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JetBrains WebStorm

Praised for strong JavaScript and TypeScript support, helpful built-in tools and smooth use once set up. Most common caveat: it often feels slow and uses a lot of memory.

Summarized from 41 comments.

Praised for strong JavaScript and TypeScript support, helpful built-in tools and smooth use once set up. Most common caveat: it often feels slow and uses a lot of memory.

recommend
22
criticize
15
months recommended
11 of 13
median owned, 3 owners said
6.5 years

Why people love it

  • Strong TypeScript and JavaScript support · 4

    For JS WebStorm loads a TS file for browser fundamentals and it helps drastically with this problem as well

    May 2026 · comment

    WebStorm works better with TypeScript than even Microsoft's own creation

    Nov 2025 · comment

    WebStorm is miles ahead of vscode for js etc.

    Jan 2026 · comment
  • Helpful built-in tools and quick actions · 4

    Ctrl+Shift+A which lets you search through all available UI actions (hence the A). That's just so helpful if you know the IDE can do something

    Apr 2026 · comment

    The free one - WebStorm - comes with live preview.

    Mar 2026 · comment

    QoL features is where WebStorm shines!

    Apr 2026 · comment
  • More reliable than VS Code · 3

    WebStorm seems to be a lot more reliable than VSCode nowadays

    Nov 2025 · comment

    WebStorm is miles ahead of vscode for js etc.

    Jan 2026 · comment

    WebStorm is better than VSCode at this

    Feb 2026 · comment
  • Works well out of the box · 4

    with a few single-click-install plugins for languages or environmental integrations, it did everything I needed it to do

    Jul 2026 · comment

    No major complains. It takes some time to get going but after that it is mostly smooth sailing.

    May 2026 · comment

    dev experience is excellent

    Apr 2026 · comment

What people warn about

What hackers pick instead

Every quote

The 40 most detailed of 41 comments. Each links to the original.

  1. Ctrl+Shift+A which lets you search through all available UI actions (hence the A). That's just so helpful if you know the IDE can do something

    Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “Reallocating $100/Month Claude Code Spend to Zed and OpenRouter”

  2. with a few single-click-install plugins for languages or environmental integrations, it did everything I needed it to do

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “The Productivity Mirage”

  3. For JS WebStorm loads a TS file for browser fundamentals and it helps drastically with this problem as well

    Mixed · May 2026 · in “ClojureScript Gets Async/Await”

  4. No major complains. It takes some time to get going but after that it is mostly smooth sailing.

    Recommends · May 2026 · in “No More JetBrains Products for Me”

  5. it's gotten really slow lately, locking for 3–4 seconds when scrolling a larger file

    Mixed · May 2026 · in “No More JetBrains Products for Me”

  6. WebStorm works better with TypeScript than even Microsoft's own creation

    Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “Google Antigravity”

  7. WebStorm seems to be a lot more reliable than VSCode nowadays

    Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “Google Antigravity”

  8. The free one - WebStorm - comes with live preview.

    Recommends · Mar 2026 · in “Show HN: I built 48 lightweight SVG backgrounds you can copy/paste”

  9. WebStorm is miles ahead of vscode for js etc.

    Recommends · Jan 2026 · in “Threat Actors Expand Abuse of Microsoft Visual Studio Code”

  10. WebStorm is better than VSCode at this

    Recommends · Feb 2026 · in “I Don't Like Magic”

  11. Webstorm continues to be better for TS

    Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “Zed: Delta”

  12. QoL features is where WebStorm shines!

    Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “Reallocating $100/Month Claude Code Spend to Zed and OpenRouter”

  13. has the best UI interface for this

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Using Git add -p for fun (and profit)”

  14. dev experience is excellent

    Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “SpaceX and Cursor partnership. Right to acquire Cursor later this year”

  15. No issues at all on macOS.

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Escape IntelliJ: Scala and Kotlin LSPs on Emacs Eglot”

  16. it became progressively slower to the point of being unusable even on small projects

    Criticizes · Jul 2026 · in “Escape IntelliJ: Scala and Kotlin LSPs on Emacs Eglot”

  17. there were so many workflow-breaking bugs in each new release of Webstorm

    Criticizes · Oct 2026 · in “ThinkRail from JetBrains”

  18. each keypress in a .md file in WebStorm makes the fan spin up

    Criticizes · Sep 2026 · in “JetBrains Air: A System of Products for Agentic Software Development”

  19. completely unusable on a medium-sized React codebase

    Criticizes · Sep 2026 · in “JetBrains Air: A System of Products for Agentic Software Development”

  20. when you open about 6-8 instances of the IDE

    Criticizes · Nov 2025 · in “Google Antigravity”

  21. memory usage of webstorm on my work machine

    Criticizes · Oct 2026 · in “JetBrains reports revenue growth, net financial loss for 2025”

  22. the core functionality is frequently broken

    Criticizes · Oct 2026 · in “ThinkRail from JetBrains”

  23. The IDE was simply too slow

    Criticizes · Oct 2026 · in “JetBrains reports revenue growth, net financial loss for 2025”

  24. Webstorm is PAINFULLY slow.

    Criticizes · May 2026 · in “No More JetBrains Products for Me”

  25. I can use WebStorm instead of browseer-tools and if I see a typo in my code while debugging it I can edit it away

    Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “HTML over WebSockets: real-time SPAs with barely any JavaScript”

  26. I rebuilt the entire fastcomments moderation UI 2yrs ago with webstorm on my 16gb thinkpad

    Recommends · May 2026 · in “Running local models on an M4 with 24GB memory”

  27. it isn't unusual to have RustRover, Rider, Webstorm, and Intellij open at the same time

    Mixed · Oct 2026 · in “JetBrains Thinkrail”

  28. I switched to Webstorm without any plugins for light editing without all plugins loaded

    Recommends · May 2026 · in “No More JetBrains Products for Me”

  29. every time I try to move from Webstorm to VS Code, I wind up going back

    Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “JetBrains reports revenue growth, net financial loss for 2025”

  30. I mostly use their CLion, Webstorm and PyCharm IDE's for development

    Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “SpaceX and Cursor partnership. Right to acquire Cursor later this year”

  31. jsdoc can be rendered in HTML, which makes the code easier to scan

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “JSDoc is TypeScript”

  32. I still use the paid IDE's (RustRover and WebStorm)

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “JetBrains Air: A System of Products for Agentic Software Development”

  33. But their tab complete situation is abysmal

    Mixed · Apr 2026 · in “Reallocating $100/Month Claude Code Spend to Zed and OpenRouter”

  34. I've bought WebStorm every year but I'm getting a bit pissy about their focus on 'the wrong thing'.

    Criticizes · Oct 2026 · in “JetBrains reports revenue growth, net financial loss for 2025”

  35. Neither PyCharm nor WebStorm alone offers what I need in one app.

    Criticizes · Dec 2025 · in “Intellij IDEA now supports C/C++”

  36. WebStorm’s config system is an absolute nightmare

    Criticizes · Sep 2026 · in “Fine, I'll build my own text editor”

  37. now they all feel outdated and unnecessary

    Criticizes · Oct 2026 · in “JetBrains Thinkrail”

  38. this is my biggest issue with WebStorm

    Criticizes · Dec 2025 · in “Claude Code gets native LSP support”

  39. I rarely looked at the code in the IDE

    Criticizes · Oct 2026 · in “JetBrains reports revenue growth, net financial loss for 2025”

  40. it's not able to... at least reliably

    Criticizes · Dec 2025 · in “The Future of Software Development Is Software Developers”

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