Comments on: Why IntelliJ will always win

By: Brian Pontarelli

Brian Pontarelli — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 14:39:32 +0000

@Marcus

The point wasn’t which IDE has better features or works better, it was which one actually fixes important issues faster. I have very clear examples of Eclipse platform taking far too long to fix a very important issue.

If you want to battle out features and functionality you’ll have to wait until my next IDE shoot-out, which I’ve been working on for a while, just haven’t found time to complete because it requires so much effort.

By: Marcus

Marcus — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 09:22:44 +0000

I am using both eclipse and intellij; both are quite usable IDEs. And that’s it. I’d never spend a cent for a IDE like intellij. Because the advantages are too small. And, I am quite annoyed by the vi-i-fication of that IDE.
Intellij suffer featuritis and is overloaded with shortcuts. So the in my eyes the functional benefits are shredded by a vast overload of the IDE.

By: Borat

Borat — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:10:51 +0000

There is no comparison between IntelliJ and Eclipse… IntelliJ is a serious product with real bug fixes in real time. Eclipse is what it is.. a community driven development effort. Yes, IntelliJ is totally worth paying for, and yes, I’ve used them both extensively.

By: Konrad

Konrad — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 10:06:16 +0000

I used Eclipse for few years in home … but after meeting IDEA - I would never switch back. I belive, that if you will have 2 developers which have no experience with Eclipse or IDEA and you will give to one of them Eclipse and to other IDEA, developer with IDEA will be 25% faster, and 25% faster - and the best of this is that he will be faster besouse of things which he do not have to do - things which IDEA will do for him, or help to do. As average developer is paid 2500 EUR (in country where I work) company will benefit from using IDEA in first month!

By: Matthew Baird

Matthew Baird — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 21:40:36 +0000

I find it funny that supposed professional developers won’t even consider spending money on one of their most important tools. It’s gotta be free? Really? I wonder what would happen if other professions that required tools followed the same behavior.
Additionally, if you are writing code for a living in the US/Canada I can assume you make enough money that buying a $499 IDE is probably less than 1% of your income.

If IDEA is the right tool for the job, buy it, don’t use the “free” excuse.

By: Taras Tielkes

Taras Tielkes — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 13:07:25 +0000

A personal license for IDEA is $249, upgrades are $149. In the past there have been special promotional deals as well (Christmas specials etc).

So, all things included, I’ve been paying $100 or less each year to use the latest release: around the price of a single academic textbook.

1.5 years ago, I’ve also bought a YourKit profiler license for around $100. Using this tool I’ve found critical leaks in (all fixed or in progress):
-Apache Tomcat
-Spring framework (+Spring Webflow)
-The JDK libraries

Some people prefer to waste days or weeks, using “free” tools. As the saying goes, only if your time is free…

By: Rob Harwood

Rob Harwood — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 13:24:20 +0000

Igor, don’t forget about the hidden costs of ‘free’:

IntelliJ: $499
Eclipse: $0 + time spent looking for plugins + time spent learning unintuitive features + time spent on extra configuration + …
NetBeans: $0 + etc. + …

‘Zero price’ does not mean ‘zero cost’.

JetBrains earns a strong revenue from IntelliJ IDEA, solely because customers recognize that $499 is something that they can recoup easily, through productivity gains. The fact that our customers keep coming back to us after over 3 years competing with 2 free competitors is all the proof that’s needed, IMHO.

By: Brian Pontarelli

Brian Pontarelli — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 21:20:09 +0000

Igor: If you have ever used IntelliJ for an extensive period of time you would probably know that you really do pay for what you get. There is a reason why JetBrains is not only in business but doing well. Until NetBeans and Eclipse really clean up their messes, IntelliJ will have users who are more than happy to pay for licenses.

And just to set the record straight, you can buy a personal license to IntelliJ for $249 and they also have academic and open source licensing.

By: igor

igor — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 12:37:00 +0000

ineliJ - $499
eclipse - 0
netbeans - 0

what more to say

By: Venkat

Venkat — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 06:31:19 +0000

I have been using IntelliJ for the last 3 years. I download eclipse once in a while to play around with it. I never experienced any exhilaration to shift from IntelliJ to Eclipse.
Ofcourse the only incentive management may find is that Eclipse is free!
But our company stuck to IntelliJ for the last 3 years and there is no indication that it would go back any soon. We are all on v6.0.4 of IntelliJ.

-Venkat