IntelliJ IDEA vs PyCharm
IntelliJ IDEA
jetbrains.com
PyCharm
jetbrains.comSide by side
| Figure | IntelliJ IDEA | PyCharm |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $8.33/mo | $8.33/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 5 | 5 |
| Spec score · Integrated Development Environments | 9.1 (#3) | 8.9 (#5) |
| Spec score · Debugging Software | 9.2 (#2) | 9.0 (#4) |
| Spec score · Web Development IDEs | 9.2 (#3) | 9.0 (#4) |
| Spec score · IDE Software | 9.1 (#4) | 8.9 (#6) |
| Spec score · Integrated Development Environment Ide Software | 9.1 (#3) | 8.9 (#4) |
| Spec score · Developer Tools | 9.1 (#6) | 8.9 (#7) |
| Extensibility | Plugins can add support for other languages, frameworks, and technologies through JetBrains Marketplace. | The IntelliJ Platform exposes more than 1,700 extension points for adding tool windows, settings pages, language support, and other IDE behavior. |
| Founded | 2000 | 2000 |
| Headquarters | Amsterdam, Netherlands | Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Praise: productivity | Independent reviewers repeatedly praise intelligent completion, refactoring, debugging, navigation and integrated Git or build tooling for increasing development speed. | Independent reviewers repeatedly praise code completion, syntax highlighting, static analysis, debugging, refactoring, virtual-environment handling, and integrated Git tools. |
| Rating on Capterra | 4.7 out of 5 from 1,262 reviews | 4.7 out of 5 from 371 reviews |
| Rating on G2 | 4.6 out of 5 from 2,346 reviews | 4.6 out of 5 from 788 reviews |
| Rating on Gartner Peer Insights | 4.5 out of 5 from 300 ratings | 4.5 out of 5 from 270 ratings |
| Rating on GetApp | 4.7 out of 5 from 1,260 reviews | 4.7 out of 5 from 370 reviews |
| Rating on Trustpilot | 2.6 out of 5 from 102 reviews | 2.6 out of 5 from 102 reviews for JetBrains |
| Rating on TrustRadius | 8 out of 10 from 59 reviews | 9.3 out of 10 from 233 reviews and ratings |
| Release news | IntelliJ IDEA 2026.2 added Java 27 and Kotlin 2.4 support, native GitHub Copilot, logpoints, Gradle 10 assistance, Docker Compose improvements and Terraform testing. | PyCharm 2026.2 added Rust-based Python extension development, debugpy as the default debugger, uv and workspace support, an editor minimap, Pyrefly integration, and AI project generation. |
| Telemetry controls | The security documentation describes anonymous usage statistics and optional detailed code-related AI usage data, with organizational controls. | Release builds disable data sharing by default; users can opt into anonymous usage statistics, while JetBrains says source code and custom input are not collected. |
| Trial | Installing IntelliJ IDEA includes a free 30-day trial of the Ultimate subscription. | PyCharm Ultimate can be evaluated free for 30 days before a purchase and license activation are required. |
| Unified product | Since version 2025.3, JetBrains combines the former Community and Ultimate editions into one IntelliJ IDEA product. | Since PyCharm 2025.1, Community and Professional are one product; core features including Jupyter support remain free and Pro adds advanced capabilities. |
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
PyCharm
- PyCharm coreFree
- PyCharm FreeFree
- PyCharm Pro personal annual first year$100 a year
- PyCharm Pro$200 a year
- PyCharm Pro commercial annual$200 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.
PyCharm
PyCharm is an IDE for web, data, and AI/ML professionals, with tools for Python development. It provides code completion, PEP 8 checks, inspections, and refactoring, alongside debugging and testing. The IDE includes an integrated terminal, package managers, Docker integration, and support for Pipenv, conda, virtualenv, and Poetry. Version control includes Git, GitHub, GitLab, Subversion, Mercurial, and Perforce; database tools cover MySQL, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, Oracle, Redis, and other providers. Local AI code completion can run local LLMs without sending code over the internet. Remote development supports several listed services, and remote connections use end-to-end TLS 1.3 with SSH security and host-fingerprint verification. PyCharm runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows. Its free plan costs nothing and includes one month of Pro. The listed Pro plan costs $200 a year, billed per user per year. PyCharm Ultimate can be evaluated free for 30 days before purchase and license activation are required.