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Development
OSX
What are the best IDEs for C++ on Mac OS X?
13
Options
Considered
1.1
K
User
Recs.
Feb 2, 2024
Last
Updated
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13
Options
Considered
Best IDEs for C++ on Mac OS X
Price
Platforms
Auto Complete
79
CLion
Free Trial
Windows, Linux, Mac
Yes
58
Xcode
-
-
-
57
Netbeans
-
Windows, macOS, Linux
Yes
56
VS Code
Free
Windows, Linux, Mac
-
54
Sublime
Free trial
Windows, macOS, Linux
Yes
See Full List
79
CLion
My Rec
ommendation
for
CLion
My Recommendation for
CLion
All
21
Experiences
7
Pros
6
Cons
7
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Great code completion
Boasts great code completion and gives suggestions to minimize the code.
See More
Top
Con
•••
No non-commerical version like other Jetbrains products
Other Jetbrains products give access to a limited non-commercial version which makes it worth looking at.
See More
SincereTsukiyomi's Experience
It is an absolute CPU hog, consuming 400% CPU and running the machine hot after typing only 20 characters of new code.
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Linux, Mac
Auto Complete:
Yes
License:
Proprietary
Top
Pro
•••
Cross platform
CLion works on Windows, Linux and macOS.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Build Tool Integration is messy/over complicated
I have a Jetbrains annual subscription so I can use this tool for free and I've used the Java IDE for years so I really want to like CLion. But it's just over complex to add 3rd party libraries etc. Netbeans/Eclipse etc are much better integrated with the build tools
See More
ConfidentMinos's Experience
No support for any project structure, requires manual CMake creation! Not a real IDE.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Intelligent code completion
CLion has an intelligent autocompletion engine that tries to predict the symbol you are typing based on your previous history and the context in which it's being typed.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Proprietary
Clion is proprietary software which costs $199/1st year for a business license or $89/1st year for an individual license.
See More
SociablePerseus's Experience
It's perfect
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Easy to customize
CLion offers plenty of configuration options for setting up the IDE how you like.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Only supports CMake projects
See More
CommunicativeTartarus's Experience
I've uninstalled it
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Excellent Visual Diff and VCS integration
You usually have to pay for a diff tool this good, the git integration is great as well.
See More
Top
Con
•••
It isn't intuitive
It may not detect all of the available libraries upon installation, and it may be difficult to customize.
See More
PerceptiveClotho's Experience
The indexer depends on CMake and there is a big problem when you try to use it with a project which consists of a couple of Makefiles.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Uses CMake by default
Uses and manages CMake by default which works pretty well.
See More
Top
Con
•••
It is heavy. Takes 100% CPY for less trivial projects
See More
ConfidentSkadi's Experience
This isnt available currently through the mac store.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Isnt available
cLion isnt on the apple store
See More
ClassyShahar's Experience
400 % Cpu usage :(
See More
Hide
See All
Free Trial
Recommend
385
21
58
Xcode
My Rec
ommendation
for
Xcode
My Recommendation for
Xcode
All
13
Experiences
3
Pros
6
Cons
4
Top
Pro
•••
Supported by Apple
The fact that it's the recommended choice of the operating system maker is a benefit alone.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Refactoring limited to C
C++ is not supported (or has very limited support) for refactoring. This means it will be a pain to rename a class or a variable across all your files at once.
See More
Vicki Sainz's Experience
Could not figure out how to stop at breakpoints. Assumes I'm programming a phone app, not a backend project. Nothing was intuitive for me, after coming from IntelliJ.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Smoothly integrated to Mac OS X
Really nice user experience: runs fast and with a sleek interface.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Some things are plain quirky
The way they do "Search" or "Search/Replace" (in source and in file) is a major PITA. The dialogs to call up the options for these are fiddly and the whole process highly unintuitive.
See More
AdventurousTepeyollotl's Experience
No respond from a tech support so I assume that there is no support at all. It never reply to my email for two years. That is very rude. There is no forum for help on the website.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Easy to install
Just head to AppStore and install it for free.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Poor performance
UI response is too slow.
See More
PrincipledHoenir's Experience
Complete garbage, shortcut conflicts for terrible-in-the-first-place shortcuts, many features lacking (eg.cut a line with no selection)
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Integration with Objective-C
Xcode is the best IDE for writing Objective-C++.
See More
Top
Con
•••
The download is too big (about 5.6 GB)
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Powerful memory debugging and performance tools
Their leaks and zombies and built-in performance tools are time-savers and sometimes even life-savers.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Live syntax checking, built-in documentation, code completion
Makes programming quick and painless.
See More
Hide
See All
Get it
here
Recommend
123
26
57
Netbeans
My Rec
ommendation
for
Netbeans
My Recommendation for
Netbeans
All
6
Pros
3
Cons
2
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Autocompletes your code
Code auto-completion is of great help in agile development environments, where you're pumping out a new version as soon as possible. In such environments you need your IDE to be "as fast as you code", hence Netbeans can be of great assistance in such situations. The IDE will auto-complete your code (variable names / function references / library functions / classes / ids) wherever possible, so you can code at speed.
See More
Top
Con
•••
A little slow to load
The Netbeans IDE is known to take a large memory as compared to other lighter IDE's available in the market. Slowdown can decrease productivity and frustrate programmers.
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Windows, macOS, Linux
Auto Complete:
Yes
Code Templates:
Yes
Multi Language Support:
Yes
See All Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Powerful debugging and performance optimization
Netbeans not only debugs your code, and points out errors but also gives you hints on which sections of your code could be further optimized.
See More
Top
Con
•••
A nightmare to install as of late
Netbeans requires a specific Java version, specific C++ compilers, specific tinkering. If you're not the tinkering kind, this could be weeks of searching online and discussing in forums to solve your particular issue.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Multiple revision control system integration
Has built-in support for the most popular revision control systems
See More
Hide
See All
Get it
here
Recommend
83
7
56
VS Code
My Rec
ommendation
for
VS Code
My Recommendation for
VS Code
All
9
Experiences
3
Pros
3
Cons
2
Specs
Top
Con
•••
Difficult to set up for newbies
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Ease of use
See More
VigorousPrabhasa's Experience
Difficult to set up and use. Waist time in details I expect the IDE would do it for me.
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Linux, Mac
Top
Con
•••
Can't see history
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Editable diff
See More
FunnyXucau's Experience
Electron based
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Show diff
Shows file diffs in a similar fashion to github desktop.
See More
LikableKurdalaegon's Experience
I using vscode for Android NDK develop. It easy start and good enough to work, also istart quickly and support other language. I use vi at the same time, but vscode is perfect
See More
Hide
See All
Free
Recommend
81
13
54
Sublime
My Rec
ommendation
for
Sublime
My Recommendation for
Sublime
All
8
Pros
5
Cons
2
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Lightweight
Sublime Text is very lightweight by default. Customization occurs on the fly thanks to Package Control.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Not a full IDE
It does not necessarily function on a project level.
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Windows, macOS, Linux
Auto Complete:
Yes
License:
Proprietary
Code Templates:
Yes
See All Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Comfortable to work with
Sublime Text has a minimap on the side that provides a top-down view of the file and keyboard shortcuts for most actions. It also supports a large number of languages and general text editing features out of the box.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Shareware
Many users tend to forget it, but it is a shareware, with a nag prompt reminding the user should pay for this software. It is not a problem (the company must have a source of income), but it is something to consider when most of the alternatives are free.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Multi-line select and editing
Multiple cursors and column selection allows for versatile ways of editing. ctrl + d will select the current word and each time the command is repeated, it adds the next occurrence of the word to the selection. ctrl + click or middle-mouse click will place another cursor in the place that's clicked. Cursors can then be controlled together. This also permits selecting vertically. ctrl + shift + l will place a cursor on every highlighted line.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Very fast and clean
See More
Top
Pro
•••
As complex or as simple as you want
Huge number of actively developed plugins with a large community. Can also be used as a plain text editor - you don't have to learn a new way of writing code.
See More
Hide
See All
Free trial
Recommend
60
7
53
Visual Studio for OSX
My Rec
ommendation
for
Visual Studio for OSX
My Recommendation for
Visual Studio for OSX
All
7
Experiences
3
Pros
2
Cons
2
Top
Con
•••
Currently doesn't support C++
As of now, Visual Studio for Mac only supports .NET, C#, and F#.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Free, and now with Xamarin support built-in to target most Oses.
See More
HonorableBragi's Experience
This IDE doesn´t C++ and doesn't even give access to Microsoft Visual C++! This is the only reason why I like use this IDE!
See More
Top
Con
•••
VS doesn't support C11 for windows! mac will never ever see C support in there.
No wonder MS team hates C language - they've stolen from Unix so many things and Unix is still there :) Now mac 'borrowed'BSD - so for those stupid things buying mac ONLY, they will never promote free things.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Visual Studio UI
Visual Studio set the IDE standard for most of the '90s. Although it has languished somewhat and some embarrassing UI defects remain in the Windows version, we can hope that Microsoft will deliver a fairly well-organized IDE for the Mac.
See More
Fredy Di Sano's Experience
It's all I use on PC and it's finally available on OSX.
See More
ReflectiveJumis's Experience
doesnt support c++
See More
Hide
See All
Get it
here
Recommend
99
24
52
Qt Creator
My Rec
ommendation
for
Qt Creator
My Recommendation for
Qt Creator
All
14
Experiences
1
Pros
6
Cons
6
Specs
Top
Con
•••
It is too expensive
The Qt Creator is now packaged as part of the Qt Development tools. The starting price for this is $302 PER MONTH charged on an annual basis. Too expensive...
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Build in Qt GUI editor
Allows for the creation of a window based ui in a graphical editor, no code required to build the ui.
See More
AwareHippolytus's Experience
dont run on mac efficiencies
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Windows, macOS, Linux
Auto Complete:
Yes
Code Templates:
Yes
Integrated Debugger:
Yes
See All Specs
Top
Con
•••
Bad performance on Mac
Doesn't run well on Mac.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Very responsive when compared to similar software
See More
Top
Con
•••
Poor refactoring
QtCreator has lack of refactoring features. It's not even close to Resharper++ or CLion.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Integrates well with non-IDE workflows 
Qt Creator uses normal .pro-files, CMakeLists.txt, Makefiles.am, etc. for its projects and rarely needs special configuration for projects. Projects can be built on the command line as usual.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Qt focused
Qt Creator is focused on being an IDE for Qt, as a general purpose IDE it performs quite well, but there are areas which are lacking such as project file support (support for generic/CMake projects lags behind Qt projects).
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Great syntax highlighting and auto-completion
Qt Creator has a code model which basically has the same information as the compiler. So it can do really nice syntax highlighting (e.g. of virtual methods or local variables) as well as provide great code completion.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Poor multi-window mode support
While multiple windows are supported, many operations will activate in the primary window (search, debug, goto-line... etc).
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Fast and fully keyboard-navigatable
Responsive UI, no need to use the mouse for the power users.
See More
Top
Con
•••
No support for recent C++ standards
Totally outdated, still doesn't support C++11 features such as auto statements when using "Find Usage", etc.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Much space dedicated to the code
Small and beautiful UI, almost all the space is dedicated to the text with hardly and toolbars. Can actually be used on a 1024x768 pixel screen.
See More
Hide
See All
Get it
here
Recommend
25
8
51
Eclipse (CDT)
My Rec
ommendation
for
Eclipse (CDT)
My Recommendation for
Eclipse (CDT)
All
15
Experiences
3
Pros
7
Cons
4
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Refactoring works great
Renaming a class or a variable across all your project works well; people have been using Eclipse CDT because of the missing "refactor C++" on Xcode.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Configuring a debugger for mac is nightmare
Debugging C/C++ code on mac is a nightmare (High Sierra and Big Sur affected, newer versions probably too). See here.
See More
CommunicativeTartarus's Experience
My default IDE on all platforms. Easy to install, easy to use, cross platform, with support for loads of languages
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Linux, Windows, MacOS X
Auto Complete:
yes
License:
EPL (Open Source)
Code Templates:
Yes
See All Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Large selection of plug-ins
Eclipse has a large and active community, which has resulted in a wide variety of plug-ins.
See More
Top
Con
•••
UI can be confusing
There's an overly abundant presence of menus, forcing you to constantly click around the different menu structures.
See More
ResponsibleIxtlilton's Experience
Work well with c++ and python. However after installing Xcode, it could no longer resolve symbols with std:: or boost:: Googling around no clear answers how to fix. Eclipse works better on Linux and Macs
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Free and open source
Eclipse is an open source project and free to use.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Code completion could be better
The default out-of-the-box code completion on the CDT can be a bit lacking when compared to Netbeans and Jetbrains.
See More
KindheartedPandia's Experience
It works the same on mac, Linux, and winders.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Good font rendering
Because Eclipse is based on SWT, it uses the native font rendering and thus looks better than other IDEs on some Linux systems, where the Java font rendering is not optimal.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Plug-ins can be unstable
Though there are plenty of plug-ins to choose from, they aren't always reliable. Some aren't maintained, bug fixes can be slow, and you may need to download plug-ins from multiple sources.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Macro definition browser
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Nice Mouse Hover assist during debugging
View values of variables on mouse hover during debugging.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Highly customizable
Thanks to the large variety of plug-ins and various configuration options, Eclipse is very customizable.
See More
Hide
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Get it
here
Recommend
58
14
--
Code::Blocks
My Rec
ommendation
for
Code::Blocks
My Recommendation for
Code::Blocks
All
2
Pros
1
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Free/Libre/Open Source
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Linux, MacOS(outdated version)
Auto Complete:
Yes
License:
GPL
Hide
Free
Recommend
21
--
KDevelop
My Rec
ommendation
for
KDevelop
My Recommendation for
KDevelop
All
9
Pros
5
Cons
3
Specs
Top
Con
•••
Doesn't work on MacOS Mojave
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Integrates with Version Control
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Linux, BSD
Top
Con
•••
Experimental macOS Builds
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Usable for Template Heavy Projects
See More
Top
Con
•••
Works with no problems only on Linux
KDevelop is an IDE for the KDE platform. Even though it's cross-platform, it's mostly targeted at Linux systems and the versions for other operating systems are highly experimental.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Supports CMake
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Excellent syntax highlighting
Kdevelop has very smart syntax and semantic syntax highlighting.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Supports QMake
See More
Hide
See All
Get it
here
Recommend
18
4
--
CudaText
My Rec
ommendation
for
CudaText
My Recommendation for
CudaText
All
1
Specs
Specs
Platforms:
Windows, macOS, Linux, BSD
License:
MPL-2.0
Bracket Matching:
Yes
Hide
Free
Recommend
2
--
Goorm IDE
My Rec
ommendation
for
Goorm IDE
My Recommendation for
Goorm IDE
All
7
Pros
4
Cons
2
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Root access to shell
Goorm allows the user to access their shell as the root user, and SSH is also supported.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Latency at times due to location
Likely the servers are in Korea which introuces a little Lag at times when usingthe terminal.
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Browser-Based
Auto Complete:
yes
Multi Language Support:
yes (over 12)
Integrated Debugger:
yes
See All Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Supports most languages and frameworks
Goorm IDE has support for C, C++, Java, Js, python, ruby, node express, jquery, angular, and bootstrap. It even supports web server and integrated debuggger.
See More
Top
Con
•••
English is not the primary language
If you do a google search for Goorm IDE, much of the results are in Korean, which is the same with their social media. If you don't speak Korean, you may have difficulty finding more information on Goorm or asking for help/support.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Super easy
No more configurations, just a few clicks. It's fully ready to develop.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Cloud IDE
Goorm IDE is a cloud IDE, making it easy to sign into and code from anywhere.
See More
Hide
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Get it
here
Recommend
10
1
--
SlickEdit
My Rec
ommendation
for
SlickEdit
My Recommendation for
SlickEdit
All
4
Pros
3
Cons
1
Top
Pro
•••
Extensive support for programming languages
SlickEdit supports over 50 programming languages on nine platforms.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Way over-priced in the current market compared to many free editor(s) functionality
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Symbol analysis support
There are powerful symbol analysis features in SlickEdit, including context tagging and references.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Great symbol analysis and debugger
See More
Hide
See All
Get it
here
Recommend
13
3
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