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Overview

What is IntelliJ IDEA?

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.

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

IntelliJ IDEA has become the go-to IDE for developers working on various projects across different industries. With its support for …
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Intelligent IntelliJ

9 out of 10
May 06, 2022
I use IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate Edition for all my development needs. In addition to the great features, it allows for plugins which my …
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The power packed IDE

10 out of 10
March 30, 2022
The IntelliJ IDEA is a central tool that I use on almost a daily basis for most of my development. I am an SAP Hybris developer so have to …
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The best Java IDE

10 out of 10
September 30, 2021
Incentivized
My team is migrating from other IDEs to IntelliJ, I've had experience with other JetBrains IDEs and it's been a great change for me, we …
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Pricing

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For Individual Use

$16.90

On Premise
per month

All Products Pack (For Individual Use)

$28.90

On Premise
per month

For Organizations

$59.90

On Premise
per month

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://www.jetbrains.com/idea/buy

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Starting price (does not include set up fee)

  • $16.90 per month
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Product Demos

VSTS plugin for Android Studio and IntelliJ IDEA

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How to set up IntelliJ IDEA CE for JavaFX on Windows 7

YouTube

AWS Toolkit for IntelliJ - Setup Demo and Deploy a Lambda Function to AWS

YouTube

Announcement | Introducing the AWS Toolkit for IntelliJ IDEA

YouTube

JavaFX Tutorial | JavaFX Connect to MySQL Database (2021) - Basic Demo

YouTube
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Product Details

What is IntelliJ IDEA?

IntelliJ IDEA, a JetBrains IDE, is an integrated development environment for Java and Kotlin development. It helps users produce high-quality code more efficiently, is designed to provide everything needed out of the box, and takes care of routine tasks so users can stay focused on the bigger picture.

IntelliJ IDEA Features

  • Supported: Advanced Code Editor
  • Supported: Code Understanding
  • Supported: Collaborative and Remote
  • Supported: Out-Of-The-Box Experience

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.

IntelliJ IDEA Video

Overview of IntelliJ IDEA

IntelliJ IDEA Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise
Operating SystemsWindows, Linux, Mac
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

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.

IntelliJ IDEA starts at $16.9.

Eclipse, NetBeans, and Android Studio are common alternatives for IntelliJ IDEA.

Reviewers rate Usability highest, with a score of 9.1.

The most common users of IntelliJ IDEA are from Enterprises (1,001+ employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(336)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

IntelliJ IDEA has become the go-to IDE for developers working on various projects across different industries. With its support for front-end technologies, major frameworks, and advanced code completion, users have been able to develop websites quickly and efficiently. The exceptional speed and performance of the IDE have been praised by users, surpassing other popular IDEs like Eclipse. The versatile nature of IntelliJ IDEA makes it widely used for Java development, including building Android applications, maintaining version control, and integrating with tools like DB connections and Maven. Organizations have found IntelliJ IDEA to be the standard IDE for code development, reducing development time and offering enterprise features not found in other IDEs. Freelance Java developers also find IntelliJ IDEA highly beneficial in terms of faster backend code writing, learning new skills, and improving programming proficiency. With its compatibility with JVM-based languages like Java, Scala, and Kotlin, IntelliJ IDEA provides better code formatting, Git support, and unit test case running. The robustness and user-friendliness of the IDE make it a preferred choice for software engineers working on Java and Spring-based projects. Additionally, IntelliJ IDEA's customizable nature and strong reliability have made it a trusted tool among developers across industries such as healthcare, web application development, and enterprise application development.

Clean and customizable user interface: Users have consistently praised the clean, customizable, and intuitive user interface of IntelliJ IDEA. Several reviewers have mentioned their appreciation for the ability to personalize the IDE according to their own needs, allowing them to work efficiently and stay organized.

Extensive plugin support: Many users have highlighted the extensive plugin support in IntelliJ IDEA as a major advantage. The wide range of plugins available, such as those for Markdown documents, OpenApi specifications, and PlantUML diagrams, enhance the development experience by providing additional functionalities and increasing productivity.

Excellent language support with code completion: Reviewers have frequently commended IntelliJ IDEA for its excellent support for different programming languages. They specifically mention the auto-completion feature based on DOM model and browser that allows them to complete code quickly and efficiently. This feature has been particularly useful for completing projects within tight deadlines or complex coding tasks.

Default Number of Plugins: Some users have expressed that the default number of plugins in IntelliJ IDEA is excessive, and they suggest starting with a smaller set of plugins and allowing users to add them later according to their needs.

Activiti Workflows Support: The Activiti workflows support in IntelliJ IDEA is considered lacking by some users, especially on complex projects. They feel that improvements are needed to enhance its functionality and usability.

Dependency Management Reliability: Dependency management on complex projects is not considered reliable by some users. This issue may cause difficulties in managing project dependencies effectively and can hinder development progress.

Users recommend trying the free edition of IntelliJ IDEA and learning its shortcuts and menus to enhance productivity. They suggest that Eclipse users switch to IntelliJ, except for Android developers. IntelliJ is highly recommended for professional developers and those working with a limited number of technologies. To improve the experience, it is suggested to have 16GB of RAM. According to users, IntelliJ's pricing is worth it if a company's revenue exceeds the annual cost. It is highly recommended for Java and related projects, especially if there have been issues with Eclipse. Users believe that IntelliJ is the only true multi-role IDE for Mac users and advise learning its keyboard shortcuts. They also highlight the value offered by plugins for IntelliJ.

While Visual Studio is recommended specifically for .NET development, users generally recommend IntelliJ for other use cases. They find that IntelliJ supports multiple languages and frameworks out of the box, making it versatile and worth trying out. For general Java development tasks, users find IntelliJ much easier and cleaner than Netbeans and Eclipse.

Lastly, users appreciate that IntelliJ is easy to use overall.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(26-50 of 55)
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November 10, 2019

My review of IntelliJ

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
All Java developers are using IntelliJ IDEA at LinkedIn. It's the only supported Java IDE in our company. Java developers use it to build everything.
  • Auto-complete. It can always help you find the APIs you need.
  • Extension and plugins. There are many third-party plugins that can improve developer productivity. It's also easy to develop your own plugins quickly.
  • Debugging. IntelliJ offers a full set of features to support debugging your program.
  • Performance. Sometimes it's slow if you are developing a large project.
It's a great IDE for Java developers. I recommend IntelliJ for everyday Java development, especially for large companies.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
All Java and Clojure developers use this tool at my company. The development is quite fast with this tool as it provides a lot of features like autocompletion etc. It is not being used across company wide but restricted to few teams only. It has helped us in writing day to day code in a very fast and easy manner.
  • Inbuilt support for a web server which makes Java web application faster
  • Auto code completion. By just typing a few words, it will complete the whole code block like try catch.
  • Lots of plugins like Sonar Lint. Using those you can analyse your code while writing it
  • Provides a decompiled code of libraries which can help a lot
  • It is a very heavy tool and consumes a lot of memory
  • If you are a new java developer, then you shouldn't use it heavily as it will affect your learning ability
I have had a very good experience using this tool for Java and Clojure development. Not sure how useful it will be for other languages like NodeJs. But for Java developers, it is the best thing to use.
Zhann Goloborodko | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
IntelliJ IDEA is being used by our software team when developing our Java applications. This is by far the best Java IDE I have come across. It is incredibly intuitive, very customizable and a huge step up from Eclipse.
  • Integrates well with Maven
  • Autocomplete is immensely intuitive
  • Automatically generates boilerplate code
  • Immense amount of shortcuts
  • Very good at understanding the nature of Java programs, jumping well from place to place
  • Some upgrades don't work well for me
  • Memory intensive
  • Not as many plugins as Eclipse
When developing Java code, there is no better IDE.
Rahul Rajput | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I have been using IntelliJ IDEA for more than 2 years. As a Data Engineer at my company Datametica, I have been using IntelliJ IDEA to work in Scala and Spark, and I also need to work with Shell scripting too. This software is so easy to use and is very helpful in rapid development.
  • It auto imports all the packages from the pom.xml in my Scala development.
  • Makes easy suggestions to improve code.
  • Helpful when migrating code from one version to another.
  • Heavy to use/run.
  • Sometimes it gets stuck/freezes and work will be lost.
  • Costly.
It is well suited in Android and Scala development, I would definitely recommend it to all of my friends for this. The dark theme is really relaxing on the eyes. I would say it is much heavier on your PC and much costlier than other available software.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
IntelliJ idea is being used as the core Java integrated development environment for my organization's project. It is being used by 3 teams across different functions and the business problem it solves is the need for a cross platform, uniform environment to write code in Java that can be tested thoroughly.
  • integrated development environment
  • code testing
  • code organization
  • documentation
IntelliJ Idea is best suited for Java development. If you are using a different language than IntelliJ Idea would not be sufficient for the various workflows and processes that are needed for Java development.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I am a software developer, mainly using Java. This tool is the right tool for me to develop my applications with comfort. For me, the reason to use this tool is that it has all the features for the developer for each area. For example, if you are developing some web application it provides tools for managing your database and web server.
  • It supports all the areas where Java is used
  • It provides very advanced features for the developers such as, for development, testing, and for the management
  • It is easy to use and easy to install
  • There are a lot of plugins which provide flexibility for the developers
  • There is a big community which develops plugins
  • File indexing for each project is taking too much time sometimes
  • Becasue of complex features the application is not working smoothly on slow computers
  • The UI of the application is complex for the newbies
This tool is designed for all the developers who are using Java. For example, if you are a web developer and you are developing both front end and back end, you will be able to develop both parts from this application. You do not need to use some extra tool for another part of your application. If you have a database for your application and you want to manage it you do not need to use some extra tool for database management, this tool provides you a feature where you can manage and manipulate your database. If you are developing a web application and you want to run it, you do not need to install a web server for the application because IntelliJ has preinstalled web server where you can run your web applications.
Dylan Cauwels | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
IntelliJ is used by myself and my team whenever we need to develop any java applications that are more than 2-3 packages. It's much simpler than Eclipse or any other open source IDE. Yes, you have to pay for it, and it can get expensive if you're an independent contractor, but as a company, it's an easily justifiable expense.
  • Indexing files and adjusting the project quickly.
  • Wide access to plugins.
  • Great company product support.
  • Slow indexing with large projects.
  • Complicated and slow-to-learn UI.
IntelliJ is great for all your complex java projects. It is quite a heavy program, so you're going to need some decent hardware to run it. It definitely is not good for scripting up quick solutions, as it takes a lot of set up to start coding, debugging, and running effectively.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
IntelliJ IDEA is being used extensively, but not exclusively, here at my place of work. Every team I've been on has relied heavily on it, and many other teams and departments do too. It solves the problem of having to use multiple tools with an IDE that doesn't integrate well with Maven or Node or Apache or Spring. IntelliJ IDEA is very powerful and boosts efficiency.
  • 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.
  • UI: The two provided themes leave a lot to be desired. The light theme is hard on the eyes, and the dark theme is very blank and looks old school. Functionality is great, but the UI could use some attention.
  • Price: If you're not using the Community version, IntelliJ IDEA can be quite pricey depending on your needs.
  • CPU demands: With bigger projects, IntelliJ IDEA certainly isn't the most efficient IDE out there. But it gets the job done!
IntelliJ IDEA is fantastic for all things Java. If you're starting or already working on a Java project, look no further than IntelliJ IDEA. If you want Gradle build integration or are using Maven or Apache, IntelliJ IDEA can do it all. It really is a complete development system with countless customization features available.
Johan Sarmiento | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Currently, my company is using IntelliJ IDEA in the development of Java projects. Its use is in the development of a desktop application at a recognized bank where the entire platform is based on this application, as well as the back-end where we use DB Sybase, and Java Maven for its integration. We also use the front-end with the Javascript in this tool.
  • User-Friendly
  • Nice interface
  • Easy integration with the git
  • Easy integration with almost any type of database, without interruptions or errors.
  • Improve the use and understanding of cucumber tests.
It is suitable for developing projects where it requires the use of all layers and the use of version control software. I think it would be inappropriate to use it only as a database client because for that there are other applications that are specifically dedicated to that.
February 15, 2019

Fast track development

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
IntelliJ IDEA is being used by many people in my organization. We use it for development, database access, and Salesforce querying. It's quite easy to write SOQL queries and get results using the Illuminating Cloud plugin for Salesforce. We also access databases such as Oracle on IntelliJ IDEA. The keyboard shortcuts are great.
  • It's a great tool which is very intuitive
  • It's very convenient for database access
  • With the Illuminating Cloud plugin, we can do SOQL queries very easily
  • I wish the licensing was easy. I have to buy a separate license for IntelliJ IDEA and Illuminating Cloud.
It is a great tool for Java/J2EE programming and integrating with version control systems such as Git and SVN, and databases such as Oracle. We can also integrate with maven and perform build automation on it. We also use this for SOQL querying for our Salesforce development, configuration, and data migration from one environment to another.
January 26, 2019

An insight on IntelliJ

Dilip Puri | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
IntelliJ is not being used by the whole company but it is being used few of us. Most of the time it is being used for Java development. It is really compatible with JVM based languages like Scala. It reduces the repetitive and mundane task, it can correct simple errors in code. It has really good suggestions in code, probably the best I have seen in all the IDEs.
  • It has the best coding suggestion among all the IDEs. It can handle basic syntax errors too. It works like real-time code inspection.
  • The other most important feature is auto-compilation. It automatically handles syntax errors too.
  • It has the best code debugger. At any breakpoint, you can see what the code does.
  • It has inbuilt database management support too.
  • IntelliJ requires a good amount of RAM, so if you have at least 8 gb ram then no issues.
  • The learning curve for IntelliJ is a bit steep compared to other IDE.
  • It is really resource intensive. It uses too much power, and a good amount of ram and processing power.
IntelliJ is best suited if you are using a desktop or connected with a power source, otherwise it drains your battery too quickly. IntelliJ is best suited if you are using either Java or JVM based languages. Since this is a commercialized IDE it has little community and sometimes when you are stuck then you may not find support that easily.
Dhruba Jyoti Nag | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
IntelliJ IDEA is used by developers in our organization as the standard IDE to develop code. It drastically reduces time to develop effective code and being an enterprise licensed product , it offers enterprise features which are not present in other IDES like Eclipse or STS. It is mainly used to develop efficient code in quick time.
  • Debugging in Java is easier in IDEA.
  • Code hinting is way ahead and more smart.
  • Code refactoring is much more easier since more options are given here.
  • 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.
IntelliJ IDEA is well suited for someone involved in enterprise Java development. It helps in auto completion, code refactoring and debugging. However if someone wants to use it for development in other languages, it may not be well suited. It comes with a cost, so that should be factored in as well. It is also not as fast as Eclipse, though it is much more efficient.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
My company is a non-profit healthcare delivery institute and running a lot of clinical and consumer-facing IT applications. Recently we developed a web application inside our patient portal, which is a tool where our patients can enter their family history information and the system returns genetic risk assessment scores. We used IntelliJ IDEA to develop the application. We used Javascript and HTML5 for front-end, Oracle 11g for storing data, Java for back end service, and Cerner's patient portal for container of the application.
  • 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.
  • Pricing matters. It is not terribly expensive, but there are other open source based tools as function as IntelliJ
  • It’s smaller ecosystem compared to Eclipse, since it has been all private for long and a single-company product. Nonetheless, there are good support and rich knowledge sources online.
  • The tool itself used to be unstable, slow, and crash, especially scanning or indexing directories.
The biggest advantage of IntelliJ in our project was its source control capabilities. We had to work with old codes from previous version of the application and new environment. Integration was simple in IntelliJ and well managed in there. Our project wasn't a big project, it was a web application for patients, but we believe it will work well at an enterprise level, and critical applications such as the ones in clinical / acute care settings.
Rounak Jangir | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Most of the time, I personally use this tool. And I mostly use this tool for Java development including a web application of Java to normal command line app of Java. Not everyone uses this, some of us use Eclipse and NetBeans as well. With intellIj it's very easy to handle a Maven or Gradle project. Adding dependency with just one click is very good. It made Java development a lot easier.
  • Developing the web application in Java does a fantastic thing
  • Even when creating the command line app or a simple desktop app with Java, intelIj performs very well
  • It has lots of feature like auto pom/gradle refresh, auto suggestion, auto completion etc.
  • It should be made light weighted. Whenever I run this tool it consumes lot of RAM and make whole system slow.
  • It is too costly to afford by everyone.
  • It can be made better or should have good support for web programming language like javascript, nodejs, angular etc.
If you are doing web development or some other kind of app building using Java then you should definitely use IntelliJ only. It has lots and lots of features and support for Java. But if you are not doing Java, and are doing web programming using AngularJs or reactJs then it is not a great choice as there are a lot of other editor/IDEs which can do better like VS Code.
December 11, 2018

Great IDE for everyone

Ilya Popovich | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Everyone who is involved in Java software developing in our company uses IntelliJ IDEA. Doesn't matter if you are a developer or a software developer in test - you will find a spectrum of necessary tools for you. The main problem that is solved using IDEA: you get strong reliable IDE with dozens of useful plugins.
  • Clean, customizable UI.
  • Code refactoring is easier than ever.
  • VSC is supported out of the box.
  • It works with many languages.
  • High pricing.
  • RAM greedy.
  • Learning curve for newbies is very steep.
Definitely I'll recommend IDEA IntelliJ for anyone, it's IDE standard for now. Even if you don't have the money for a subscription, you can try the Community Edition to find out all the pros of using IDEA.
December 03, 2018

The best Java IDE

James Pautz II | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is generally used widely by the technical teams at my company. We aren't required to use one IDE or another, but since IntelliJ IDEA is an excellent IDE that is cross-platform, it is widely adopted. A few of my co-workers use Eclipse, and I used to as well, but I've made the switch and have been happy with IDEA.
  • The UI is clean, has an excellent built-in dark theme, and is customize-able. I was able to easily switch the keyboard shortcuts to Eclipse's shortcuts, making the switch to IDEA seamless.
  • The code-completion is fast and intuitive
  • Code validation is very helpful
  • It is slow to initially load
  • It uses a fair bit of memory
If you are writing Java in almost any context, it is a worthwhile IDE. I'm mostly doing scripting with Java and it works great.

I don't think it is the best GUI for source control. I find its Subversion implementation clunky at best. I haven't used the Git integration, but I can't imaging it being much different.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Enterprise Java is used heavily in our technology stack, IntelliJ provides strong support and tools for developing Java applications. It is being used widely across the organization. It allows one application to be used for multiple coding languages, stacks - and a wide variety of technology support - essentially being a very capable all-in-one IDE that allows development across all stacks.
  • Allows strong support for Web/Javascript and PHP-based applications, as well as Java-based applications, among many other modern and popular technologies
  • Plugin support is strong, extending the capability of the application.
  • Customization of the IDE to the requirements of the project or the engineers, designer, or developers preferences
  • REST client and API-development tools could use some improvements. Currently, there are other tools that do a better job helping to develop rest APIs
  • In some cases, the IDE can become slow, or use a lot or system resources, mostly from running processes, but IntelliJ does not have an easy way to monitor in the IDE.
IntelliJ is well suited for Java development. It is also well suited for Typescript/Javascript and PHP projects, including Angular, React, or other front-end technologies.

IntelliJ is less appropriate for database modeling and is also less suited for REST service design.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
For the implementation of modules and large projects, which are managed in the areas of software and development, which can generate a more efficient and higher quality work, given its interface.
  • The immense quality of its graphical and user interface.
  • It allows adding plug-ins or cookies, among other extensions which can be downloaded directly from the same IDE.
  • It offers a pleasant UI with a variety of options that can be adjusted.
  • Having to add a lot of options and modifications that seem endless
  • It becomes cumbersome and annoying to have updates/changes occurring all the time, which does not allow one to become familiar with the software.
Suitable for creating project, whether in Windows or Linux. Since it is well associated with Open Source, its concept of depth gives it a wide field like native apps.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
IntelliJ IDEA is used by some departments in my organization for the development of Java-based applications. It is an IDE that is basically universal in terms of developing applications using the mainstream technologies and it really provides full debugging, easy to remember shortcuts and great suggestions for making development more efficient and effective.
  • It provides great debugging features for most applications that can support features such as watching and manipulating objects while the code is running
  • It fully supports the development of Android applications; minimal setup is required for getting the IDE up and ready
  • A great strength is the ability to change the project folder structures based on preferences, for instance, you could change the structure from viewing by the program's packages rather than it's project files
  • It would make life a bit easier if the IDE allowed the development of .Net applications out of the box. One would have to download plugins for this to work however this is not a show stopper as there are numerous plugins that can assists
If one wants to develop applications using the Java or even the Kotlin language, IntelliJ IDEA is well suited for this. It shines in its suggestion tips, marvelous debugging features, and ability to easily create unit tests right out of the box. It comes fully integrated with Gradle, therefore, dependencies can be easily managed.

Don't use this if you want to do .Net development because a lot of plugins would have to be added to the IDE to fully support all the features that one would need. However, it can be done regardless with a little effort.
August 09, 2018

IntelliJ IDEA Review

Gautum Suresh | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
IntelliJ is being used by all developers across the software engineering team for development in Java. It serves as the de-facto IDE for every developer and we all use it to develop within our local environment.
  • Its smart package import is massively helpful. Simplifies the coding process
  • Creating a project is very simple and you can get started very quickly and spend more time developing.
  • Large plugin ecosystem make it so IntelliJ can be even more functional beyond what it ships as.
  • IntelliJ has confusing menus and it takes a lot more effort than it should sometimes to add dependencies.
  • Projects are not auto-built, so compilation issues might occur when you run a build you had no idea were present, wasting time.
  • I use Spring, and it constantly raises the 'not used' warning around controller methods and autowired fields, which is annoying.
It is a very smart Java IDE that I enjoy using, and would recommend it as the go-to program to develop Java applications.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
IntelliJ IDEA is currently being used across the team . It helps us code efficiently as its easy to track project structures, go back to originating classes and modules to understand a project better. I personally like using this IDE to modify existing project code, as tracking of referenced objects and classes is helpful.
  • Helps find repetitive blocks of code.
  • Very good for refactoring code.
  • Easy to catch errors before compiling code, this saves time.
  • CPU intensive to run on the computer especially as project gets bigger.
  • May require a bit of reading to learn how to use the tool efficiently.
  • Could be a bit more user friendly, the tips sections do help though.
IntelliJ IDEA recently helped me in refactoring an old code base. Its code duplication and referenced object features helped immensely in understanding the project and helped me write code more efficiently. Most of the IDE features require learning a lot of keyboard shortcuts if you want to save time, but this is a steep learning slope as memorizing them takes time. In the end, you only use features for which you remember keyboard shortcuts.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
IntelliJ was the main IDE of choice for our development team. Primarily focused on Scala development, but also for web development. It allows the team to easily focus on their code and not waste time fiddling with plugins/configurations for 2 hours or more throughout the day.
  • Excellent Scala IDE
  • Excellent developer tools (console, REST API tester, etc)
  • Great ecosystem for plugins
  • Works with many languages - great for a polyglot or full stack scenario
  • Since the IDE is written on the JVM - it has all the inherent issues with UIs built on Swing that run in the JVM. Memory bloat and slowness. These items are addressed occasionally, but as of late they seem to be creeping up.
  • The web based development tools are almost impossible to use anymore - something is going on when editing HTML that just brings my system to its knees.
  • Seems like there are constant updates. This can be good - but also distracting. I’ve had a number of upgrades that I had to back out due to regressions or other issues
Great Java and Scala IDE. Good for polyglot. But for web, you’re better off using another solution.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
IntelliJ IDEA is used as an Integrated Development Environment. It is being used across the whole organization. It is very helpful for software developers to develop software efficiently.
  • There is a vast number of integrated plugins that make them more efficient compared to other IDEs.
  • Built-in integrations with Version Control Systems such as Tortoise SVN and GIT helps software developers to avoid the integration chaos with the project repositories.
  • The shortcuts are not the same as other IDEs, which made it difficult during transformation from other IDEs to IntelliJ IDEA. It would have been very helpful if the shortcuts are as same as Eclipse IDE. Because Eclipse was a widely used IDE and many people transform from Eclipse to IntelliJ and in the initial days, they find it difficult to learn/remember the new shortcuts.
It is well-suited for dynamic software development that involves many libraries/plugins integrations with the workspace. Also well-suited in places where the code repository is maintained by a version control.
Janaka Bandara | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
IDEA has been our IDE of choice for as long as we can remember. We are quite satisfied with its advanced features, add-on driven extensibility, user-friendliness, and robustness. While the Community Edition has great support for most of our work, the Ultimate's license is definitely worth the price has given the plethora of additional features that it unlocks.
  • Seamless VCS integration: we use both Git and Mercurial, without ever having to resort to command-line tools
  • Built-in support for multiple languages and file formats, complete with syntax coloring, auto-format, and suggestions
  • Built-in Java class decompilation feature for quick peeks into third-party library sources
  • Rich extensibility via plugins, both built-in and third party
  • Support for JavaScript in Community Edition: understandably this is a strategical decision, but still, it would have been awesome if Community had JavaScript!
  • Indexing can sometimes hinder development progress, especially in large projects
I really cannot think of a scenario where IntelliJ IDEA is not appropriate or is less appropriate! Whether it is your pet project or a full-blown enterprise development, IDEA will do its part, gracefully and beautifully. Throw in a few plugins (Python, Go etc.) and you have all your non-Java projects covered as well.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
IntelliJ IDEA is Jetbrain's product for Java development work. This IDE is used in our product development department as the IDE of choice for back-end development work that is mainly done in Apex (a subset of Java language proprietary of Salesforce). IntelliJ IDEA comes with Illuminated Cloud plugin that we use to deploy our code to Salesforce development orgs. This IDE offers full feature support for multiple frameworks and comes equipped with Git, bash terminal, debugger, and auto-linter.
  • If I have to select a single IDE to use for multiple languages and frameworks, I'll go with IntelliJ IDE.
  • The IDE offers quick and easy IntelliSense that is superior in most cases to Eclipse.
  • Comes with out of the box support for Version control systems like Git. The built-in Terminal debugger comes in handy as well.
  • The IDE is a resource hog and takes a long time initializing after startup to index all the code files.
  • The IDE can randomly crash sometimes and code search hangs if selecting large directories to scan.
  • If you don't have the community edition then the pricing for the product can be fairly expensive.
The IDE is ideal for Java related development work. However, if you want to maintain only a single IDE in your arsenal IntelliJ IDEA will do a great job. Since at our company we do most of our development atop the Salesforce platform we need to use the Illuminated Cloud plugin to integrate into the IDE. Since this tool is fairly resourced intensive, many developers might just be better off going with Visual Studio code for some lightweight work.
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