What are the major pros and cons of vs code over intellij?

Yeah that's it. That's literally what the post is about.

Hey guys!

I'm new to Java and coming from Python. I'm used to VS Code, so I installed IntelliJ to work with Java since it's widely used and it's an IDE specifically for Java, as far as I know.

Anyway, I installed it yesterday and I found my VS Code to be not only prettier, but also better to work with. IntelliJ seems a bit slow to me, confusing (confusing file explorer), it doesn't show the wrong language alerts, like missing a letter in System, and it wasn't completing anything (I'm not talking about copilot, I mean not having to type the whole class name, having it appear there to tab).

Maybe I didn't set it up the best way possible? Could be, right?

But anyway, how positive is it to use IntelliJ and get used to it? Or in the end, does it not really make a difference? I know it's a tool and all.

Hi everyone,

it is not my intention to stoke any hate between the communities of VSCode and Pycharm. I was just wondering - I am working as a backend and cloud developer for nearly two years now. I have always used VSCode and just now found out that my company has Jetbrains licenses available.

I played around with Pycharm for a few days, but I am unable to find any functionalities that I did not have available in VSCode with plugins. On top of that Pycharm felt pretty bloated and slow at some times.

I know a lot of professional programmers are using Pycharm or equivalent Jetbrains products and highly recommend them. So I am sure Pycharm etc. have their strengths and I wonder what they might be?

Has anyone made the transition from VSCode to Pycharm and can tell me what the advantages can be?

At work I believe everyone gonna get premium features of intelliJ, where as vscode being free there is no difference.

The reason I use vscode at work is because I use this at home. But I always feel somehow people who are using intelliJ (premium) are more productive w.r.t GIT and shortcuts.

Is this just my misunderstanding or can the vscode be better?

Just starting out

I’ve been using JetBrains IDEs for many years now.

I have never had a real opportunity to use VSCode as an IDE - I was doing quick edits, found it very limited (no git blame, seriously?) and getting back to IntelliJ. I have never transitioned it from being a code editor to an IDE, installed few random plugins and wondered why is this better than having it out of the box.

But recently, because of some problems with IntelliJ WSL connection and then Copilot issues, I gave VSCode a chance… and TBH, I am wondering if IntelliJ is still the best choice for a DevOps engineer.

What do you think?

Disclaimer: everything i write from this point on, is my personal feeling after couple of days of using VSCode as my daily driver: it is not time tested opinion!!!

The features and functionalities I use or care about are (no particular order!):

• git client with git blame, history and more advanced features

  • VSC: yes, plugin (out of the box only very basic functionality)

  • IntelliJ: yes

• Search, replace and refactoring

  • VSC: yes

  • IntelliJ: yes

• Copilot

  • VSC: yes (plugin, better)

  • IntelliJ: yes (plugin)

• Good readability

  • VSC: is ok, but IntelliJ is much better. VSC is highly configurable, but has some stupid defaults (like too small indentation in file explorer)

  • IntelliJ: great

• Kubernetes, GitHub, Gitlab, Terraform, integrations:

  • VSC: yes

  • IntelliJ yes

• Fast startup time

  • VSC: yes

  • IntelliJ: jeez, yesterday I literally opened VSC, modified the file and pushed changes to reconcile the cluster before Jetbrains Gateway managed to connect to my WSL IntelliJ.
    IntelliJ always sucked here, but with additional overhead of Gateway connection it is really painfully slow to start up (T14s, Ryzen 7 Pro, 32GBs RAM).

• Remote development

  • VSC: yes, way more stable experience

  • IntelliJ: yes, but feel like beta way more often as it should

• Ability to open multiple projects in one window

  • VSC: yes, super easy and intuitive

  • IntelliJ: yes, but it is multistep setup that takes time what renders it useless for quick multi-projects edits

• Supporting wide array of languages:

  • VSC: yes, via a plugin

  • IntelliJ: yes (formally via a plugin, but from other Jetbrains IDE). It’s certainly better when using more advanced features like Django support.

• Intelligent autocompletion suggestions

  • VSC: yes, but the quality depends on language and is sometimes poor

  • IntelliJ: yes

• Ability to highlight, lint and parse wide array of files (like nginx conf, ini files etc)

  • VSC: yes, probably via a plugin

  • IntelliJ: yes, probably via a plugin

• Adding desired functions:

  • VSC: yes, and the plugin ecosystem is far bigger

  • IntelliJ: yes

So, basically I believe I can say I need support for everything, but I don’t need very sophisticated support in any of them.

Some time ago when using VSCode i felt like “i understand why it is free” when IntelliJ was a complete, polished package out of the box.

But now, when IntelliJ isn’t that shiny (just look at the tickets, threads like settings sync can be years old and the answer is “we have no plans to support it in remote development usage scenario... (so why tf haven't you removed this option?!)… I am wondering if VSCode shouldn’t be my editor of choice.I still test things like adding proper icons support, miss things like ability to recognize file type by its content (like Kustomize yaml) or fancy stuff like auto-converting curl pasted to .http file, but after a week it is like 90% of what I ever need or want to have.

PS. I have been using Jetbrains IDEs for many years now, so I am probably biased in matters like readability: it’s better for me because I am used things look like in IntelliJ.

PS2. Let’s compare features and not the price - I am perfectly aware IntelliJ is a paid option.