Battle of the IDEs: IntelliJ IDEA vs Microsoft Visual Studio Code for Java 17

I often get questions on what is the best IDE to use, and while my opinion is that it's any IDE you learn how to use well, I thought it might be fun to try and give a better answer. Now that we have Java 17 - what is the best IDE for Java development, and how good is the current Java 17 support?

I'll install two IDEs on my computer, and give you my thoughts on them, go through their strengths and weaknesses. I use Microsoft Visual Studio Code and IntelliJ IDEA the most, so let's see how they compare.

As always, click the buttons, drop some comments, if you enjoy the content here.

Here are the timecodes:
0:00 - Introduction
0:15 - Microsoft Visual Studio Code
2:40 - Language Support for Java on Visual Studio Code 1.0
5:00 - VSCode, Maven and Java 17
10:20 - More Java 17 goodies, without Maven
15:25 - Jetbrains IntelliJ IDEA
16:11 - IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate vs Community Edition
18:10 - WSL2 support in IntelliJ
19:50 - IntelliJ IDEA, Maven and Java 17
26:15 - How do the IDEs compare for Java 17 work?
27:20 - Bonus round with VSCode
22:20 - Other Java 17 goodies without Maven
30:35 - Conclusion

Here are the links mentioned in the video:

[friedec]

I am a full stack engineer. Using vscode reduce so much complexity when working on different languages.
I don't need to learn how to use a specific IDE when I'm dealing with HCL, Java, Javascript, Typescript, and they even supported yaml and json file.

But, when making android system, I feel like vscode come short compared to android studio.

[TarekFaham]

Vscode is so slow compared to eclipse. I'm not talking about the initial load time! When you load a project the language runtime keeps on spinning forever. This doesn't happen with eclipse.

[jm.]

I tried running IntelliJ Ultimate IDEA in my virtual machine with plenty of RAM and CPUs and it was super slow--scrolling was super laggy.. Using the java extension pack in VS Code is super fast so far and I'm already used to VS Code from doing webdev stuff.

[ChaitanyaChunduri]

Like you said I learn Java new features from Intellij's suggestions. But VS code also shows some suggestions like to replace lambda with method references.

[avinashbatchala]

Great Comparison. Keep up the good work.

[James-onvy]

I can appreciate vs code, however I'm more of a minimalist. Spacemacs +lsp is my preferred ide

[kendallwhite]

I have been using IntelJ For a little while now. I think I may switch back to VS code. Who know. Sounds like devs are choosing what works for them.

[googleuser]

VS Code is not IDE. It's just a code editor. Microsoft does have an IDE. It's called Visual Studio Community Edition (free version).

[Joe_Brig]

I have a paid version JetBrains but I'm looking to move off it. The IDE is getting annoying with their push to cloud based and collaborative development. I also have to deal with License Collision Detected errors when using multiple machines. I know there are ways to avoid all the issues, but I have to do this every time I setup a new machine or switch environments. Maybe VSCode is ready for real Java development?