--- title: "Apache NetBeans Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra" description: "Is Apache NetBeans the right Integrated Development Environment (IDE) solution for you? Explore 231 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice." source_url: "https://www.capterra.com/p/178681/Apache-NetBeans/reviews/" page_type: "reviews" language: "en" publication_date: "2026-10-21" --- Apache NetBeans 4.1 (231) [View alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/178681/Apache-NetBeans/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 October 21st, 2026 # Reviews of Apache NetBeans Ease of use 4.2 Customer Service 3.8 ## Pros and Cons in Reviews CN CLARIS N Finacle consultantComputer Software, 11 - 50 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “It also seamlessly integrates with build tools like Apache Maven and Apache Ant which simplify project management, dependency management, and building, allowing developers to focus on coding.“ November 7, 2023 CN CLARIS N Finacle consultantComputer Software, 11 - 50 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “The IDE can be slow to start which is usually frustrating when you need to quickly open and edit a file.“ November 7, 2023 joel k CEOInformation Technology and Services, Self-employedUsed the software for: 1-2 years. “its language versatility, i.e. it supports a wide range of programming languages and programming types such as object-oriented, Web, sequential, etc.“ December 22, 2023 Bishal D Backend DeveloperComputer Software, 11 - 50 employeesUsed the software for: 6-12 months. “I think it is taking too many resources and feels laggy sometimes when running heavy projects.“ December 19, 2023 CN CLARIS N Finacle consultantComputer Software, 11 - 50 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “It provides support for popular version control systems like Git and therefore making it easier to manage and collaborate on projects with distributed teams.“ November 7, 2023 WI Wassim I Associate ProfessorComputer Networking, 501 - 1,000 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “The performance is not as efficient as other competing IDEs such as Visual Studio. But this is totally understandable as Netbeans is developed in Java and this would definitely make it relatively slower than natively-developed IDEs“ June 14, 2023 Vasilis K Web DeveloperInformation Technology and Services, Self-employedUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “What I like most is the built-in debugger with variable inspection.“ December 25, 2024 Andrés Darío B Software engineerGovernment Administration, 201 - 500 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “It is heavy and de user GUI isn't actual and simple.“ May 6, 2024 ## Showing most helpful reviews Showing 1-25 of 231 available reviews Sort by: Most Helpful Rating Company Size Reviewer's Role Length of Use Frequency of Use Vasilis K. Web Developer Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "I very decent IDE for large Java projects" December 27, 2024 4.0 My overall experience with Netbeans is positive. When it comes to large Java projects I often choose it as my IDE. Although, I'm sure there are better alternatives out there. Pros What I like most is the built-in debugger with variable inspection. Cons Sometimes indexing takes a lot of time and it eats up too much RAM memory. Review Source Mohammad M. Technical Office Engineer Used the software for: 1-3 years ### "Best-in-class open-source IDE for desktop & mobile app development" January 12, 2023 5.0 Overall, I'm very much satisfied with this IDE thanks to its out-of-the-box compatibility with numerous languages I'm familiar with that's helped in facilitating my project development requirements. Pros The intuitive user interface, the variety of supported languages & library imports & the unparalleled ease of integrating iOS & Android emulators (on my MacBook) to test out my applications prior to publishing my builds makes NetBeans a truly fascinating piece of software that's genuinely made my workload easier. As to my latest project using NetBeans, I've recently developed a punch-in/punch-out web app system that runs on desktop & mobile for our company's employees. Cons I remember once encountering an issue when initially setting up my first Java project on the IDE (build 12.5 if I recall correctly) where I was unable to install the nb-javac plugin for my project. Turns out the issue was an outdated JDK which was quickly resolved with an update, though I really wish NetBeans would've notified me of the solution rather than figuring it out myself eventually. Review Source Javier S. Desarrollador de software Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "It was very good.. but now it needs a face lift" August 2, 2023 3.0 Good experience but now exists other options more lighter and with graphics interface according to this times Pros Many many tools for devepolers. It can be configurated to support Language like PHP, JAVA, HTML etc.And the GUI can be customizable, with colorn fonts, views and customs commands. Cons Its weight to load and Its needs a full redesign of its graphical interface... Much newer, much fresher. Since it keep the style of many years ago Review Source Hasan S. T24 Technical Analyst Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "Best IDE for Web, Desktop and Mobile Apps" June 28, 2021 5.0 It's been more than 3 years I am working on NetBeans and I am very satisfied. It helped me in developing multiple projects and especially integration with Ant, SVN, JEE servers and Maven. It is highly recommended to new developers. Pros NetBeans is very well organized in terms of code development and java web development. It works on different platforms like Windows and Linux. The best part of NetBeans is that it has visual web pack feature. It comes with a lot of useful features such as debugging, code completion, multiple programming language support, integration and plugins. It's integration is awesome with other tools. The best feature of this product is source control management like GitHub and other version control tools. Cons Sometimes NetBeans crash when used for a long period, which is frustrating. It does not come with any professional support but one can easily join different groups or take help from seniors or from different forums. While working on big projects it consumes a lot of memory space and slow down other system processes. Review Source R Reviewer SAP Developer Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "Surpassed by the competition" June 4, 2021 5.0 Apache NetBeans is a good IDE, with good integration with Java. I would recommend it specifically to people that develop Java GUI applications with Swing. Its Swing integration is very intuitive, fully-featured and very reliable. Compared to Eclipse, working with Swing applications with NetBeans is a great option. Pros NetBeans is easy to use and install. I used it mainly on the Windows platform, and I used it mainly to develop Java software and Java GUI Applications with Swing. Compared to other tools on the market, I think NetBeans has the best Swing support of all the IDEs I have tried (Eclipse tools have more bugs, Visual Studio Code does not natively support them). Its debugging tools are easy to use and very functional. Cons NetBeans is usually slow to load and can be a resource hog. When working on my Mac laptop, battery drains quickly. I had many bugs using NetBeans v12 on Mac. I kept from updating to the newest version because I felt they were more stable for my workflow. Review Source R Reviewer Software Developer Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "Netbeans - Excellent IDE for PHP development " January 5, 2023 5.0 Pros There are lots of editors out there for PHP, but Netbeans is one of the best out there for debugging Cons Despite relatively simple requirements and few open pages, memory usage seems to quickly grow to where 3 gigs of RAM can be consumed. I'm not sure what all is in there. Review Source Ashley E. Support engineer Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "The perfect IDE for java and network development" April 13, 2020 5.0 A great introduction to IDEs and compilers letting me start my programming career in Java. Pros Netbeans gives me great syntax highlighting which really saves me time when it come to programming in java. It quickly highlights any errors and lets me correct them. You can also have free version for those unsure. This really let me try all the features before getting involved in the premium version. Cons Comparing net beans to some newer software IDEs can make it feel a little less customisable in terms of themes and feel. But if you don’t normally change your theme or colour scheme then this won’t worry you. Review Source R Reviewer Student of National University of Loja Used the software for: Less than 1 year ### "A software design student's perspective on using netbeans." July 12, 2021 3.0 After having used it for about 1 year, this tool is very intuitive and easy to use if you know the programming language, thanks to the ease of writing code and the help it provides at the time of doing the same. Pros Netbeans is a tool that allows software development in an easy and efficient way if you know well the programming language in which you are working. It includes plugins that fulfill its function of facilitating the use of the IDE. Cons Netbens has some problems when cleaning and debugging, as well as some problems with the installation of libraries that are not in the IDE. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer System Analyst Used the software for: 1-3 years ### "Good" July 16, 2019 4.0 Pros The ease of creating programs with graphical interface. Cons Slowness and difficult to create bigger projects. Review Source R Reviewer Research Associate Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "Netbeans is excellent for novice and experienced developers alike." October 15, 2025 5.0 Pros It's powerful and easy to use but it's also free which makes it excellent for use in the setting I work in. Cons It can sometimes be a little overwhelming to find exactly the feature you're looking for sometimes I suppose. Review Source Verified Reviewer Chief Architect Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "A good IDE for all" June 2, 2023 5.0 We build Enterprise level application with Netbeans and so far our experience with Netbeans is awesome. Pros It is freely available, easy to develop an application, providing development environment for desktop and server applications. It can also be integrated with other plugins such as Apache Maven. Cons Sometimes it takes longer to load compared to other IDEs. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Software development engineer Used the software for: 1-3 years ### "Coding Discoveries: My Apache NetBeans Experience" September 19, 2023 4.0 In my experience with Apache NetBeans, I have developed school projects such as calculators and programs using data structures like stacks and queues. The most challenging aspect was when I attempted to connect Arduino with Apache NetBeans, as it posed some complications. However, I believe it has been a valuable environment for my educational projects. Pros Despite its versatility, NetBeans offers an intuitive interface, making it accessible for students and learners. Cons While Apache NetBeans is a powerful IDE, it may have resource and compatibility limitations, a learning curve for beginners, and occasional stability issues Review Source Verified Reviewer Co-founder Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "Apache NetBeans Review." June 17, 2022 5.0 Its easy to use and integrate with other software. Its also free for students and has amazing prices for enterprises. Pros I like how easy it is to use and develop using this software. Specifically developing in Java on this IDE is amazing. Cons Honestly the only issue I have with this software are its high computational requirements, it requires a lot of machine power for it to run. Its designed for high end devices and thus is not good for businesses that run on low end devices. Review Source Verified Reviewer Associate Robotic Process Automation Engineer Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "Apache NetBeans Review from a RPA Developer Perspective" October 3, 2019 4.0 Been using this software for years and even with it slowness it has served me well. Used it to build multiple java based programs and my overall experience with this product is satisfying as it has very good in-built functionalities. Pros It has a simple and logical user interface with multiple range of UI preferences. It is a very good platform to build and learn Java based applications. Also transitioning from other developing IDE's to netbeans IDE is painless. One of the best features of this IDE is that it allows users to load multiple projects at the same time and switching between the projects is very easy. Cons First thing I dislike about this software is the amount of RAM that is required to run this IDE. The start up is pretty slow and tends to slower the machine it runs. It gets really slow when running with background operations. Specially when you compile and run programs it tends to get stuck. Review Source Anchal J. Computer science engineer Used the software for: 1-3 years ### "Review on NetBeans software" May 1, 2022 3.0 Overall Apache netbeans is a good software for programming Pros I like the simplicity of the software and compiler design too. Cons I would like more libraries for complex programs. Review Source Verified Reviewer Information security Intern Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "Great place to build desktop & web applications" October 25, 2018 4.0 As someone who codes in Java, I must say that Apache NetBeans made my life much easier. It is hard to find a software similar to this which is open source and contain all the features this has. Therefore, this is the best software out there which can be used to create stand-alone or web applications. Pros Apache NetBeans is the place where I build and run all my desktop and web applications. NetBeans has auto-completion feature which I like the most. It saves time and reduces errors. When I talk about errors I must say that NetBeans shows compilation errors during the execution in a manner that I can easily understand where I made mistakes. NetBeans comes with a lot short cut keys which saves my time and speeds up the coding process. Cons There is no minus point about Apache NetBeans. The only problem I have is that it takes some time to respond when I debug. Review Source Verified Reviewer Full Stack Web Developer Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "Decent IDE for Web, Mobile, and Desktop Applications" April 8, 2022 3.0 Pros I've used Netbeans to develop PHP websites and java applications. It is very easy to code and organize files and folders even on a big project. It offers automated debugging, automatic code compliations, and automation which made the development process flawless. Apart from that, the plugins offers more functionality to the table. Cons One of the biggest drawbacks of Netbeans is that it suddenly freezes and stops working for minutes. Also, it becomes too slow at times. Review Source Ritesh J. front end developer Used the software for: Less than 1 year ### "Nice for java developers" November 10, 2023 3.0 Pros Netbeans is an amazing IDE for software developers. I used it to develop multiple java projects. It is budget friendly and also supports multiple programming language. It also supports drag and drop functionality which saves a lot of time. Cons The looks and fell of the program feels a bit old. The code suggestion and completion would be a great update to it. The app also closes frequently if used for a longer period of time on a windows computer. Review Source R Reviewer Software Trainee Used the software for: Less than 1 year ### "Review on NetBeans." April 17, 2019 5.0 As a basic Java developer, we work on a concept called Servlets in Java. In that servlets concept, we make use of apache tomcat tool. In the case of eclipse, we need to download some packages, deploy it in our eclipse IDE which adds on some extra work. But in Netbeans, tomcat support is readily avalible. If I want to create a web service, I need to make use of Glassfish Server. In Netbeans, Glassfish support is available without the need for external packages. I have tried to make use of Swing GUI where we can drag the components in a GUI Builder and the source code is designed automatically according to the components placed in GUI builder. Another important feature is auto-completion of code and a built-in SQL Editor. My overall experience working with Netbeans is so satisfying as it provides such good in-built features. Pros 1) It is a free and open source IDE. 2) Inbuilt Integration of server applications like Tomcat and Glassfish. 3) Can run on operating systems like Windows, Mac, Linux. 4) We can import the project source code from global repositories like GitHub. 5) We can write the code in Multiple languages like Java, PHP, C, C++, JavaScript, HTML5. 6) Some other features like auto-completion of code, code optimization, search and replacement of code. 7) The Netbeans support is very good as they provide solutions for our queries within a short span of time with optimized solutions. 8) We can customize our own themes to make our GUI more interactive. Cons I did not find any flaws with this software. Review Source R Reviewer Senior Software Engineer Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "Easy to use if compared to other Java editors" May 1, 2019 4.0 I would recommend this great application for all Java developers. Pros I've tested a lot of versions of IDE for Java such as Eclipse, JEdit, IntelliJ IDEA, NetBeans, etc. and NetBeans is the easiest application in terms of installation, usage, check-in, and check-out from source controls such as SVN. It is very easy to add new libraries and switch among different Java platforms. The IntelliSense in NetBeans is great for code assistance. And NetBeans is a free application for download. Cons NetBeans may require a lot of resources if you have many projects concurrently open. NetBeans Low on Memory is a very well known error. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Department Head Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "Best way to get started with JAVA" December 7, 2018 5.0 great software, easy to use. Enough documentation to get started, but a user eventually need to learn on his own. If you have got all the required hardware and followed all the installation steps properly, You can create powerful applications. Pros I have been using Netbeans for years now and I absolutely love it! Netbeans and Eclipse are very popular software for JAVA development , but in Netbeans you can create the App UI by simply dragging and dropping UI elements on a form. This helps in creating better UIs and save a lot of development time. Cons Need high memory hardware to run fast. The software freeze sometimes completely when monitor is locked. Review Source Kay K. CEO Used the software for: 1-3 years ### "netbean is the most polivalent IDE in terms of language and programming type" December 27, 2023 5.0 Pros its language versatility, i.e. it supports a wide range of programming languages and programming types such as object-oriented, Web, sequential, etc. Cons NetBeans is too memory-intensive, and can therefore be less efficient for large-scale projects, especially with low-power hardware. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Network Security Intern Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "Hassle free coding " November 26, 2018 5.0 I am using NetBeans since 2015 for my university work. I have never faced a single problem during this time period. NetBeans runs smoothly. I have noticed that some similar products used to heat my computer a lot. But when I started working on NetBeans this never happened to me. Pros Apache NetBeans provides an integrated platform that can be used to develop any kind of applications without going through a lot problems. One of the best features I find in Apache NetBeans is that it runs and deploys applications we create. This is very time saving and convenient. Cons I do not find any negative points about NetBeans. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer IT Administrator Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "Ok, but there are better" June 12, 2023 4.0 Have been using it over quite a few years and it was completely ok. I would not say "don't use it", but I would suggest to compare with other tools to find out the best fitting one. As a Java programmer, it is definitely better usable than as a Javascript developer - or so was my impression Pros Easy to install, update, maintain. Offers a decent way to develop. If you are using Java, it is excellent - but I am not ;-) Cons I really enjoyed it until I tested others, then, in comparison, I found it cumbersome to use. Review Source R Reviewer Tech Lead Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "Best free Java IDE you can get" October 6, 2022 4.0 Pros It's simple to use, it's lean and fast. It has good Java support but you'll need to tweak it to Cons Test integration is lacking in features, especially test coverage which is rudimentary and barely works. It seemed to be abandoned for a while but development picked up again. A lot of the plugins were/are outdated. Review Source Similar Products Featured