IntelliJ IDEA Community

The difference between an editor and an IDE shows most clearly in a language like Java. VS Code with plugins can edit Java, but IntelliJ's understanding of code operates at another level: it builds a semantic index of the whole project, so renaming a method correctly updates every call site — including reflective strings and references in configuration files — and extract method, inline variable and change signature are genuinely safe refactorings rather than text substitution.

The Community Edition is Apache-2.0 open source with full sources on GitHub, and it is free for commercial projects too — a point frequently misunderstood, as many assume every IntelliJ edition must be bought.

What the Community Edition includes:

• Full Java and Kotlin support: intelligent completion, static analysis, thousands of inspections and quick fixes. Kotlin is JetBrains' own language, so support is first-rate.
• The refactoring toolkit, its greatest value: rename, extract, inline, move class, change signature and dozens more, executed safely across the entire project.
• The debugger: conditional breakpoints, expression evaluation, field watchpoints, modifying variables at runtime, and multithreaded debugging.
• Build and test integration: Maven and Gradle out of the box, with JUnit and TestNG execution and coverage.
• Git integration: branch management, conflict resolution and history comparison, handled more thoroughly than in most IDEs.
• Android development: Google's Android Studio is built on the IntelliJ platform.

The boundaries matter and should be stated:

• Community and Ultimate differ substantially. The Community Edition does not include dedicated Spring framework support, JavaScript/TypeScript front-end development, database tools, application server integrations, remote development or the profiler. Anyone doing Spring Boot work will feel that gap, and closing it requires the paid Ultimate edition.
• It covers JVM languages only. Python means PyCharm, Go means GoLand — separate products with differing licensing policies (PyCharm has an open-source Community Edition; GoLand does not). Check JetBrains' current terms rather than relying on this summary.
• It is resource-hungry. Indexing has a price: high memory use, a wait while a large project indexes for the first time, and noticeable lag on older machines. 8 GB of RAM is the floor and 16 GB is comfortable. The installer alone runs to several hundred megabytes.
• Students, teachers and open-source maintainers can apply for free licences covering the full product range.

Who it suits: developers working primarily in Java or Kotlin who value refactoring and static analysis. For occasionally editing a Java file, VS Code with the Java extensions is sufficient and far lighter.