IntelliJ IDEA vs Visual Studio
IntelliJ IDEA
jetbrains.com
Visual Studio
visualstudio.microsoft.comSide by side
| Figure | IntelliJ IDEA | Visual Studio |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $8.33/mo | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 5 | 18 |
| Spec score · Integrated Development Environments | 9.1 (#3) | 8.3 (#18) |
| Spec score · Debugging Software | 9.2 (#2) | 8.5 (#10) |
| Spec score · Web Development IDEs | 9.2 (#3) | 8.4 (#14) |
| Spec score · IDE Software | 9.1 (#4) | 8.3 (#16) |
| Spec score · Integrated Development Environment Ide Software | 9.1 (#3) | 8.4 (#10) |
| Spec score · Developer Tools | 9.1 (#6) | 8.4 (#13) |
| Headquarters | Amsterdam, Netherlands | Microsoft's global headquarters are in Redmond, Washington. |
| Limit: complexity | Reviewers say the large feature set can overwhelm beginners and has a learning curve. | G2 and Capterra reviewers mention a crowded or difficult-to-learn interface, slow performance on older hardware and complicated Git branching workflows. |
| Product | IntelliJ IDEA is an IDE for professional development in Java and Kotlin. | Visual Studio is a fully featured IDE for building web, cloud, desktop, mobile apps, services, and games. |
| Rating on Capterra | 4.7 out of 5 from 1,262 reviews | 4.6 out of 5 from 3,017 reviews |
| Rating on G2 | 4.6 out of 5 from 2,346 reviews | 4.5 out of 5 from 4,007 reviews |
| Rating on Gartner Peer Insights | 4.5 out of 5 from 300 ratings | 4.5 out of 5 from 1,723 reviews |
| Rating on Software Advice | 4.7 out of 5 from 1,261 reviews | 4.6 out of 5 from 3,013 reviews |
| Rating on Trustpilot | 2.6 out of 5 from 102 reviews | 3.0 out of 5 from 22 reviews |
| Rating on TrustRadius | 8 out of 10 from 59 reviews | 8.8 out of 10 from 863 reviews and ratings |
| What it does | IntelliJ IDEA is an integrated development environment for Java, Kotlin, Groovy and Scala that combines editing, debugging, testing, code completion, static analysis and refactoring. | Visual Studio is an integrated development environment for creating, debugging, testing and deploying applications across web, cloud, desktop and mobile targets. |
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
Visual Studio
- CommunityPrice not published
- Professional monthly$45 a month
- Enterprise monthly$250 a month
- Professional standard$99.99 a year
- Enterprise standard$499.92 a year
- IDE standalone$499 a month
- Visual Studio CommunityFree
- Visual Studio CommunityFree
- Visual Studio Professional monthly$45 a month
- Visual Studio Professional monthly$45 a month
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.
Visual Studio
Visual Studio is a Windows IDE for building web, cloud, desktop, and mobile apps, as well as services and games. It combines code editing, graphical designers, compilers, code completion, source control, and extensions. Listed development support covers Windows desktop, ASP.NET web work, Python, Node.js,.NET Core, Docker tools, and cross-platform C++ libraries. Debugging and testing tools include IntelliTrace, memory dump analysis, static code analysis, unit testing, code coverage, and IntelliTest. GitHub support lets users authenticate, create repositories, and push commits within the IDE. Visual Studio can create and manage Azure resources and deploy applications, and it supports Azure DevOps and GitHub Actions for CI/CD automation. GitHub Copilot provides code completion, chat, multi-file editing, debugging assistance, and test generation. Community is free, subject to limits for enterprise organizations. Professional monthly access costs $45 a month, and Enterprise monthly access costs $250 a month. A free trial is listed.