What are the best IDEs for C++ on Mac OS X?

Question

12

Options
Considered

944

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12 mins

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Here’s the Deal

The Best 1 of 12 OptionsWhy?

Best IDEs for C++ on Mac OS X	Price	Platforms	Auto Complete
96 CLion	Free Trial	Windows, Linux, Mac	Yes
84 Xcode	-	-	-
81 Netbeans	-	Windows, macOS, Linux	Yes
78 VS Code	Free	Windows, Linux, Mac	-
76 Qt Creator	-	Linux; Windows; MacOS	yes

See Full List

11 Other Options Considered

Xcode

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

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

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

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

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

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)

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

See All

Netbeans

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

See All

Qt Creator

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

Top Con

Bad performance on Mac

Don't run good on mac. See More

AwareHippolytus's Experience

dont run on mac efficiencies See More

Specs

Platforms:Linux; Windows; MacOS

Top Pro

Very responsive when compared to similar software

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

See All

Visual Studio for OSX

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.

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

See All

Sublime

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

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

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

See All

Eclipse (CDT)

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)

Cross Platform: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

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

See All

Goorm IDE

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

See All

Code::Blocks

Platforms:Windows, Linux, MacOS(outdated version)

Auto Complete:Yes

License:GPL

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CLion

Top Pro

Great code completion

Boasts great code completion and gives suggestions to minimize the code. 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

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

Only supports CMake projects

SociablePerseus's Experience

It's perfect 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

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

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

Easy to customize

CLion offers plenty of configuration options for setting up the IDE how you like. 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

CommunicativeTartarus's Experience

I've uninstalled it 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

ConfidentSkadi's Experience

This isnt available currently through the mac store. 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

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

The Best 1 of 12 OptionsWhy?

My Recommendation for CLion

My Recommendation for CLion

Great code completion

Proprietary

Cross platform

Only supports CMake projects

Intelligent code completion

No non-commerical version like other Jetbrains products

Easy to customize

It isn't intuitive

Uses CMake by default

It is heavy. Takes 100% CPY for less trivial projects

Excellent Visual Diff and VCS integration

Build Tool Integration is messy/over complicated

Isnt available

11 Other Options Considered

My Recommendation for Xcode

My Recommendation for Xcode

Supported by Apple

Refactoring limited to C

Smoothly integrated to Mac OS X

Some things are plain quirky

Easy to install

Poor performance

Integration with Objective-C

The download is too big (about 5.6 GB)

Powerful memory debugging and performance tools

Live syntax checking, built-in documentation, code completion

My Recommendation for Netbeans

My Recommendation for Netbeans

Autocompletes your code

A little slow to load

Powerful debugging and performance optimization

A nightmare to install as of late

Multiple revision control system integration

My Recommendation for VS Code

My Recommendation for VS Code

Ease of use

Difficult to set up for newbies

Editable diff

Can't see history

Show diff

My Recommendation for Qt Creator

My Recommendation for Qt Creator

Build in Qt GUI editor

Bad performance on Mac

Very responsive when compared to similar software

Poor refactoring

Integrates well with non-IDE workflows

Qt Focused

Great syntax highlighting and auto-completion

Poor multi-window mode support

Fast and fully keyboard-navigatable

No support for recent C++ standards

Much space dedicated to the code

My Recommendation for Visual Studio for OSX

My Recommendation for Visual Studio for OSX

Currently doesn't support C++

Free, and now with Xamarin support built-in to target most Oses.

VS doesn't support C11 for windows! mac will never ever see C support in there.

Visual Studio UI

My Recommendation for Sublime

My Recommendation for Sublime

Lightweight

Not a full IDE

Comfortable to work with

Shareware

Multi-line select and editing

Very fast and clean

As complex or as simple as you want

My Recommendation for Eclipse (CDT)

My Recommendation for Eclipse (CDT)

Refactoring works great

Configuring a debugger for mac is nightmare

Large selection of plug-ins

UI can be confusing

Free and open source

Code completion could be better

Good font rendering