When comparing pdb vs PyCharm Community Edition, the Slant community recommends pdb for most people. In the question“What are the best Python debuggers?” pdb is ranked 1st while PyCharm Community Edition is ranked 2nd. The most important reason people chose pdb is:
This tool will always be at your disposal in a standard python environment.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Available in the Python Standard Library
This tool will always be at your disposal in a standard python environment.
Pro Version control integration
PyCharm has CVS, Git, Subversion and Mercurial integration.
Pro Sophisticated autocompletion
PyCharm includes sophisticated heuristics for determining what each variable type is and providing autocompletion suggestions for them.
Pro Excellent refactoring support
There are many refactoring options including renaming and changing signature across entire projects. It also includes the an ability to preview changes before committing and exclude anything unwanted.
Pro Excellent debugger
PyCharm can leverage run-time information when running your application with the built-in debugger to figure out what types can possibly be passed to which functions, etc.
Pro Framework support
PyCharm supports cefpython and electron.js (with c bindings).
Pro Pro features Free for students
JetBrains offers a Student Pack, which gives you a student license and access to the pro features of selected products such as PyCharm, IntelliJ IDEA and Php Storm.
Cons
Con Memory-hungry
Can use a lot of memory (several GBs), especially when dealing with large projects.
Con Can sometimes become very slow, freeze, and become unresponsive
It becomes extremely frustrating when you have to wait for the text you've typed to appear in your editor. Furthermore, during these freezes the editor does not always queue what your're typing, so you might have to wait > 15 seconds before you can continue your editing. This quickly affects the concentration of a developer, causing flow interruption and general performance degradation.
Con Feature incomplete
Some features are locked behind a paywall. Although if you are a student, you can apply for the Student Pack.