Eclipse vs IntelliJ Idea

[Billy Pilgrim]

I have been recently programming a lot in Java using Eclipse. I have heard good things about IntelliJ and I was wondering whether it is worth switching to it. I would appreciate any advice.

[Trinopoty]

IntelliJ blows Eclipse clean out of the water when it comes to Java.

The only down side of IntelliJ is that there are different products for different platforms/languages whereas Eclipse provides everything in one using plugins.

[Nayr438]

Jetbrains makes really good products and I personally recommend them. Can't personally speak for Java however.

Their products do cost, but you could download it and use the 30 Day Full Featured Trial to see how it works for you.

Really anything is better than eclipse in my personal opinion. Its become quite bloated and messy over the years.

[colonel_mortis]

I'm a fan of IntelliJ for Java, and would strongly recommend it. There are a few features that are in the (paid) ultimate edition but not the (free) community edition, but they are basically all negligible (all I've run into is front-end web stuff, but VS Code is perfectly adequate for that).

[Mortenrb]

I personally like IntelliJ alot better than Eclipse for all Java-related development, but if you want to use it for multiple languages, Eclipse is a cost and disk-space saving alternative, comparet to a new IDE for each language.

[Eigenvektor]

You can use their community edition for free. Why not give it a try and see for yourself how you like it.

 

I've worked with Eclipse a lot and my first contact with IntelliJ (in the form of Android Studio) wasn't smooth since there were quite a few differences. So be prepared for a bit of a learning curve, especially if you use keyboard shortcuts a lot.

 

Since then I've switched to IntelliJ for other Java development as well and upgraded to the paid version. There's a lot of nice little convenience features I no longer want to miss.