Arm Keil MDK vs CLion
Arm Keil MDK
keil.arm.com
CLion
jetbrains.comSide by side
| Figure | Arm Keil MDK | CLion |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $99/mo | $10.90/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 8 | 4 |
| Spec score · IDE Software | 9.4 (#1) | 9.4 (#2) |
| Spec score · C++ IDEs | 9.5 (#1) | 9.3 (#2) |
| Company headquarters | Arm lists its global headquarters at 110 Fulbourn Road, Cambridge, UK, CB1 9NJ. | JetBrains lists its headquarters at Terrace Tower, Gelrestraat 16, Amsterdam, Netherlands. |
| Debugging | The VS Code integration supports pyOCD with ST-Link, CMSIS-DAP and ULINK, plus J-Link Server. | CLion supports GDB and LLDB and includes memory and disassembly views, variable inspection, and core dump debugging. |
| Documentation | Arm provides getting-started, user, licensing, installation, CMSIS-Toolbox and CI/CD guides plus videos and forums. | The help center covers installation, toolchains, project formats, debugging, testing, version control, profiling, remote development and plugin development. |
| Purpose | Keil MDK simplifies embedded software development for Cortex-M and Ethos-U processors through CLI, IDE, or continuous integration workflows. | CLion is a cross-platform IDE for C and C++ development. |
| Support | Keil MDK support offers support cases, a community forum, documentation, and learning videos. | The non-commercial plan provides public forums and a bug tracker; the commercial plan also offers private tickets. |
| System requirements | Minimum requirements are a 1 GHz 64-bit x86 or AArch64 CPU, 1 GB RAM and 2 GB free disk; recommended is 2 GHz, 4 GB RAM and 5 GB disk. | The 2026.2 requirements list a four-core x86_64 or arm64 CPU, 8 GB total RAM, 10 GB disk space and 1280×720 display. |
| Version control | Its Source Control view integrates Git and creates a workspace .gitignore file. | Bundled integrations support Git, Mercurial and Perforce, with GitHub and GitLab pull-request or merge-request workflows. |
| What it does | Keil MDK is Arm’s toolchain for creating, building and debugging software for Cortex-M and Ethos-U microcontrollers and processors. | CLion is a cross-platform JetBrains IDE for C and C++ development with code analysis, navigation, building, debugging and testing in one environment. |
Plans
Arm Keil MDK
- EssentialPriced on request
- ProfessionalPriced on request
- ProfessionalPriced on request
- CommunityFree
- Keil MDK v6 Essential82.39 CHF a month
- Keil MDK v6 Essential$99 a month
- Keil MDK v6 Professional165.60 CHF a month
- Keil MDK v6 Professional$199 a month
CLion
- CLion Non-CommercialFree
- CLion Commercial$10.90 a month
- CLion Commercial — Individual$10.90 a month
- All Products Pack$29.90 a month
In their own words
Arm Keil MDK
Arm Keil MDK is a toolchain for embedded software targeting Cortex-M and Ethos-U processors. MDK v6 supports command-line, IDE, and continuous-integration workflows across major operating systems. It includes Keil Studio extensions for Visual Studio Code, Keil μVision, Arm Compiler for Embedded, and Arm Fixed Virtual Platform models. Software packs add device and board support, middleware, components, code templates, and example projects independently of the toolchain. Keil Studio supports CMSIS workflows with an integrated debugger and extensions for creating, building, and testing embedded applications. Listed integrations include CMSIS-FreeRTOS, Keil RTX5, MDK-Middleware, IoT clients, CMSIS-DAP, ULink, and third-party debug adapters. Community is for non-commercial use. The listed MDK v6 Essential plan costs $99 a month per license; Professional costs $199 a month per license and adds Arm Virtual Hardware, functional-safety compiler tools, and legacy tools including Arm Compiler 5. Keil μVision is available only for Windows hosts.
CLion
CLion is a cross-platform IDE for C and C++ development, available for Linux, macOS and Windows. Its editor provides context-aware completion, code analysis, navigation and automated refactoring. Projects can use CMake, Makefile, Bazel, Meson or compilation databases. Debugging includes GDB and LLDB, variable inspection, memory and disassembly views, and core dump debugging. Remote workflows include a thin IDE client, full remote mode, Docker containers, WSL toolchains and remote debugging. For embedded development, CLion supports GCC ARM, IAR and custom toolchains, on-chip debugging, PlatformIO, STM32CubeMX, Zephyr and FreeRTOS. Testing support covers Google Test, Boost.Test, Doctest and Catch with a built-in runner. The IDE also integrates version control systems and supports CMake, Python, JavaScript, XML, HTML and Markdown, with other languages available through plugins. The non-commercial plan costs nothing and is for non-commercial use. Commercial development requires a subscription; CLion Commercial — Individual costs $10.90 a month and includes a free 30-day trial.