What are the best free IDEs for Python?

Question

21

Options
Considered

260

User
Recs.

Jan 1, 2019

Last
Updated

Here’s the Deal

21 Options Considered

Best free IDEs for Python	Price	Auto Complete	Bracket Matching
88 PyCharm Community Edition	-	-	-
87 Vim	Free	Yes (with aid of ctags better)	Yes
-- Spyder	-	Yes	Yes
-- Visual Studio Code	FREE	Yes	Yes
-- Spacemacs with Python layer	-	Yes	Yes

See Full List

Request recommendations from the community

I Recommend...

Help millions of people make better decisions.

Each month, over 2.8 million people use Slant to find the best products and share their knowledge. Pick the tags you’re passionate about to get a personalized feed and begin contributing your knowledge.

21 Options Considered

My Recommendation for PyCharm Community Edition

My Recommendation for PyCharm Community Edition

Sophisticated autocompletion

Memory-hungry

Excellent refactoring support

Can sometimes become very slow, freeze, and become unresponsive

Version control integration

Feature incomplete

Excellent debugger

Framework support

My Recommendation for Vim

My Recommendation for Vim

Keyboard-based, mouse-free interface

Steep learning curve

Ubiquity and portability

Consume brain energy for editing that should be used for logic

Amazing extensibility

Unintuitive mode switching

Works in terminal over SSH

Poor feature discoverability

Once learned, it's very hard to forget

High effort to customize

Excellent performance

Doesn't play nice with the system cut/paste mechanisms

Avalailability of sophisticated plugins

Macros increase productivity

Vimtutor

Free and open-source software

Everything is a mnemonic

Lightweight and fast

Great productivity

Extremely portable

Can set up keymapping

Tons of plugins/add-ons

Usable from a Terminal or with a GUI (GVim, MacVim)

Can never outgrow it

Productivity enhancing modal paradigm

Works on Android

If you can use Vim you can also use vi

Asynchronous I/O support

Vim encourages discipline

Donations and support to Vim.org helps children in Uganda through ICCF Holland

Built-in package management

Everything is mnemonic

Has been supported for a long time and will be supported for many years to come

Flexible feature-set

Has multiple distinct editing modes

Keyboard-based, mouse-free interface, and trackpad support

My Recommendation for Spyder

My Recommendation for Spyder

NumPy array editor and dictionary editor

Poor debugging docs

Matlab-like interface

Powerful autocompletion

Cross Platform

Syntax Colouring

PyLint integration

Graph plotting support

Free and open-source

Code introspection

My Recommendation for Visual Studio Code

My Recommendation for Visual Studio Code

Integrated debugging

Embedded Git isn't powerful enough

Extendable through plugins

Project search limits results

Updated frequently

The autocomplete and code check is not as powerful as the one on WebStorm

Integrated terminal

Great performance

Python support

Libre/open source

One IDE for all languages

Ready to use out of the box

Embedded Git control

Extendable through plug-ins

My Recommendation for Spacemacs with Python layer

My Recommendation for Spacemacs with Python layer

Mnemonic and consistent key bindings