But, as a lightweight and open-source IDE, it doesn’t offer the same level of intuitive and user-friendly experience that makes IntelliJ so popular for developers. In their latest release, for example, NetBeans introduced a user experience overhaul via the new FlatLaf and FlatLaf Dark themes. NetBeans has put a big effort into user experience in the last few years.

But, for students or small development teams, NetBeans (or IntelliJ Community) can be a good fit. NetBeans, in comparison, requires added modules in order to reach comparable functionality – especially when developing enterprise level applications. IntelliJ IDEA offers a user-friendly, highly functional IDE out of the box. Paid support options do exist, like the Oracle Java Development Tools Support - which runs $1200 per month. Supportīecause NetBeans it’s open-source, and the comparative user base is lower, finding support options and resources can be a challenge. But compared to IntelliJ IDEA, NetBeans does have some shortcomings. The primary benefit compared to IntelliJ IDEA, of course, is that the full version of NetBeans is free (IntelliJ offers a free option with limited features).įor students learning to code in Java, or for small or niche development teams looking for a low-overhead, lightweight IDE, NetBeans can be an attractive option. While IntelliJ is by far the more popular of the two IDEs, NetBeans does offer some unique advantages for developers. NetBeans is open source, meaning developers can download the entire source code for NetBeans and use it within the constraints of the Apache License terms of use. The NetBeans IDE and NetBeans Platform are free for commercial and non-commercial use within the stipulations provided in the “ Apache License ”. IntelliJ was far and away the most popular IDE for Java developers at 81.7%.

In our 2020 Java Developer Survey, 3.51% of respondents reported using NetBeans. NetBeans was later acquired by Oracle who subsequently donated the NetBeans source code to the Apache project, where it now exists as a Top Level Apache Project.

Originally available as a commercial IDE, NetBeans was converted to open source by Sun in June, 2000. NetBeans is an open-source IDE used in Java, PHP, C/C#, HTML5 and JavaScript development. Afterward, we'll give our list of helpful NetBeans shortcuts, and end with a link to our one-page NetBeans cheat sheet pdf. In this article, we’ll give an overview of the NetBeans IDE, then compare IntelliJ vs. While not as popular as other Java IDEs, NetBeans is still a popular choice for developers who need a lightweight, free IDE.

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