DrJava vs IntelliJ IDEA

DrJava is a free, open-source development environment for writing Java programs, designed primarily for students. Its intelligent editor supports coding, while the Interactions pane lets users evaluate Java code interactively. The environment includes JUnit testing, a source-level debugger and Javadoc generation for source files. It runs on Windows, macOS and Linux under a standard BSD open-source license. The current beta is compatible with Java 8, identified by the project page as the only supported version of traditional Java. That beta is distributed only as a JAR, which the page says is intended to reduce cross-platform compatibility issues. The Eclipse plugin is described as very old and compatible only with Eclipse versions from the same era. The Linux FAQ reports an incompatibility with the Compiz window manager and recommends disabling Compiz if it occurs. Bug reports and feature requests require a SourceForge account login. The Free plan costs nothing, with no free trial listed.

IntelliJ IDEA is an IDE for professional Java and Kotlin development, available on Windows, macOS, and Linux. It offers context-aware completion, static analysis, and automated refactoring. The JVM debugger includes breakpoints, variable inspection, expression evaluation, and step-by-step execution. Gradle and Maven integrations cover building, packaging, testing, and deployment, while version-control support includes Git, Mercurial, Perforce, and Subversion. Users can process GitHub pull requests in the IDE, and plugins from JetBrains Marketplace add support for other languages, frameworks, and technologies. Core Java and Kotlin functionality remains free after the included 30-day Ultimate trial ends. The Ultimate subscription adds advanced tools and integrations and costs $100.00 for the first year, $199.00 for the second year, and $159.00 per year from the third year onward. Listed minimum hardware is a 4-core x86_64 or arm64 CPU, 8 GB total RAM, and 10 GB of disk space. Users can choose in IDE settings whether to share anonymous usage data.