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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

    Vim

    Score9.8 out of 10
    N/AVim (Vi IMproved) is a highly configurable, free to download and use, Modal Text Editor derived from the classic Unix vi editor. It is designed for terminal-based and graphical text manipulation, prioritizing keyboard-centric efficiency and high-fidelity control over source code and configuration files.

    $0

    Pricing
    IntelliJ IDEAVim
    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
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    IntelliJ IDEAVim
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level 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 / yearVim is available as a free download.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    IntelliJ IDEAVim
    Considered Both Products
    JetBrains
    Chose IntelliJ IDEA
    Since we are primarily a Scala shop, I only evaluated other tools based on their support for Scala. As I hinted at before, Vim and Sublime Text 3 have practically no support for Scala as all the Scala plugins that worked were never finished and abandoned and only work for Scala …
    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
    Open Source
    Chose Vim
    I use Vim for specific use cases and others for their own purposes but all of them are being used at my work every day. Vim has its pros like it's free/open source, has a mouse free interface, is lightweight and fast, and once learned is hard to forget.
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    94%
    Would buy again
    31 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    5 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    90%
    Delivers good value for the price
    27 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    5 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    97%
    Happy with the feature set
    32 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    5 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    96%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    22 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    5 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    30 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    5 Answers
    Best Alternatives
    IntelliJ IDEAVim
    Small Businesses
    Visual Studio
    Score8.8 out of 10
    BBEdit
    Score10 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    PyCharm
    Score9.3 out of 10
    Notepad++
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Enterprises
    WebStorm
    Score9.6 out of 10
    Sublime Text
    Score8.8 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    IntelliJ IDEAVim
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.5
    (59 ratings)
    10.0
    (9 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    9.8
    (9 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.9
    (15 ratings)
    6.0
    (5 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    IntelliJ IDEAVim
    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
    Open Source
    I would recommend Vim in any scenario where text files have to be viewed, created, or edited on GNU/Linux computers. Regardless if you need to quickly change a few things in a configuration file, or you need to write up a full document, Vim is great. I wouldn't use Vim to view, edit, or create anything that requires "rich-text". In other words, if you need to format the text (bolding, font colours, word-art, etc), then Vim isn't the tool to use.
    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
    Open Source
    • 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
    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
    Open Source
    • 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
    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
    Open Source
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Open Source
    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
    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
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    Open Source
    There is no commercial support for Vim. Thus, it will not get a mark beyond 5. However, community support is very good. You can easily find solutions for most of the problems in the community.
    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
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    Open Source
    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
    Open Source
    Vim's keybindings are a lot more complex than Notepad++. With that, comes a whole bunch of capability that Notepad++ just can't match. Emacs is comparable, in terms of capabilities--because Vim is built into so many unix systems, I chose to learn it instead of Emacs. Knowing both probably isn't a bad idea, but there's enough to learn in either camp to keep you busy
    Incentivized
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    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
    Open Source
    • It always increases productivity.
    • Sometimes feature discovery is not easy. It could be documented well like how to install a plugin and if it supported well or not.
    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.