# IntelliJ IDEA Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra > Is IntelliJ IDEA the right Application Development solution for you? Explore 1256 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice. Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/136010/IntelliJ-IDEA/reviews --- IntelliJ IDEA 4.7 (1256) [View alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/136010/IntelliJ-IDEA/alternatives/) Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/our-story/) * * * Last updated March 13th, 2026 # Reviews of IntelliJ IDEA Ease of use 4.5 Customer Service 4.3 ## Pros and Cons in Reviews Alexandre B StudentHigher Education, 10,001+ employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “Its powerful indexing and deep code analysis predict what I need to write and also , it catches potential errors even before compilation, which is especially helpful for my Java projects at university as a CS student .“ January 23, 2026 Alexandre B StudentHigher Education, 10,001+ employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “The IDE can be quite resource intensive, consuming a large amount of RAM. When multiple projects are open, or if you’re using a mid-range laptop, you may notice some lag or slower startup times.“ January 23, 2026 Abdelrahman A Associate software developerFinancial Services, 1,001 - 5,000 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “It also has seamless Docker integration, which streamlines my daily backend tasks and deployment preparations, the best plugin market and the compatibility with many services .“ March 2, 2026 Keshav C StudentE-Learning, Self-employedUsed the software for: I used a free trial. “Initial indexing can be slow“ March 23, 2026 JB Jeremy B Offensive Security ConsultantComputer & Network Security, 11 - 50 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “This IDE is pretty amazing, especially for web development where you may have HTML and CSS and PHP or JSP etc in a single file, integrated web server that can leverage php and tomcat binaries is really slick“ May 8, 2025 Ozzie B Senior Systems AdministratorComputer Software, 201 - 500 employeesUsed the software for: 1-2 years. “There's no complaints other than I wish it were free, but if it were I doubt the product would be the same.“ December 11, 2025 Alexandre B StudentHigher Education, 10,001+ employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “It significantly boosts my productivity. While it demands a lot of system resources, the sheer power and smart features it offers make it worth the trade-off“ January 23, 2026 Shad M PrivateOnline Media, Self-employedUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “Imagine life in corporate then you trip on a stone and die, was life worth it using this product for that many years at that rate?“ October 8, 2025 ## Showing most helpful reviews Showing 1-25 of 1256 Reviews Sort by: Most Helpful Rating Company Size Reviewer's Role Length of Use Frequency of Use Abdelrahman A. Associate software developer Financial Services Used the software for: 2+ years ### "The Ultimate IDE for Java & Spring Boot Backend Development" March 2, 2026 4.0 Transitioning into a professional company environment over the past few months, IntelliJ IDEA has been my primary and most reliable tool. It significantly boosted my productivity in writing clean Java code and managing complex backend architectures. The out-of-the-box features save me hours of configuration time every week. Pros The intelligent code completion and refactoring tools are lifesavers, especially when ensuring the code adheres to OOP and SOLID principles. The built-in integration for Spring Boot makes running, testing, and debugging REST APIs incredibly smooth. It also has seamless Docker integration, which streamlines my daily backend tasks and deployment preparations, the best plugin market and the compatibility with many services . Cons It is quite resource-heavy. Indexing large projects upon startup can take some time, and it consumes a significant amount of RAM so my device cry. You definitely need a machine with strong specifications (at least 16GB RAM) to run it smoothly alongside other tools without experiencing any lag, sometimes i should restart my device when i run many plugins to make it build the maven project smother Switched from [Apache NetBeans](https://www.capterra.com/p/178681/Apache-NetBeans/) While Apache NetBeans was a great learning tool during my university studies, I needed a more robust, industry-standard IDE for my professional backend work. IntelliJ IDEA offers far superior performance, advanced refactoring tools, and seamless, out-of-the-box support for enterprise frameworks and modern containerization tools, which are essential for handling complex logic in a company environment. Review Source Ozzie B. Senior Systems Administrator Computer Software Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "The Rolls-Royce of IDE's" December 11, 2025 5.0 My experience is much like others have said, JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA is the best IDE period. JetBrains knows their customer base and their suite of IDE's and developer tools proves this. Pros The versatility and speed are my favorite features of IDEA. Hands down one of the best, most feature rich IDE's I have ever had the pleasure of using. JetBrains really knows their customer and it shows. Cons There's no complaints other than I wish it were free, but if it were I doubt the product would be the same. Switched from [Visual Studio Code](https://www.capterra.com/p/186634/Visual-Studio-Code/) IntelliJ is a more feature rich IDE without having to use 3rd party plugins. Their ecosystem is also vast and offers utility to every development team at my company. Review Source Shad M. Private Online Media Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Explicitly dissatisfied with the product and dev-maintained approaches-" October 8, 2025 1.0 Lack of control for a developer from my personal take, every script automated, the 'dev-support-team' finds a way to mitigate your ability to use it- Prefer a more ethical-value practise approach- Imagine life in corporate then you trip on a stone and die, was life worth it using this product for that many years at that rate? Just a personal consideration - don't take it personally or do- Pros step into step out: cmd+\[ && cmd+\] Great intro to programming until you hit a bottleneck then its also your day job life thereafter. Cons hand-chain-like approach to UI programming and integration - at least from my experience with it. Continuous hastle, not even client urgencies give me this much grief. Alternatives considered [Microsoft Visual Studio](https://www.capterra.com/p/80230/microsoft-visual-studio/) Reason for choosing IntelliJ IDEA Because of the hand-chain value approach till regret factor realised? Though if it was a decent product I may have still used it going forward. Review Source Keshav C. Student E-Learning Used the software for: I used a free trial ### "Great IDE for Java, but a bit heavy on resources" March 23, 2026 5.0 I've been using IntelliJ IDEA mainly for Java development during my coursework and small projects. The biggest advantage is how smart the IDE is ,code completion, debugging tools, and refactoring features save a lot of time compared to basic editors. It also integrates really well with tools like Maven and Git, which makes project management easier. Pros Very smart code completion and suggestions Excellent debugging and refactoring tools Great integration with Maven, Gradle, and Git Clean and organized interface Lots of built-in development tools Cons Uses a lot of RAM and CPU sometimes Initial indexing can be slow Too many features can feel overwhelming for beginners Switched from [Visual Studio Code](https://www.capterra.com/p/186634/Visual-Studio-Code/) I initially used Visual Studio Code for Java, but managing larger Java projects started getting a bit messy with extensions. I switched to IntelliJ IDEA because it has better built-in support for Java development. Features like smarter code suggestions, easier debugging, and built-in tools for Maven and Gradle made development smoother without needing too many plugins. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Web Developer Marketing and Advertising Used the software for: 2+ years ### "IntelliJ for java developers" April 5, 2025 4.0 Pros A very detailed interface with lots of built in functionalities. Cons It can be a little tough to set up for new users or students who are just starting to code. Switched from [Visual Studio Code](https://www.capterra.com/p/186634/Visual-Studio-Code/) Because personally the java development is way better on intelliJ platform. Review Source AU Ali U. Technical Executive Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Stability and usability all in one!" December 3, 2024 4.0 I develop Spring Boot powered Java backend Services and use the IDE to debug and develop the new services and methods, the inbuilt decompiler is also very useful in the case documentation is not available for an obsecure dependency Pros Autofill and code Recommendations as well as the stable enviroment Cons Too many services are paid, Maybe provide the AI code completion on a trial without adding in card details Switched from [Eclipse IDE](https://www.capterra.com/p/205298/Eclipse-IDE/) I switched from Eclipse IDE to IntelliJ IDEA because of its superior performance, more intuitive user interface, and advanced features like intelligent code completion, seamless integration with build tools, and better support for modern frameworks and technologies. The enhanced debugging tools and robust version control capabilities in IntelliJ IDEA also provide a smoother development experience compared to Eclipse. Review Source SP Srinivasa P. Quality Assurance Lead Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 2+ years ### "What more can you ask? :)" December 11, 2024 5.0 Amazing!!!! I was an "Eclipse lover" before using Intellij... Cannot go back to any other tool now. You won me Intellij. :) Pros Intellisense and the wide range of language support Cons Lack of suggestions to do a specific thing effectively. May be utilize the AI to analyze what a user is doing and suggest better ways to acheive the same with in the tool. Switched from [Eclipse IDE](https://www.capterra.com/p/205298/Eclipse-IDE/) Intellij is a feature rich product that is consistent in performance and never crashed on me abruptly. Had a very bad experience with Eclipse crashing on me in a demo. Review Source JB Jeremy B. Offensive Security Consultant Computer & Network Security Used the software for: 2+ years ### "IDE is almost perfect" May 8, 2025 5.0 This IDE is pretty amazing, especially for web development where you may have HTML and CSS and PHP or JSP etc in a single file, integrated web server that can leverage php and tomcat binaries is really slick Pros Multi language support within a single product, project, even a single file Cons Setting up and managing projects can be a real pain, not very intuitive. the AI assistant is nice when it works, but it often doesnt, and your code snippets/project files are aggressively truncated behind the scenes making the tool much less useful for anything other than very narrow prompts lacking context Switched from [Visual Studio Code](https://www.capterra.com/p/186634/Visual-Studio-Code/) plugin management, single-vendor authorship, UI, etc Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Research Associate Higher Education Used the software for: 2+ years ### "My Java IDE of choice for many years" January 22, 2025 5.0 Easy to use and powerful IDE. Has everything needed for Java programming and beyond. Pros \- Powerful code completion. Ultimate even offers full line completion, which is a real game changer when writing standard stuff. - Everywhere search lets you search everything from everywhere. - Code analysis has become extremely good. - Free plan for universities and students, which lets me introduce ItelliJ IDEA in my classes Cons I am really happy with ItelliJ IDEA, thus I have no real cons to mention. Alternatives considered [Eclipse IDE](https://www.capterra.com/p/205298/Eclipse-IDE/) Reason for choosing IntelliJ IDEA IntelliJ Idea was a modern and streamlined approach back then which offered a lot more features than Eclipse IDE did. Switched from [Eclipse IDE](https://www.capterra.com/p/205298/Eclipse-IDE/) IntelliJ Idea was a modern and streamlined approach back then which offered a lot more features than Eclipse IDE did. Review Source DC Daniel C. Enigneering Manager Program Development Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Best Platform to code Java Apps " December 30, 2024 5.0 My overall experience with IntelliJ IDEA has been very positive. It’s a powerful IDE with great features like smart code completion, powerful debugging tools, and seamless integration with version control systems Pros The auto-completion features and its integration with spring boot Cons Pricing is a little bit high when you want to start a project by yourself Switched from [Eclipse IDE](https://www.capterra.com/p/205298/Eclipse-IDE/) Eclipse does not provide a lot of features and plugins as IntelliJ Review Source VR Verified Reviewer software developer Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Best IDE which keeps getting better." September 8, 2024 5.0 IDE to use by default if a professional software developer. Pros Best IDE for professionals like me who work in Java and Typescript. Cons Sometimes stability with centrain plugins like AWS toolkit is pretty annoying. Switched from [Eclipse IDE](https://www.capterra.com/p/205298/Eclipse-IDE/) To increase productivity and work with Frontend code is same IDE Review Source OS Osher S. Software developer Financial Services Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Best all round Java IDE" July 17, 2021 5.0 The overall experience has been great and I will carry on using it at work for our projects. It helps me a lot to get the job done with its rich feature set, great code linter and plugins available and shortcuts. It will definitely be my go to IDE for Java development. Pros I find it’s the best IDE all round that’s constantly updated with performance improvements and new features that help. I love that you can use a free version that’s extremely capable and buy the paid for version for some extra useful features and integration with other services and software like databases. Has a great marketplace for plugins and great interface and shortcuts to navigate and edit faster. It helps me code better with suggestions and navigate my code fast. Cons I personally found it hard to get used to the built in git client as opposed to using a separate one. I also found that it can be slow for start-up on large projects but that is expected when it analyses your code and has improved with updates. Switched from [Apache NetBeans](https://www.capterra.com/p/178681/Apache-NetBeans/) Better feature set, more updates and better user interface. Easier to navigate the application and code. Review Source KJ Kyle J. Software Engineer Aviation & Aerospace Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Great IDE that simplifies set-up and lets you focus on development" September 25, 2024 5.0 My experience with IntelliJ started in college, working on mainly java applications so I became rather familiar and comfortable with it over time. I chose to continue using it in my career because it makes sometimes tedious tasks rather simple and saves me a ton of time when building/mending dev environments. Pros I use this IDE for a variety of java programs that I have developed and continue to support. I love how easy it is to import different plugins and packages using the built-in features. Cons I don't believe I personally have anything to complain about. It is a solid IDE for many different development environments. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Intern Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Excellent IDE for developers " February 9, 2025 4.0 Pros Best part abou it is the ease of use and clear and concise project level icons and its ease of integration with docker and kubernetes Cons I wish Jetbrains didnt have Goland/Webstorm/IntelliJ as separate software to install. I know in this way the IDE becomes just like Eclipse, but there should be a better way to do. Review Source GG Guntas G. Software Developer Program Development Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Reliable IDEA" May 12, 2025 5.0 Pros Fast setup and good integration with GitLab pipelines. This IDE allows simple or complexity development Cons UI feels a bit outdated sometimes, overwhelming whit plugin and navigation could be smoother Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Security assessment engineer Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Aesthetic User Interface and experience" October 20, 2024 4.0 Pros IntelliJ Integrated development environment has a unique user interface and smart navigation helps to navigate back and forth during code review, the function calls are not always sequential therefore this smart navigation is the one I like the most. Cons It is resource-intensive when I import multiple projects inside the platform. Therefore it's not ideal to work with multiple projects simultaneously. Review Source MS Michaël S. Network and security engineer Retail Used the software for: 2+ years ### "IntelliJ review" September 29, 2024 4.0 Pros Really good IDE with innovative function the IDE suite supports a lot of languages Cons Can be overwhelming at the beginning with the numerous version of IntelliJ Review Source Vaja H. Frontend Engineer Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 2+ years ### "My experience using Intellij IDEA" July 22, 2024 5.0 Pros Mostly i have used intellij IDEA for my android application development. it gives really good code complication and provides some of the best debugging feature One more i thing i liked most is its zen feature which gives me less distraction is best when you want to focus on work. Cons I got it from my student developer pack otherwise its quite expensive for common user to use. In begging you may need time to get used to all the capabilities of it Review Source Javier S. Desarrollador de software Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Heavy but Powerfull" August 11, 2023 5.0 I loved this software..The best ide that I has used.This software guide me to discover other interesting Jetbrain's softwareBut the versatility that this program offfer is really good Pros All in one place.. IntelliJ have support for many programming languages. But for JAVA, it's one of the BEST SUITES that we can find.It have many tools like git control version, http request, handle multiple instances.We can configurate as many environment as we needs.Also, we have like a market place for pluginsEven a integrated DB MANAGER..It's very recomendated as a main IDE Cons Handle all these tools can be complex. Because some times, to find a funcionality in the multiples options, could be dificult..The short cuts are a lifesaver but the learning curve is high.By the other hand, this software is not lightweight. All the fuatures has a price to pay Reason for choosing IntelliJ IDEA All features in one place Review Source Muhammad Aamer K. Full stack developer Real Estate Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Intellj IDEA is a great tool for Programmers" November 29, 2023 4.0 I loved IntelliJ IDEA why because it is time saving while you are developing softwares it is way faster in debugging and straight forward it gives you the best environment for you technology for example i use python and there is no better IDE than pycharm for python code except the UI which is what makes me chose between other IDEs Pros Intellj idea is one of my favorite IDE because of the facts that they are so specific to technologies for example i am a python developer so they arranged a completely python loving environment for me and just like that for java etc and also that intellj idea provides you soo many good suggestions while you code that you save so much of your time and the development is quite fast which is needed to be fast. The suggestions it provides are accurate or near accurate. Cons I like everything except its UI and that is why i use other IDEs just because of it's user interface it does not looks like coders choice or atleast for me. Review Source hE hamza E. develppeur Computer Hardware Used the software for: 2+ years ### "My unique experience with the application" October 23, 2023 5.0 The application experience is very good. I have developed many applications. It is truly a unique experience. I hope there will be an application link with artificial intelligence soon. It is something very important. Pros The special thing about the application is that it is very flexible and includes several important things for developing web applications as well as phone applications. It speeds up and supports many languages, which facilitates development. Cons Disadvantages of the application There are a lot of unimportant things in the destination that create a lot of confusion Review Source DE Diego E. Freelancer Information Services Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Full-featured and indeed smart IDE. It just works and thus makes my programming easier." September 15, 2017 5.0 It simply made my work easier. From small details like 'smartly' renaming files, to multi-line text selection all the way to performance, advanced settings and support for all kinds of features and plug-ins. Pros \- What I like most are the shortcuts. Every other IDE also has shortcuts but IntelliJ (and Jetbrains generally) has done a great job with theirs. At least for men, they seem intuitive. - Offers many, many features but still manages to have a great performance. - Sounds trivial, but the settings are well structured and searchable! Almost everything is customizable and if not there is probably a plugin for want you want it to do. - I do a lot of web-programming so I appreciate small little features like native less, sass support, live reloading or even showing the color next to a color code in CSS stylesheets. Even though Intellij should be Java focused, this also applies for Javascript and its complex ecosystem (I used React, JSX, Angular, Elm). - Solid Versioning Support with git as well as svn, both within the console and the UI. - Great Maven support. Auto-save, great search function. Overall I could list all the features I like, many you can find in other IDEs as well. But when using IntelliJ, I just feel it gets out of the way and lets you work & if you don't know how to do something, there is usually a nice "intelligent" trick on how to do it, or it is not hard to find online. - The student/academic license is really appreciated. Cons \- The product is constantly updated, which is a good thing but it is somewhat bothersome. Of course they have to ask the user,, but would be nice if it just updated without prompting, at least for smaller updates. -The integrated console its fine, but (at least on Windows) it sometimes lags and stops working. Not that often, but it happens. - Co-workers that used another IDE, usually complained of certain bugs within IntelliJ, for example, when compiling. I, however did not experience such bugs. - It is not cheap. - There are a ton of IDEs and (if I am not mistaken ) IntelliJ is the 'flagship' product which includes all features of e.g. PHPStorm or Webstorm. If you are doing Web-Programming for example, then IntelliJ would be a little bit of an overkill. That might be a problem if you barely use Java, and thus simply not use the many functions that IntelliJ has. - Resolving git conflichts was sometimes difficult. In some regards the UI, UX could do some finetuning. Review Source GS Gaurav S. Sr. DevOps Engineer Automotive Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Efficient and Developer friendly IDE" April 26, 2022 4.0 I have been using intellij idea for terraform, cloudformation , python for automation from last two years and its been a great choice. It is really developer friendly tool and supports variety of languages, plugins and out of the box integrations with other devops tools. Pros Variety of languages support. Integration with multiple SCM and other plugin support. Intelligent autocomplete and an option to create own short cut key combinations makes daily development job easy. Commenting "to do" reminds you for the work before commiting the change. Fast searching and indexing. Cons Pricing is very very high. It is heavy tool and consumes lot of memory. Frequent updates. Debugging takes a lot of time as first of all the execution has to be done in debugging mode Review Source SS Suraj S. Software Engineer Computer Software Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "IntelliJ IDEA review for java developers" December 29, 2022 5.0 My overall experience is very good with IntelliJ IDEA because I mostly use this to develop a java project. Pros I like the GUI of the software and also the functionality available on the software like running code through the button and running code in different modes like debugging mode etc. I like the themes present on the software and also it is available for different Operating systems like LINUX,WINDOWS etc. we can also download the different versions of java through this IDE ONLY. we can manage different projects in the software. It also gives you suggestion to add packages. Cons For web development, libraries are not available so can not use for web development.I like the least thing is that mostly developers use Intellij IDEA for Java development so it becomes less efficient for python development and web development. For New user it is difficult to understand the folder structure and how to start and run or configure the IDE. Review Source MV Michael V. Software Developer Computer Software Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Great IDE" March 11, 2023 5.0 Pros For me IntelliJ IDEA combines the best of all IDEs. It’s also bundles functionality of other well IDEs of IntelliJ. For me as a developer it’s the application I use most all day long and I really enjoy the ease of use. Cons There’s nothing I don’t like. Even if there’s a feature missing, it can just be integrated by a plug-in from IntelliJ or a third party one. Review Source Similar Products Featured