When comparing Gingko vs IntelliJ IDEA, the Slant community recommends IntelliJ IDEA for most people. In the question“What are the best Markdown editors for OS X?” IntelliJ IDEA is ranked 23rd while Gingko is ranked 28th.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro You can customize colors
Pro Allows focusing on one piece of information at a time
Since Gingko documents are "trees", they are always organized on the go. And since everything is written in cards, it is possible to focus on one chunk of content at a time.
Pro Easy to overview
Despite the complexity of the tree structure, it's always clear where you are, and how to quickly add your thoughts.
Pro Markdown support
All formatting is done via Markdown.
Pro Non-linear
Non-linear notetaking allows you more flexibility, freedom and creativity.
Pro Great Java Support
Pro A good editor for test-driven development
IntelliJ IDEA is really easy to work with when it comes to test-driven development in Java and JavaScript/TypeScript.
Pro Great JavaScript support
Pro Markdown support with preview
Pro Supports PHP quite well
Pro Great TypeScript support
Really good support for importing classes, libraries, etc. into a typescript class. Making it easy to do TDD.
Pro Good BASH script support
Pro Angular CLI support
Pro Made by developers for developers
It can make one more efficient, but also can get one way too used to shortcuts, autocomplete, and easy debugging.
Cons
Con Limited free version
The free version is limited to 100 cards and 10 documents. Depending on how you use it, this might not be enough.
Con Is not free
But it does have a free version (Community Edition).
Con Heavy
Consumes more resources than VSCode etc. But depending on your use-case, it can still be worth it for the benefits you get with this editor.
Con Autocomplete does not work while IntelliJ is indexing
But this, in general, is not much of an issue. Usually after npm install, etc.