# JetBrains IDEs 233 Hacker News commenters recommended JetBrains IDEs and 143 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 13 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 10 years (39 owners). **Verdict:** Long-time developers praise JetBrains IDEs for deep code intelligence, refactoring, navigation and debugging, but critics cite heavy resource use, buggy recent updates and clumsy AI integration. ## Why people recommend it - Deep code intelligence and refactoring (8 comments): "In terms of in-line instantaneous error highlighting, introspection, refactoring, and autocomplete, it's not on the same level as JetBrains." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47871539)) ""rewrite all subtrees that match this pattern" works really well in jetbrains, they call it structure search-and-replace." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47925269)) "Code intelligence (find usages, go to definition, refactor/rename/move, etc.) and debugging are on another level" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49977638)) - Excellent debugger and navigation (5 comments): "It is likely still the best environment to read and debug Java code, which you still need in addition to whatever agentic tooling you have." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47899689)) "Code intelligence (find usages, go to definition, refactor/rename/move, etc.) and debugging are on another level" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49977638)) "Standard IDE features allowing me to quickly search and/or browse methods, variables, etc. are far more useful" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48042172)) - Cohesive, batteries-included experience (4 comments): "Jetbrains IDEs have AI support with all the things you've described, and in a more polished experience that requires significantly less maintenance and tuning." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47870321)) "JB IDEs bake in everything you can get via vscode plugins with documentation, a cohesive experience, and regular maintenance" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49977678)) "After using JetBrains IDEs for years I can really hardly get into anything that isn't vertically integrated." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48526164)) - Fair pricing with loyalty discounts (4 comments): "their pricing for individuals made a lot of sense, you buy the license and you can keep using perpetual license" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49799747)) "Jetbrains is that rare company, where the important long term customers are rewarded by giving them a discount." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50228767)) "They let you use a years worth of upgrades and then you can decide if you want to pay to keep those upgrades." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45900048)) ## What people warn about - Bungled AI integration (6 comments): "Quality has been really lackluster, and their attempts to hop onto the AI train have been as annoying as they have been bad." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49978983)) "They've tried to play it both ways. Not AI enough for the AI fanboys, but want to keep a toe in there for everyone else." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46367188)) "I feel so sad and disheartened that a company that produced such brilliant tools have completely lost the plot on AI" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49234628)) - Heavy on memory and resources (4 comments): "once I have a JetBrains IDE open, a dev environment, some browser tabs, Claude, and a bunch of other crap Electron apps I need the machine is already swapping quite a bit" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50270544)) "I have absolutely no headroom when running JetBrains IDEs so I keep them closed unless there's a specific feature I want." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47954626)) "It was the first IDE development team to decide that it would rather require extra computing resources from you" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47965253)) - Declining quality and buggy updates (5 comments): "their development has been a mess for a while with half-assed implementations and long standing bugs" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46361192)) "Quality has been really lackluster, and their attempts to hop onto the AI train have been as annoying as they have been bad." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49978983)) "they've made a gazillion changes but I can probably count on one hand the number of them that I found truly useful" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48186780)) - Agents and editors reducing need (3 comments): "I've use JetBrains IDEs for years (been subscribed annually since 2017), but since Zed I havent really opened any of those IDEs in a long time" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47951254)) "I canceled my subscription after like 12 years because I realized all the things that made it great aren’t really needed anymore" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50235874)) "I love their offerings, but I can see their value rapidly evaporating as Claude code/agents eats their lunch." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47406521)) ## Alternatives hackers 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 - [JetBrains Rider](https://hackerapproved.com/p/jetbrains-rider.md): 68 recommend ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://www.jetbrains.com/) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "JetBrains IDEs", https://hackerapproved.com/p/jetbrains-ides/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).