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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

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

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Announcement | Introducing the AWS Toolkit for IntelliJ IDEA

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

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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

(1-13 of 13)
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Dushyant Pathak (DKP) | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
IntelliJ IDEA is our preferred IDE for developing enterprise Java applications. Over 10000 developers use the IDE across over 300k repositories, which drives the core infrastructure of the bank, generating revenue in billions. We use it to write code, build and test our Java applications. Since our firm is a banking organization built on a complex, in-house technology and infrastructure system, an IDE is the fundamental building block.
  • Excellent plugin support for running Java applications
  • Easy to use and intuitive code editor with great syntax highlighting
  • Great inbuilt build tool support to run and debug applications from the browser
  • Its version control integration is slightly complex compared to vs code, not allowing us to stage, unstage changes easily, meaning most developers are forced to use the terminal
  • It is extremely heavy on RAM consumption and often hangs up on low RAM machines
  • Despite being the defacto Java IDE, It doesn't provide additional features to help move debug recurring Java errors
IntelliJ IDEA is most well suited for enterprise-level Java application development due to its inbuilt IDE and code running, debugging features as well as plugin support. The most common Maven and Java commands needed to run an application are easily available, making it easy to focus on the actual development, than setup.

IntelliJ IDEA, however, lacks end-to-end support. It doesn't help us anywhere post the completion of development. It also lacks support for other languages, making other IDEs like vs code more useful for frontend applications. It is also a pain to use in machines with limited RAM.
Nitin Gupta | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
IntelliJ IDEA is a really useful software for our organization it is used in our department for development purposes as it supports all the major languages and our developers like the user interface which is similar to the other IDEs in the market this makes it a major plus for us.
  • Support for all major languages.
  • Easy and interactive user interface.
  • Support for lot of developer tools.
  • Performance can be improved to run on low-end machines.
  • More developer friendly tools can be included.
  • Navigation to various parts of software is a new learning curve it should be par with other IDEs.
This is a great software which has helped us in delivering the requirement for our clients on time as the developers don't need to learn the user interface from scratch also developer tools are a major plus point. This only lacks in performance where we have to bring more capable machines for work.
September 30, 2021

The best Java IDE

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
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 bet this will bring great productivity for our team.
  • Perfect for those who have had experience with other JetBrains tools.
  • Support for multiple frameworks.
  • Integration with servers and databases
  • Pricing is too high.
  • In the community edition there is lack of framework support.
Like other products from JetBrains, it is an IDE that integrates all the needs for projects of various frameworks. You have handy features to send commands to the terminal, access its database (view and make changes), run your code and debug simply. But it is an IDE that requires a lot of RAM, but compared to other IDEs on the market this is the best one for Java developing.
Tharsanan Kurukulasingam | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
My day-to-day work involves Java development and version control related tasks. IntelliJ IDEA is a very use full editor that solves many aspects of the development. Switching between branches, committing the changes is very straightforward. I find it very easy to write Java code in this IDE because of the simple and straightforward UI.
  • UI is very intuitive
  • Built-in IntelliSense for Java
  • A lot of plugins to try out
  • Performance and CPU usage
  • It would be great if Intellij has a workspace concept
  • Intellij can improve on handling large projects.
Write Java code--IntelliJ IDEA is the best IDE for Java I ever used. The built-in IntelliSense make the development very easy and fast.

Intuitive UI--A very simple but complete UI learning curve for a beginner is very low compared to other IDEs. Personally this UI makes me comfortable while working.

Handling large projects--In this area, IntelliJ IDEA has some downsides. When opening a large project in IntelliJ IDEA, often my laptop hangs. So to work with large projects, I would recommend Eclipse.

Version control--Super easy in Intellij IDEA. It's easy to switch between branches, committing, seeing annotations, history, etc. The built-in version control system is super cool.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Kevan Dunsmore | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use IntelliJ IDEA as our primary IDE for software development. We use it to develop Java, Scala, Python, Ruby, Node.js and front end Javascript code for our entire platform. As part of that development, we write unit tests, integration tests and end-to-end tests for our software. Intellij IDEA is used by all development groups.
  • Smart code development - completion and suggestions are a strong point.
  • Code presentation - folding and highlighting make reading code easy.
  • Tool integration - Download extension plugins for any type of file you want to edit.
  • Source control integration - Use any source control system you like. We use Git and the integration is super simple.
  • IntelliJ IDEA is a *big* product - the learning curve is very steep. I've been using it for years now, so it doesn't affect me too much anymore but developers new to it often get overwhelmed. Perhaps limiting the options, in a similar way to the separate IDE products (RubyMine, PyCharm, etc) would help streamline and reduce the curve.
  • The plugin system is rich but very difficult to navigate and find plugins that might be useful.
I use it for pretty much everything, from Java development to scripting. However, some of the developers will use it only for larger development tasks and wouldn't use it for, say, bash scripting, where they feel it is somewhat heavyweight for a task like that.
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