EE, JPA, Reactor, Spring and Spring Boot, and other popular frameworks.Screenshot of the AI Assistant that provides AI-powered features for software development. It can explain code, answer questions about code fragments, provide code suggestions, generate documentation, and commit messages.