JetBrains IDEs
A family of commercial IDEs from JetBrains for languages such as Java, Kotlin, Python, Go and C#.
Loved for refined, reliable tooling and deep code intelligence for large refactorings,1234 and many long-time users now pair it with external AI agents to review diffs.567 The most common complaint is weak, confusing AI offerings,891011 followed by sluggish performance and slipping quality.121314
Why people recommend it
Refined and reliable · 3
Commenters call the IDEs refined, reliable and better than lighter alternatives.
“their IDEs are some of the most reliable software I use”
“JetBrains products are great ive been using them for a while”
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“I love their tools and am keeping my subscription for now”
Companion to agents · 3
Users run AI agents separately and use the IDE to browse code, review diffs and expose inspections via MCP.
“I have been using their products proferssionally for over 20 years, and still do to the same extent as ever.”
“jetbrains ide for general file browsing + reviewing diffs”
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“I've been using JetBrains IDEs for 25 years, and by now the keyboard shortcuts are hardwired into my fingers.”
Long-term familiarity · 3
Users with decades of use say the shortcuts are ingrained and hard to give up.
“I've been using JetBrains IDEs for 25 years, and by now the keyboard shortcuts are hardwired into my fingers.”
“I'm a diehard JetBrains user”
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“I think I have been using their tools since they started.”
Code intelligence · 3
Integrated language tooling handles massive refactorings and structural search better than language-server editors.
“JetBrains' IDEs can do massive refactorings and code fixes across millions of lines of code (I use them all the time)”
“After using JetBrains IDEs for years I can really hardly get into anything that isn't vertically integrated.”
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“Jetbrains if on a sufficiently powerful PC.”
Git UI · 1
The built-in git UI is good enough that one user wants nothing else.
“JB's git UI is reasonably good enough that I don't want anything else.”
Feature discovery · 1
A feature-usage list helped one user discover unused shortcuts and features.
“This was excellent for feature discovery.”
Caveats and dissent
Weak AI offerings · 3
JetBrains' own AI tools are described as confusing, buggy or behind the competition.
“I’ve been a happy paying JetBrains customer for 10+ years.”
“I think I have been using their tools since they started.”
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“nothing, and I mean nothing new has come of it in that year”
Performance · 3
Some users report slowness, heavy RAM needs and full reindexes on large repos.
“Last week i cancelled my Jetbrains sub after a decade of daily driving it. I just cant take the performance issues anymore.”
“I love their offerings”
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“Jetbrains if on a sufficiently powerful PC.”
Declining quality · 3
Long-time users say quality has slipped, citing bugs and a poor Toolbox app.
“The quality of their software has been falling despite all recurring revenue.”
“I use JB daily and I despise their quality but they do get things right eventually”
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“the font selection seems buggy. It doesn't allow me to pick several fixed width fonts”
Pricing · 3
Some dislike the subscription pricing and recent price increases.
“The quality of their software has been falling despite all recurring revenue.”
“i hate the company and their pricing model but I like the tool”
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“The JetBrains IDEs are good enough that I would consider paying for them”
UI redesign · 1
One user dislikes the VSCode-like new UI and relies on the old-UI plugin.
“I'm ready to jump ship if they drop it.”
Per-language IDEs · 1
Needing a separate IDE per language is a noted annoyance.
“The quality of their software has been falling despite all recurring revenue.”
Often compared with
2 moved from JetBrains IDEs to Zed
1 moved from JetBrains IDEs to Visual Studio Code
1 moved from JetBrains IDEs to Claude Code
1 moved from JetBrains IDEs to GitKraken
Who recommends it in their own words
Threads where it came up
- JetBrains reports revenue growth, net financial loss for 2025 6 mentions
- JetBrains Air: A System of Products for Agentic Software Development 2 mentions
- No More JetBrains Products for Me 2 mentions
- JetBrains IDEs are now powered by libghostty 1 mention
- Ask HN: Is charging for software a thing of the past? 1 mention
- What About Rails? 1 mention
Also written as JetBrains IDE. Data: jetbrains-ides.json. Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 35
“the font selection seems buggy. It doesn't allow me to pick several fixed width fonts”
“LittleSnitch, Jetbrains IDe, Plex, Final Cut Pro, etc”
“I'm ready to jump ship if they drop it.”
“I think I have been using their tools since they started.”
“nothing, and I mean nothing new has come of it in that year”
“JetBrains products are great ive been using them for a while”
“The quality of their software has been falling despite all recurring revenue.”
“I love their tools and am keeping my subscription for now”
“JetBrains products that work well (and have free versions for Kotlin)”
“I still keep my JetBrains' subscription, so that agents can use the MCP.”
“I’ve been a happy paying JetBrains customer for 10+ years.”
“their IDEs are some of the most reliable software I use”
“jetbrains ide for general file browsing + reviewing diffs”
“This was excellent for feature discovery.”
“I use Google Antigravity2 alongside a Jetbrains IDE”
“We use Solidworks, Altium Designer and JetBrains tools for our work.”
“I've been using JetBrains IDEs for 25 years, and by now the keyboard shortcuts are hardwired into my fingers.”
“I have the full jetbrains subscription and use it for some debugging etc.”
“I even use Vim keybindings in VSCode and JetBrains IDEs”
“(and also Jetbrains IDE suite)”
“After using JetBrains IDEs for years I can really hardly get into anything that isn't vertically integrated.”
“I use JB daily and I despise their quality but they do get things right eventually”
“I use JetBrains IDEs on a daily basis and it's not a problem for me”
“I've use JetBrains IDEs for years (been subscribed annually since 2017)”
“I have been using their products proferssionally for over 20 years, and still do to the same extent as ever.”
“I love their offerings”
“JetBrains' IDEs can do massive refactorings and code fixes across millions of lines of code (I use them all the time)”
“I have moved back to just using a JetBrains IDE and coping files in to Gemini so that I can limit context.”
“ask IDE with AI services (I use IDEs from JetBrains) to complete it. I then do the same with tee main application. So far the results are stellar.”
“I'm a diehard JetBrains user”
“Jetbrains if on a sufficiently powerful PC.”
“i hate the company and their pricing model but I like the tool”
“Last week i cancelled my Jetbrains sub after a decade of daily driving it. I just cant take the performance issues anymore.”
“The JetBrains IDEs are good enough that I would consider paying for them”
“JB's git UI is reasonably good enough that I don't want anything else.”