BlueJ
bluej.org
BlueJ
A free Java Development Environment designed for beginners, used by millions worldwide. Find out more... "One of my favourite IDEs out there is BlueJ" β James Gosling, creator of Java. Requires 64-bit Windows, Windows 8 or later.
Factsheet
Original author IBM
Developer Eclipse Foundation
Initial release 1.0 / 29 November 2001; 24 years ago (2001-11-29)
Original author IBM
Developer Eclipse Foundation
Initial release 1.0 / 29 November 2001; 24 years ago (2001-11-29)
Eclipse IDE
eclipseide.org
Eclipse IDE | The Eclipse Foundation
Free and open source released under ... for imported bundles and enforce single active bundle instance. More and more, the Eclipse IDE is powered by individual contributors around the world....
Videos
Softonic
en.softonic.com βΊ downloads βΊ java-ide
Download Java Ide - Best Software & Apps
NetBeans IDE is a free integrated development environment to create programs. Multiple programming languages are available to code in like C++, Java, PHP, etc.β¦ Β· Windows Β· ide for windows 10 Β· c for windows 10 Β· website development for windows Β· Language C For Windows 7 Β·
JetBrains
jetbrains.com βΊ idea
The Leading IDE for Professional Java and Kotlin Development
June 1, 2021 - IntelliJ IDEA is the JetBrains IDE for pro development in Java and Kotlin. Built for your comfort, it unlocks productivity, ensures quality code, supports cutting-edge tech, and protects your privacy.
Opensource.com
opensource.com βΊ article βΊ 20 βΊ 7 βΊ ide-java
5 open source IDE tools for Java | Opensource.com
Once you install the IDE tool in your local environment, the New Project wizard helps you create a new project. For example, the wizard generates the skeleton codes (with sections to fill in like // TODO code application logic here) then you can add your own application codes. VSCodium is a lightweight, free source code editor that allows developers to install a variety of OS platforms (i.e., Windows, macOS, Linux) and is an open source alternative based on Visual Studio Code.
Decipher Zone
decipherzone.com βΊ blog-detail βΊ best-free-java-development-ide
Top 5 Best Free Java Development IDE in 2020
Eclipse is one of the most prevalent and most established IDE for Java developers to make Java-based applications. It is additionally popular for C/C++ and PHP application development as it conveys every one of the highlights required for building any kind of unpredictable or basic undertakings dependent on these programming languages. You can without much of a stretch join language support and different highlights into any of its default bundles. As Eclipse is free and open-source subsequently its commercial center takes into consideration for all intents and purposes boundless customization and expansion according to the custom necessities of the venture.
Apache NetBeans
netbeans.apache.org βΊ front βΊ main βΊ index.html
Welcome to Apache NetBeans
Apache NetBeans provides editors, wizards, and templates to help you create applications in Java, PHP and many other languages.
The Eclipse Foundation
eclipse.org βΊ downloads βΊ packages βΊ release βΊ juno βΊ r βΊ eclipse-ide-java-developers
Eclipse IDE for Java Developers | Eclipse Packages
The essential tools for any Java developer, including a Java IDE, a CVS client, Git client, XML Editor, Mylyn, Maven integration and WindowBuilder
GeeksforGeeks
geeksforgeeks.org βΊ java βΊ best-java-ide-for-developers
Java IDEs For Developers - GeeksforGeeks
A beginner-friendly Java IDE designed for educational purposes. It provides a simple GUI and an interactive environment for learning and real-time programming. To provide help to beginners it facilitates online tutorials and documentation. Using this IDE, developers can also build 2D games. It is free to use and available in all major operating systems like macOS, Windows, and Linux.
Published Β October 10, 2025
Top answer 1 of 10
40
I recommend NetBeans IDE and of course it is free.
Check out Swing GUI Builder Features
2 of 10
9
I'd say it depends on which GUI framework you are going to use:
- For Swing, the NetBeans Swing GUI builder seems to be the best choice (though there are visual editors for Swing in Eclipse too)
- For JavaFX, the choice is pretty clear
- For Eclipse (i.e. SWT, JFace, RCP) the Eclipse IDE for Java plus the visual editor would probably be the best way to go
Now which to choose, of course, is a different question.