# JetBrains CLion

18 Hacker News commenters recommended JetBrains CLion and 7 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 9 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Recommended for C++ work, where people find its debugging, analysis and out-of-the-box setup better than VS Code with plugins. Critics say it performs slowly and is only tolerable for many.

## Why people recommend it

- Better C++ support than VS Code (3 comments): "For C++ development for example CLion vs VS Code (needed plugins installed) is night and day and not to the benefit of VS Code." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47857629)) "Other people actually made CLion work reasonably well with C++ too." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48125501)) "I would try Clion for C++ if you can't use VS." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46884116))
- Excellent developer experience (2 comments): "All in all dev experience is excellent" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47856652)) "dev experience is excellent" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47856699))
- Strong debugging for projects (2 comments): "I am satisfied with their debugging for all the projects I worked on in that IDE." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46882566)) "Has tools to let the models access proper debugging too(my experience is Clion)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49979178))
- Full-featured IDE out of the box (2 comments): "In terms of full batteries included IDEs they're still probably the best" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46256849)) "CLion, Visual Studio Proper, and RustRover are better for me" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46716245))

## What people warn about

- Tolerable rather than loved (3 comments): "I could not get the bindings quite how I wanted in either VS Code or CLion, but I made it tolerable eventually." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49109075)) "the best experience appears to be with Clion, but I can live with it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49046305)) "not hating it as much as I did last time" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46081714))
- Core product seen as declining (3 comments): "they've completely neglected the core product" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49982170)) "now they all feel outdated and unnecessary" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50236177)) "the core product is eroding fast" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48185653))
- Seen as mediocre or abysmal (2 comments): "CLion in particular is abysmal, yeah." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48205529)) "I've heard CLion is a meh." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48185764))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [JetBrains IDEs](https://hackerapproved.com/p/jetbrains-ides.md): 233 recommend
- [IntelliJ IDEA](https://hackerapproved.com/p/intellij-idea.md): 206 recommend
- [Microsoft Visual Studio](https://hackerapproved.com/p/visual-studio.md): 165 recommend
- [Delphi](https://hackerapproved.com/p/delphi.md): 126 recommend
- [Xcode](https://hackerapproved.com/p/xcode.md): 100 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://www.jetbrains.com/clion/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "JetBrains CLion", https://hackerapproved.com/p/clion/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).