# JetBrains PyCharm 38 Hacker News commenters recommended JetBrains PyCharm and 33 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 10 years (4 owners). **Verdict:** Praised for deep Python support, debugging and git tools that many say no other IDE matches. Common caveat: slow indexing and heavy resource use on large codebases. ## Why people recommend it - Best Python support and analysis (4 comments): "PyCharm is still better for python development at this point, with its one black mark being endless indexing on large codebases / dependencies" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45918936)) "the python LSP in PyCharm is miles ahead of any other lsp out there" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46366523)) "for python development pycharm is still superior" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47955878)) - Powerful debugging for complex code (2 comments): "people are blown away when I show them how much more powerful PyCharm is when debugging complex code" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46206380)) "I was all in on the full stack debug capability in pycharm of Django." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47378569)) - Strong git and local history (3 comments): "the git implementation in PyCharm is better than any git app I've used" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46366483)) "has saved my ass more than once when accidentally overwriting changes before committing" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49191206)) "I checked its built-in version tracker and lo and behold, my code as it was before I rm -rf'ed up my code." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46692445)) - Free Community edition available (2 comments): "VS Code and PyCharm are both free and are great for Python coding." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46054955)) "the intellij pycharm community edition being free" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46383259)) ## What people warn about - Slow indexing and high CPU use (4 comments): "PyCharm is still better for python development at this point, with its one black mark being endless indexing on large codebases / dependencies" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45918936)) "watching my coworker's computer slow down to a crawl when Pycharm started reindexing the project" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47501162)) "it feels slow, and randomly likes to suddenly peg a CPU core to 100% for no apparent reason" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48185766)) - Weak modern tooling and AI integration (3 comments): "it's a bit of a cop-out that the Claude Code integration in PyCharm is just the TUI" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48367265)) "Even PyCharm now routinely completes some hallucinated method or library" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46381042)) "pycharm’s weakness is not integrating with modern tooling like ruff/pyright" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45975273)) - Slow to fix long-standing issues (3 comments): "instead of substantially improving or fixing PyCharm, without you steadily replacing/repairing big chunks of Pycharms functionality I would be miserable" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46300286)) "they completely neglected (no, to minimal progress for years) their typehint support in PyCharm" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49977589)) "failed to gain attention from JetBrains for months and years on their issue tracker" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46222573)) - Lighter alternatives like VS Code (2 comments): "I let my Pycharm sub lapse since I switched to VSCode. Its lighter and better at some static analysis." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49234691)) "PyCharm/GoLand both are "nice" but it did not feel better/more efficient than pylance/pyright" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47435996)) ## 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/pycharm/) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "JetBrains PyCharm", https://hackerapproved.com/p/pycharm/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).