When comparing BlueJ vs DrJava, the Slant community recommends BlueJ for most people. In the question“What are the best Java IDEs or editors?” BlueJ is ranked 7th while DrJava is ranked 8th. The most important reason people chose BlueJ is:
All the features you would expect: syntax highlighting, code-completion, templates, extension-manager, git integration, unit-testing, etc..
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Many features
All the features you would expect: syntax highlighting, code-completion, templates, extension-manager, git integration, unit-testing, etc..
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.

Pro Great IDE for beginners
BlueJ was created for educational purposes and is designed to be simple for those who are just learning.
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.
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.
Pro Lightweight
DrJava is a lightweight IDE, at only 13MB. It starts up quickly and doesn't lag.
Cons
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.
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.
Con Good just for beginners
Not comfortable for expert programmers.
Con Uses its own "Java"-dialect
Con Light on features
DrJava is primarily for students, so is kept fairly basic. For example, auto-completion is limited to class names.
