How to choose the best IDE for Java? | Java IDE 2022

People are often wondering, what's the best IDE to use for Java? I explored this theme a bit last year, but today I decided to try a different angle. Instead of telling what IDE I prefer to use to be productive with Java, how about I try to give YOU some options, and some ideas on how to find the best ones to try?

This is a short video at 14 minutes, and will also work as an audio-only podcast, so feel free to put it in your headphones while doing something else. Also, if you have a favorite IDE for Java work, please drop a comment here, telling what it is, and why. Is it listed here? Is it surprising?

Likewise, click that like button anytime you like the video, subscribe for a bit more, and share the link for all who should see this. All this helps my channel a lot and gives me more motivation personally.

Timecodes:
0:00 - Most popular IDEs in my company
1:22 - Features of an awesome Java IDE
4:52 - Popular choices for Java IDE
11:11 - The lightweight IDE option
13:03 - My own setups and choices for productivity

Links in the video:

[trainjumper]

Nice video, pacing is good. It's really great to see this kind of explanatory content focused towards helping intermediate devs :)

[ajw]

I used Netbeans for school and wasn't a huge fan of it (I didn't know much at the time so I didn't know what to expect from an IDE). When we moved onto projects using Python I used Pycharm for my IDE and couldn't believe the difference, so much better. I just got hired as a Java dev so I'm taking the few weeks I have before I start to switch to IntelliJ.

[tiagok]

Hey man, thanks for your insights. I'm using Intellij almost exclusively lately; it's a really ergonomic ide, sometimes I get the impression that it guess what I want to do, before I think about it. Their code indexing is also pretty powerful. For example, I don't need to remember exactly the name of the properties on the resource bundles; the ide shows me. I don't think Eclipse did that. Also, their code analysis tool is extremely helpful on warning me of bad practices and new language features - but I can see why some people think it gets on your way. When I'm forced to do web frontend stuff, I prefer to use VS Code, though.

[youreale]

In my experience, Eclipse is still the best free IDE for Java programming, especially if you also use other languages, like C/C++, Python, Lua, JavaScript, and TypeScript. It also offers a set of powerful plugins, and the IDE itself is very mature and stable. IntelliJ IDEA is a nice contender, but only in the paid version. Ultimately, it's a matter of personal choice, to surf against very strong hype waves, and having freedom to choose your tooling, though.

[danielcastillo-vlrc]

I really liked the video. I am new to Java programming and have been using eclipse for most of my projects but I will go and try VS Code. Is sublime text much more casual and simpler than most IDE's?

[luisdanielmesa]

I'm biased, as everyone else is, and in my experience people who choose the IDE because it does the programming for them are not comfortable enough with their own thought process... and produce subpar results even with the help of the IDE. I use IntelliJ IDEA ONLY when I know I'll be working with people who don't know other IDEs, I use VS Code when I'm doing more frontend development and I use NetBeans when I write stuff for myself (or alone) and want the IDE to be unobtrusive (I'd use plain Notepad, like when I started coding, but NetBeans has built-in SQL editors, database management, Docker container management, Server management, etc. out of the box). No plugins or expensive fees.

[MaryamMaqdisi]

This was a great video! I LOVE IntelliJ for Java stuff, I have the community edition but it feels so much better than anything else I tried out.

I don't particularly like Microsoft, but I will use whatever the rest of the team uses, and vscode is really neat for TS.

I'm also playing around with Geany for some light text editing, it's super fast and fun to use but I don't think I'll use it with either Java or TS.

[MarwinLobo]

Which is best for beginner?
Eclipse or vs studio or anything else?

[gprokit]

Ey man!. For work reasons I have to start learning Java and later(soon) move to Spring boot...even tho I know the fundamentals I feel that I have to start from scratch. Starting with the IDE...I came from front end with JS & React so I always used VSCode, love the editor and the funcionality of some extensions. So now that I started with Java I downloaded IntelliJ and for some reason I feel it not so easy to understand haha so any advice for me in general?.

[TuxTuxedo-ockg]

I used eclipse and now am trying out visual studio code with the java support extension.

[toby]

I don't like VS Code or Eclipse. Have tried both. Eclipse for Java, VS Code for other languages. Both have horrible unintuative UIs. But perhaps I'm biased coming from 25 years with MS Visual C++. By comparison, Java tools serm to be a mixed bag.

[kshitiz]

Looking to learn/work with Spring boot for java, on some free IDE. I know intelliJ doesn't support that in their free community edition.

Any suggestion on eclipse vs VSCode on that

[abyssalone]

Im a starter so I went for vscode, but it is so unstable, I have to re-install every few weeks , I might try others now, but idk.

[victortesla]

i want a editer type ide and free like thoony but for java

[BelarusianInUk]

I use Eclipse and vs code for java. Eclipse because it is so fast on m1 pro. Faster to search entire enterprise project in mastercard than for instance intellij with their index. Eclipse became much better over the time but things like terminal and some plugins are not great. Trying vs code now. Like it but their json configs are annoying. And junit configs are limited. Dont want going intellij route. Not before Russia stops their war in Ukraine and pays reparations. Jetbrains are trying to distance themselves from the war but they are still Russians. And about 80% of them support the war. So nah. Note when buying intellij you might be funding the war as taxes in Russia will go to putin. Intellij might use a sequence of intermediaries to look like a foreign company but in the end putin will get the money