What are the best Java IDEs or editors?

Options
Considered

User
Recs.

Jan 13, 2024

Last
Updated

IntelliJ IDEA vs NetBeans vs Visual Studio Code

vs Eclipse Che vs Codenvy vs Eclipse vs BlueJ vs DrJava - Full-Featured, lightweight IDE for students vs SlickEdit vs Geany vs JDeveloper vs Greenfoot vs GNU Emacs vs C++ vs Intellij IDEA Community Edition

Specs

Platforms

Windows, Linux, Mac

Auto Complete

Bracket Matching

Code Templates

Multi Language Support

Plugin Manager

Plugin

Snippets

Integrated Debugger

Source Control Integration

License

Error Markup

Extension language

Unit Testing

Price

Cross Platform

Git

Supported remote file editing protocols

Terminal

Platforms

Windows, macOS, Linux

Auto Complete

Yes

Bracket Matching

Yes

Code Templates

Yes

Multi Language Support

Yes

Plugin Manager

Yes

Plugin

Yes

Snippets

Yes

Integrated Debugger

Source Control Integration

License

Error Markup

Extension language

Unit Testing

Price

Cross Platform

Git

Supported remote file editing protocols

Terminal

Platforms

Windows, macOS, Linux

Auto Complete

Yes

Bracket Matching

Yes

Code Templates

Yes

Multi Language Support

Yes

Plugin Manager

Yes

Plugin

Snippets

Integrated Debugger

Yes

Source Control Integration

Git

License

MIT, Proprietary (official builds)

Error Markup

Yes

Extension language

JavaScript

Unit Testing

Price

Cross Platform

Git

Supported remote file editing protocols

Terminal

Platforms

Windows, Linux, Mac

Auto Complete

Bracket Matching

Code Templates

Multi Language Support

Plugin Manager

Plugin

Snippets

Integrated Debugger

Source Control Integration

License

Error Markup

Extension language

Unit Testing

Price

Cross Platform

Git

Supported remote file editing protocols

Terminal

Platforms

Browser-Based

Auto Complete

Yes

Bracket Matching

Yes

Code Templates

Yes

Multi Language Support

Yes

Plugin Manager

Plugin

Snippets

Integrated Debugger

Yes

Source Control Integration

Yes

License

Error Markup

Yes

Extension language

Unit Testing

Yes

Price

0-500

Cross Platform

Yes

Git

Supported remote file editing protocols

Terminal

Platforms

Cross Platform

Auto Complete

yes

Bracket Matching

yes

Code Templates

yes

Multi Language Support

yes

Plugin Manager

yes

Plugin

yes

Snippets

yes

Integrated Debugger

yes

Source Control Integration

yes

License

MIT

Error Markup

Extension language

yes

Unit Testing

yes

Price

FREE

Cross Platform

yes

Git

yes

Supported remote file editing protocols

yes

Terminal

yes

Platforms

Windows, Linux, Mac

Auto Complete

yes

Bracket Matching

yes

Code Templates

yes

Multi Language Support

yes

Plugin Manager

yes

Plugin

yes

Snippets

Integrated Debugger

yes

Source Control Integration

License

GPL

Error Markup

Extension language

Unit Testing

jUnit

Price

Cross Platform

Git

yes

Supported remote file editing protocols

Terminal

yes

Platforms

Auto Complete

Bracket Matching

Code Templates

Multi Language Support

Plugin Manager

Plugin

Snippets

Integrated Debugger

Source Control Integration

License

Error Markup

Extension language

Unit Testing

Price

Cross Platform

Git

Supported remote file editing protocols

Terminal

Platforms

Auto Complete

Bracket Matching

Code Templates

Multi Language Support

Plugin Manager

Plugin

Snippets

Integrated Debugger

Source Control Integration

License

Error Markup

Extension language

Unit Testing

Price

Cross Platform

Git

Supported remote file editing protocols

Terminal

Platforms

Windows, macOS, Linux

Auto Complete

Yes

Bracket Matching

Yes

Code Templates

Multi Language Support

Yes

Plugin Manager

Plugin

Snippets

Integrated Debugger

Yes

Source Control Integration

Via Plugin

License

GPL-2.0-only

Error Markup

Extension language

Unit Testing

Price

Cross Platform

Git

Supported remote file editing protocols

None

Terminal

Platforms

Auto Complete

YES

Bracket Matching

YES

Code Templates

YES

Multi Language Support

Plugin Manager

Plugin

Snippets

Integrated Debugger

YES

Source Control Integration

YES

License

Error Markup

YES

Extension language

Unit Testing

YES

Price

FREE

Cross Platform

YES

Git

YES

Supported remote file editing protocols

Terminal

Platforms

Auto Complete

Bracket Matching

Code Templates

Multi Language Support

Plugin Manager

Plugin

Snippets

Integrated Debugger

Source Control Integration

License

Error Markup

Extension language

Unit Testing

Price

Cross Platform

Git

Supported remote file editing protocols

Terminal

Platforms

GNU/Linux, BSD-like, Windows, MacOS

Auto Complete

Bracket Matching

Code Templates

Multi Language Support

Plugin Manager

Plugin

Snippets

Integrated Debugger

Source Control Integration

License

Error Markup

Extension language

Unit Testing

Price

Cross Platform

Git

Supported remote file editing protocols

Terminal

Platforms

Auto Complete

Bracket Matching

Code Templates

Multi Language Support

Plugin Manager

Plugin

Snippets

Integrated Debugger

Source Control Integration

License

Error Markup

Extension language

Unit Testing

Price

Cross Platform

Git

Supported remote file editing protocols

Terminal

Platforms

Auto Complete

Bracket Matching

Code Templates

Multi Language Support

Plugin Manager

Plugin

Snippets

Integrated Debugger

Source Control Integration

License

Error Markup

Extension language

Unit Testing

Price

Cross Platform

Git

Supported remote file editing protocols

Terminal

Pros + Cons

Pro
Smart refactorings

IDEA places an emphasis in safe refactoring, offering a variety of features to make this possible for a variety of languages. These features include safe delete, type migration and replacing method code duplicates.

Comment

Pro
Fast and smart contextual assistance

Uses a fast indexing technique to provide contextual hints (auto-completion, available object members, import suggestions). On-the-fly code analysis to detect errors and propose refactorization.

Comment

Pro
Android support, JavaEE support, etc

A very complete development environment support.

Comment

Pro
Support for many languages

IntelliJ supports many languages besides Java, some of these are: golang, Scala, Clojure, Groovy, Bash, etc.

Comment

Pro
Lots of plugins

Many plugins are available for almost any task a developer may need to cover. Plugins are developed by Jetbrains themselves or by 3rd parties through the SDK available for writing them.

Comment

Pro
Stable and robust

IntelliJ IDEA hardly ever crashes or has any issues that plague other Java IDEs like file corruption or slowness.

Comment

Pro
Intuitive and slick UI

IDEA has a clean, intuitive interface with some customization available (such as the Darcula theme).

Comment

Pro
Clear and detailed documentation

The documentation is exhaustive, easy to navigate, and clearly worded.

Comment

Pro
Very powerful debugger

With ability to step into a certain part of a large method invocation (Shift+F7), drop frame, executing code snippets, showing method return values, etc.

Comment

Pro
Free version available

There is a free community edition (open source) and an ultimate edition, which you can compare here. The ultimate edition is available for free for one year for students but must be registered through an .edu e-mail account.

Comment

Pro
Many convenient features

These simplify the daily work, e.g. copy/cut a whole line without the need to select it.

Comment

Con
Slow startup

Startup can be slow depending on system configuration.

Comment

Con
Uses a lot of RAM

[add description]

Comment

Con
Somewhat expensive

IntelliJ IDEA is fairly expensive, with a pricetag of $149/year. However there is a free community edition available.

Comment

Pro
Gradle support

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Built-in Git support

[add description]

Comment

Con
Built with closed source components

The version with full features is not opensource. Parts of the code are under apache licence though.

Comment

Con
Cannot open multiple projects in the same window

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Student Benefits

Verify yourselves as a student to get more perks.

Comment

Pro
Embedded database support

Creating an embedded database, running SQL script in a dedicated terminal, viewing tables and their contents, and creating a connection to an in-memory or embedded database is fully supported.

Comment

Con
Lack of plugins

IntelliJ supports a very small amount of plugins. Although these are 'quality approved', many features are missing and can't be implemented because of that.

Comment

Con
Bugs are not solved as often as they should

They are more interested in adding new features or issuing new versions than solving bugs.

Comment

Con
Standard hotkeys behave differently

Seems like hotkeys assignment in Idea has no logical consistency. Like «F3» is usually next match, «Ctrl+W» - close tab, etc — they map to some different action by default. There is a good effort in making the IDE friendly for immigrants from other products: there are options to use hotkeys from Eclipse, and even emacs. But these mappings are very incomplete. And help pages do not take this remapping into account, rather mentioning the standard hotkeys. So, people coming from other IDEs/editors are doomed to using mouse and context menus (which are rather big and complex).

Comment

Pro
Prices are not bad

I pay $24 a month and i have access to all jetbrain peoducts , so i use their many tools , i tried many others like netbeans , eclipse , etc , they re good but intelij is on the space and the sky is the limit . Been using it for 5 years and i cant tell i got frustrated using .it

Comment

Con
Autocompletion fails to show parameters

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Fantastic Maven support

NetBeans has out-of-the-box support for Maven (NetBeans 6.7 and newer), which includes a repository browser.

Comment

Pro
Free, open source and cross-platform

NetBeans is a free, GPL-licensed IDE. It can can run on any computer with a Java virtual machine (JVM). Netbeans can therefore run on a variety of operating systems such as Windows, *nix, and Mac OS. Being open source means that developers can contribute changes to the code to have the IDE better serve them.

Comment

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) wherever possible, so you can code at speed.

Comment

Pro
Functionality can be extend with community plugins

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Open multiple projects in the same window

You can open multiple projects at the same time, with seamless integration between them. For example, code that you edit and save in a library will be immediately available in a dependent application. No need to build! Similarly, you can navigate to any type or step through code with ease.

Comment

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.

Comment

Pro
Great for Swing based GUI apps

The generated Swing code is slim and smart. Couldn't do it better by hand.

Comment

Pro
Consumes less memory

Is much more resources efficient than IntelliJ.

Comment

Pro
Huge number of built-in hints, checks, and refactorings

NetBeans immediately finds and highlights problems in your code, and lets you quickly fix and refactor it.

Comment

Pro
Uses Oracle's Java compiler for 100% compatibility

Eclipse and IntelliJ use independently-developed Java compilers to provide features like live syntax error highlighting. NetBeans, in contrast, hooks into the internal API of Oracle's javac to always support the newest versions of Java and reproduce all compiler bugs and quirks.

Comment

Pro
Easy to learn for Visual Studio users

Users used to Visual Studio will find it easy to switch.

Comment

Pro
Stylish UI

Stylish UI that doesn't look too enterprisey.

Comment

Pro
Multiple revision control system integration

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Run multiple debug sessions in parallel

You can connect the debugger to multiple VMs. Debug several applications at once, or connect to multiple servers/nodes to catch a breakpoint from any one of them.

Comment

Pro
Built-in terminal

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Polished features and UX

NetBeans is easy to use and learn because it's well thought-through and has few rough edges.

Comment

Pro
Can package apps with executables

Usually all java desktop applications are jar files that require the Java runtime to run. Since not all users have this runtime packing the JRE and having an executable is a must. Netbeans does this job for you in easy steps.

Comment

Pro
You can access source code history

There's a built-in local history that lets you compare code changes and revert to a specific revision. Helpful when source code file accidentally overwritten.

Comment

Con
Slows down occasionally

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.

Comment

Pro
Easier to get into going

Lower learning curve.

Comment

Con
Zero bug fixing support

[add description]

Comment

Con
Less configuration options

Configuration options are good enough, but more comprehensive elsewhere.

Comment

Pro
Automatically loads annotation processors

Lombok, JMH, and other bytecode rewriters are automatically loaded if they're declared as a Maven dependency.

Comment

Pro
Best IDE for Codename One support

Doing mobile development with Codename One is easiest with NetBeans.

Comment

Pro
Frameworks support

Supports Symfony1, Symfony2,Yii2 & Zend frameworks.

Comment

Pro
JMeter benchmarking tool support

[add description]

Comment

Pro
PHPUnit support

PHPUnit is a testing framework. You can create test classes, run and see the code coverage directly from IDE interface.

Comment

Pro
Composer commands inside IDE

The most used composer commands can be done directly from IDE.

Comment

Pro
FTP/SFTP synchronization

Supports synchronization with projects stored remotely through FTP or SFTP.

Comment

Pro
Supports community plugins

NetBeans can be extended beyond the basic tool that you get out of the box through community made custom plugins.

Comment

Pro
Less and Sass compiler support

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Linux terminal inside IDE

You can run Linux terminal inside the IDE.

Comment

Pro
Supports Twig templates

NetBeans provides code completion and documentation for all Twig elements.

Comment

Pro
PHPDoc support

Supports documentation generation through PHPDoc.

Comment

Pro
PHPstan support

Supports static code analysis with phpstan.

Comment

Pro
Grunt and Gulp Task Runner support

[add description]

Comment

Pro
ApiGen support

ApiGen allows automatically generating documentation from specifically formatted comments. It's easy to use, supports traits, allows fuzzy searching for classes and highlighting docblocks using Markdown.

Comment

Pro
Supports Smarty

Supports Smarty Template Engine right out of the box.

Comment

Pro
Bower support

[add description]

Comment

Con
Development has stalled dramatically

It went down from two releases a year with minor bug-fix releases to one release and no fixes. There seem to be fewer features added per release as well. There is no activity in the plugin community.

Comment

Con
Bad and old UI

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Best for PHP, HTML5 Apps Developemt

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Free, open source, and cross-platform

NetBeans is a free, GPL-licensed IDE. It can run on any computer with a Java virtual machine. If a computer has a Java virtual machine (JVM), Netbeans can run on it. Netbeans can, therefore, run on a variety of operating systems such as Windows, *nix, and Mac OS. Being open source means that developers can contribute changes to the code to have the IDE better serve them.

Comment

Pro
Updated frequently

There's a new release of Visual Studio Code every month. If you are one of the insiders then releases are daily.

Comment

Pro
JavaScript IntelliSense support

JavaScript IntelliSense allows Visual Studio Code to provide you with useful hints and auto-completion features while you code.

Comment

Pro
Extensions (aka plugins) are written in JavaScript

Extensions are written in either Typescript or JavaScript.

Comment

Pro
Integrated terminal

There's no need to press alt+tab to go to a terminal: it is directly integrated into the editor. Shift+~ is a handy hotkey to toggle the integrated terminal.

Comment

Pro
TypeScript integration

There is very solid TypeScript integration in Visual Studio Code. Both are developed by Microsoft and VSC itself is written in TypeScript.

Comment

Pro
Great performance

For a 'wrapped' web-based application, Visual Studio Code performs very well.

Comment

Pro
Huge community behind it

The ease of getting assistance and finding tutorials is increasing as the community grows.

Comment

Pro
Extendable through plug-ins

Visual Studio Code comes fairly complete out of the box, but there are many plug-ins available to extend its functionality.

Comment

Pro
Ready to use out of the box

You don't need to configure and add plugins before being productive. However, you can add plugins if needed but for the basics you're well covered.

Comment

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

Sometimes it doesn't tell you if you made a typo in a method name or if a method is not used and several other important features.

Comment

Pro
Embedded Git control

Visual Studio Code has integrated Git control, guaranteeing speed, data integrity, and support for distributed, non-linear workflows.

Comment

Pro
Fast and powerful

VS-Code has the speed of Sublime and the power of WebStorm. Perhaps this is the best software that Microsoft has ever created.

Comment

Pro
Integrated task runners

Task runners display lists of available tasks and performing these tasks is as simple as a click of the mouse.

Comment

Pro
Debugging for Java with plugin

For Java debugging need plugin.

Comment

Pro
ESLint integration

ESLint integrates great. You can define your rules trough .eslintrc.* as usual and vs code will autofix your code on save. So your code is always in style.

Comment

Pro
It has gotten really good

All it takes is one stop for all the features many people need.

Comment

Pro
Inline definition picking and usages finding

These features allow you to have a glance at code without opening it as a whole in a separate tab. Moreover, editing is allowed.

Comment

Pro
Good support for new Emmet syntax

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Python support

Excellent Python plugin, originally created by Don Jayamanne, now hired by Microsoft to extend and maintain the extension.

Comment

Pro
High fidelity C# plugin

The Omnisharp plugin is very powerful providing full sln, csproj, and project.json support.

Comment

Pro
JS typechecking

It leverages TypeScript compiler functionality to statically type check JS (type inference, JSDoc types) with "javascript.implicitProjectConfig.checkJs": true option.

Comment

Pro
Custom snippets support

Snippets are templates that will insert text for you and adapt it to their context, and in VSC they are highly customizable.

Comment

Pro
Active development

It's really nice to see how the code editor evolves. Every month there is a new version with great communication of new features and changes.

Comment

Con
Memory hog

Allegedly, VS Code is "lightweight". Yet, running multiple instances of it at once, you may get many "out of memory" messages from Windows despite 16 GB RAM. (While of course also running other things. The point is the comparison with some other IDEs/editors where running them alongside the same number of other applications doesn't cause Windows to run out of memory)

Comment

Con
Generalized

VS Code is a general code/scripting IDE built to be lightweight and for people familiar with their language of choice, not directly comparable to Visual Studio in power or scope.

Comment

Con
Project search limits results

Because file search is so slow your results are limited in order to simulate a faster search.

Comment

Con
Slow launch time

Than it's competitors, e.g. Sublime Text.

Comment

Con
Complicated Setup

It's too complicated to setup some plugins, such as Oracle database connection, which needs several plugins to be installed.

Comment

Pro
Libre/open source

Released under the MIT License.

Comment

Con
It's not an IDE, it's a Code Editor

[add description]

Comment

Con
No refactoring

[add description]

Comment

Con
Embedded Git isn't powerful enough

You can do nothing but to track changes, stage them and commit. No history, visualization, rebasing or cherry-picking – these things are left to git console or external git client.

Comment

Con
No debugger

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Integrated debugging

VSC includes debugging tools for Node.js, TypeScript, and JavaScript.

Comment

Pro
SSH + terminal

Built-in terminal with root access so you can make changes to your running machines. Being able to SSH into the workspace so you can use a desktop IDE is handy.

Comment

Pro
Custom commands

You can package up custom commands with your workspace and then use them (or share them) with everyone else.

Comment

Pro
Docker runtimes

You can choose from pre-configured environments for Java, Javascript, C++, PHP, C#, etc., or you can define your own by dropping in a Dockerfile - makes it easy for simple and complex projects.

Comment

Pro
GIT and SVN VCS support

Projects can be easily imported from any Git or Svn repository hosting service.

Comment

Pro
Reproducible environment

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Portable workspaces

The workspace in Che includes project sources, IDE and the runtime. So if you hand your Che workspace definition to another user and they execute it they will get everything they need to build, run and debug the project. Also the runtime is in a Docker container so it will work even if the second user is on a different OS than the original user who shared their workspace with them.

Comment

Pro
Previews

Che does a nice job to automatically map the service:port running in the Docker container (e.g. tomcat on 8080) to the Docker port it actually uses (something in the ephemeral range). You never need to figure that out - it's just made available when you run your server.

Comment

Con
Slow runtime

Online IDE is much slower than desktop one.

Comment

Pro
Merge tool for VCS

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Open-source

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Can provide a custom runtime environment

Codenvy can provide a runtime environment to test and debug code. This can also be used to share work progress with a client. Codenvy uses Docker as the runtime application and gives access to Dockerfiles allowing any environment that runs on Linux to be built. This allows using any database, reverse proxy or builder, etc. Codenvy even provides SSH access to running container in every image. There's also a selection of pre-built environments to speed up the development.

Comment

Con
No desktop application

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Fantastic Java support

All Java builders, syntax highlighting, class navigator, jump to package and declaration, and JavaDoc are present in Codenvy.

Comment

Pro
On-demand, instant-access, real-time collaborative IDEs

Codenvy "Factory" feature enables developers to create temporary IDE workspaces with full code, build, test, deploy, and collaboration functionality that can be shared with a URL. Multiple people can work in the same workspace making code reviews and teaching simpler and faster. And there's no limit to collaborators.

Comment

Pro
Powerful editor

Codenvy has a fast, secure browser-based editor that supports syntax highlighting, code completion, refactoring and more. It can be used to edit, build, run and debug projects. It even has multi-cursor support. The layout will be familiar to most developer, especially those experienced with Eclipse, with a file explorer on the left, code on the right and tabs for builders, runners, terminal and events at the bottom.

Comment

Pro
Easy setup

Once an account is set up and the user has logged in, all that's needed to start is to pick a language, a framework and a PaaS. Codenvy also allows anonymous logins albeit with some important limitations.

Comment

Pro
Java intellisense and refactoring

Refactoring, autocomplete, syntax highlighting, multi-modules, etc...

Comment

Pro
Ability to share a link that creates preconfigured environment copy on demand

[add description]

Comment

Con
Lacks drag and drop support

Doesn't support drag & drop functionality in the working tree.

Comment

Pro
Free and open source

Eclipse is an open source project and free to use.

Comment

Pro
Multiple languages - one IDE

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Large selection of plugins

Eclipse has a large and active community, which has resulted in a wide variety of plugins.

Comment

Pro
Fast compiler

Eclipse uses a custom compiler (which can also be used outside of Eclipse), which is often faster than the normal Java Compiler, especially for incremental compilation.

Comment

Pro
Easy to use and get started with

It's interface is super easy to use, after adding required package for your task everything just works.

Comment

Pro
Gives good perspectives on your project

The concept of perspectives is outstanding. It puts right tools at your fingertips, keeping the tools you currently don't need out from the workbench. For example, in VCS perspective it's all about versions and branches. In debug perspective it's all about state. In java ee project it can show http endpoints in a very accessible manner.

Comment

Con
Branding & online website is super cluttered

There are lots of official home pages for this IDE, the packages, and the repos - hard to find correct one. Also, the main name in IDE: "Eclipse", is same as "Eclipse Foundation" which makes things more confusing.

Comment

Pro
Highly customizable

Thanks to the large variety of plugins and various configuration options, Eclipse is very customizable.

Comment

Pro
Great debugger

Shows threads, concurrency locks, and conditional breakpoints.

Comment

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.

Comment

Pro
Good refactoring tools

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Faster than any other Java IDE

Fast, suitable for big projects, customizable, supports UML, many programming languages, plugins, and widgets vs NetBeans and JDeveloper. Support for Workspaces and Perspectives. Long term tested, free of charge, vs IntelliJ IDEA.

Comment

Pro
Great in-UI documentation

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Dark theme improved!

[add description]

Comment

Con
UI can be confusing

There's an overly abundant presence of menus, this forces you to constantly click around the different menu structures; foreign ideas, like Views and Perspectives; strange menu choices, like configure settings located in Windows menu->Preferences.

Comment

Con
Lack of plugins with good user interfaces

Many Eclipse plugins are extremely confusing, with UIs that are even less consistent than Eclipse itself.

Comment

Con
Plugins can be unstable

Though there are plenty of plugins to choose from, they aren't always reliable. Some aren't maintained, bug fixes can be slow, and you may need to download plugins from multiple sources.

Comment

Con
Tends to be slow and lags a lot

[add description]

Comment

Con
Poor language support via plugins

Eclipse supports other languages with a huge amount of plugins. Many languages have their own distribution, but multi-language is hard to exist in one project. Like Scala, there is no official support from Eclipse for this language. If Eclipse gets an update, languages such as these will not.

Comment

Con
Newer versions are getting less stable

Eclipse 4 Neon randomly hangs. For example, during installing new software. https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=513218

Comment

Con
Some old bugs don't get fixed

E.g. change a parameter name to the same as a field - the field will not be prefixed with "this." like in IDEA.

Comment

Con
Not good for big projects

BlueJ is much better suited for small projects. It is designed to be simple and quite basic, rather than to handle large applications.

Comment

Con
Lack of features

There are very few features available in BlueJ that would would expect from an IDE. For example, syntax highlighting is minimal and there is no code completion.

Comment

Con
Good just for beginners

Not comfortable for expert programmers.

Comment

Con
Uses its own "Java"-dialect

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Many features

All the features you would expect: syntax highlighting, code-completion, templates, extension-manager, git integration, unit-testing, etc..

Comment

Pro
UML start view

Shows UML chart of your project, making it easy to find classes. Helps beginners get familiar with the structure of Java programs.

Comment

Pro
Great IDE for beginners

BlueJ was created for educational purposes and is designed to be simple for those who are just learning.

Comment

Pro
Easy to learn

Because BlueJ was created for teaching purposes, it is designed to be easy to use. It has a user-friendly and intuitive interface.

Comment

Pro
Good for beginners

Easy to setup, use and code with.

Comment

Pro
Full-featured

It has all the features a student would need from any other IDE. It has unit testing, project management, debugging, etc.

Comment

Pro
Lightweight

DrJava is a lightweight IDE, at only 13MB. It starts up quickly and doesn't lag.

Comment

Pro
No need to set up a project

Because DrJava is designed for beginners/students, it's set up so that users can run code without having to worry about set up.

Comment

Con
Light on features

DrJava is primarily for students, so is kept fairly basic. For example, auto-completion is limited to class names.

Comment

Pro
Built-in beautifier

The beautifier formats code as you type to help improve readability and consistency.

Comment

Pro
Integrated debuggers for Java

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Versatile IDE

You can learn this one code editing environment and use it to code in Java as well as tons of other languages.

Comment

Con
Not an IDE

It lacks debugging or refactoring support.

Comment

Con
Not suitable for large projects

Geany is light on features compared to other IDEs, and is better suited for beginners working on smaller projects.

Comment

Pro
Light and fast

Geany is lightweight due to it's offering of fairly simple features.

Comment

Pro
Cross-platform

Geany is available on Linux, Windows and OSX.

Comment

Pro
Command execution with shortcuts

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Plugin manager

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Syntax highlighting

[add description]

Comment

Pro
JDeveloper has all that you need and even more

JDeveloper development framework with a plethora of features and several visual development tools. JDeveloper covers the entire development lifecycle, coding, designing, debugging, optimization, profiling, and deploying. Oracle JDeveloper can integrate with the Oracle Application Development Framework (Oracle ADF) to further simplify application development. In addition to Java, JDeveloper can also be used to develop applications in GTML, JavaScript, PHP, SQL, and XML.

Comment

Pro
Free

JDeveloper is completely free to use.

Comment

Con
Heavy

JDeveloper is a bulky IDE at 2.1GB for the most recent version.

Comment

Con
JDeveloper is a buggy resource hog

Makes development just that much more painful, even if ADF is good.

Comment

Con
Not ideal for professional programmers

Greenfoot is developed to teach programming through creating basic graphical applications (such as simple games). Though it features an IDE, the interface is quite simple and isn't likely to meet the needs of most experienced developers.

Comment

Pro
Free

Greenfoot is free to use.

Comment

Pro
Great for beginners

Greenfoot was developed as a way to teach Java to first time programmers. Greenfoot provides for variety of additional resources such as tutorials and community support.

Comment

Pro
Infinitely customisable

Customizations can be made to a wide range of Emacs' functions through a Lisp dialect. A robust list of existing Lisp extensions include the practical (git integration, syntax highlighting, etc) to the utilitarian (calculators, calendars) to the sublime (chess, Eliza).

Comment

Pro
Great Integration

Emacs has modes for nearly every use case, even ones like mail and internet browsing. It has often been said that Emacs is essentially an operating system on its own.

Comment

Pro
Keyboard-focused, mouse-free editing

Emacs can be controlled entirely with the keyboard.

Comment