IntelliJ IDEA vs KDevelop
IntelliJ IDEA
jetbrains.com
KDevelop
kdevelop.orgSide by side
| Figure | IntelliJ IDEA | KDevelop |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $8.33/mo | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 5 | 1 |
| Spec score · Integrated Development Environments | 9.1 (#3) | 8.3 (#17) |
| Spec score · IDE Software | 9.1 (#4) | 8.2 (#18) |
| Spec score · Integrated Development Environment Ide Software | 9.1 (#3) | 8.2 (#17) |
| Code intelligence | The IDE provides context-aware navigation, inspections, refactorings and debugging across a project. | For fully supported languages, KDevelop provides semantic syntax highlighting, code navigation, and completion. |
| Extensibility | Plugins can add support for other languages, frameworks, and technologies through JetBrains Marketplace. | KDevelop uses a plugin architecture, and the project site names Clang-Tidy, Heaptrack and Perforce support as examples of extensions. |
| Headquarters | Amsterdam, Netherlands | Berlin, Germany |
| Product | IntelliJ IDEA is an IDE for professional development in Java and Kotlin. | KDevelop is a cross-platform IDE for C, C++, Python, QML/JavaScript, and PHP. |
| Version control | It integrates with Git, Mercurial, Perforce, and Subversion, and supports processing GitHub pull requests in the IDE. | KDevelop has GUI integration for Git, Bazaar, Subversion, CVS, and Perforce, with Mercurial available through an optional plugin. |
Plans
IntelliJ IDEA
- Free feature setFree
- IntelliJ IDEA coreFree
- IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate individual$19.90 a month
- IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate subscription$100 a year
- IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate annual$199 a year
In their own words
IntelliJ IDEA
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.
KDevelop
KDevelop is a free, open-source integrated development environment for Linux, macOS, and Windows. Its built-in parser backends support C, C++, and JavaScript/QML; Python and PHP support comes through optional plugins. For fully supported languages, it offers semantic syntax highlighting, code completion, and navigation such as finding symbol uses or jumping to declarations and definitions. Build support covers CMake and QMake, partial support for custom Makefiles, and invoking tools such as make and ninja. Graphical debugging is available for C/C++ and Python, with PHP debugging through an extra plugin. KDevelop also integrates unit tests, code formatting, and documentation from QtHelp, Man pages, and CMake help. Version-control interfaces include Git, Bazaar, Subversion, CVS, and Perforce; Mercurial is available as an optional plugin. Views, color schemes, and shortcuts can be customized. The free plan is listed at free. Windows nightly builds may be unstable or incomplete, and independently developed Chocolatey packages may not be up to date.