IntelliJ IDEA vs. WebStorm

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
IntelliJ IDEA
Score 9.4 out of 10
N/A
IntelliJ IDEA is an IDE that aims to give Java and Kotlin developers everything they need out of the box, including a smart code editor, built-in developer tools, framework support, database support, web development support, and much more.
$19.90
per month
WebStorm
Score 9.6 out of 10
N/A
WebStorm is an integrated development environment (IDE) by JetBrains. Designed for JavaScript and TypeScript development, WebStorm also aims to make it easy to tackle the most challenging tasks. Whether resolving Git merge conflicts or renaming a symbol across multiple files, it takes just a few clicks.
$0
per year
Pricing
IntelliJ IDEAWebStorm
Editions & Modules
For Individual Use (Monthly billing)
$19.90
per month
For Organizations (Monthly billing)
$71.90
per month
For Individual Use (Yearly billing)
$199
per year
For Organizations (Yearly billing)
$719
per year
Individual Non-Commercial
$0
per year
Individual
$6.90
per month
Bussiness
$15.90
per month per user
Individual
$69
per year
Business
$159
per year per user
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
IntelliJ IDEAWebStorm
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsAll Products Pack (For Individual Use) – $299 /1st year, $ 239 /2nd year and $ 179 /3d year onwards All Products Pack (For Organizations) – $979 / year
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
IntelliJ IDEAWebStorm
TrustRadius Insights
IntelliJ IDEAWebStorm
Highlights

TrustRadius
Research Team Insight
Published

IntelliJ IDEA and WebStorm serve distinct yet complementary niches within the development community. IntelliJ IDEA has consistently been hailed as a versatile and powerful IDE, often preferred by developers involved in complex Java projects, including enterprise and web applications, which demand robust tooling and integration capabilities. Its extensive support for JVM-based languages and frameworks, alongside superior handling of large codebases, has validated its usefulness across various engineering teams and settings where software and database development converge.

Conversely, WebStorm is tailored specifically towards web developers, with a sharp focus on the JavaScript ecosystem, including Node.js and front-end technologies like React, Angular, and Vue.js. Users have praised its intelligent code completion, on-the-fly error detection, and powerful navigation abilities, which aid significantly in developing more efficient and bug-free code. The IDE’s out-of-the-box configuration and integration with tools like linters, build systems, and version control systems streamline the web development process, making it a principal choice among individual developers and teams focusing on modern web applications.

While IntelliJ IDEA attracts a broad spectrum of developers with its comprehensive language support and scalability for large-scale projects, WebStorm captivates a more targeted audience with its specialized set of tools and features for web development. This specialization is evident in how each product is utilized: IntelliJ IDEA’s strong suit includes handling Java and Kotlin proficiency for a variety of applications from corporate environments to Android development, whereas WebStorm excels in the rapid iterative development cycles typical of contemporary web and JavaScript applications.

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User Ratings
IntelliJ IDEAWebStorm
Likelihood to Recommend
9.7
(0 ratings)
9.5
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
5.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.1
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.9
(0 ratings)
9.4
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
IntelliJ IDEAWebStorm
Likelihood to Recommend
IntelliJ IDEA is very well suited for developers working on Java, Javascript, and related technologies. It is the best IDE I've found so far for software development in Java. IntelliJ IDEA is specifically well suited for web software development using Java as it provides default configurations for web frameworks like Spring and Spring Boot. For other use cases, I feel it is more than good enough.
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WebStorm is a great product for programming and development. It has all the capabilities needed for education, as well as for professional deployment. I use it in the classroom with my students, who benefit from the comprehensive drop down menus and the integrated spell check. It also has a clean user interface that allows for customization.
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Pros
  • Compared to Eclipse, basically it is a easier to learn which results in faster learning curve. Good for small or mid-sized projects. Generally speaking developers can be productive in a short training and use.
  • Very rich plug-in capability, such as out of the box support for version control systems.
  • User friendly interface. Responsive and interactive than other IDE tools.
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  • This is the only editor in my opinion which gives you the full development experience if you want to code in JavaScript.
  • WebStorm supports many different linters including "standards". This has been such a blessing for our team. All our PRs look perfect now.
  • WebStorm is very good in design. I love coding in it.
  • It has terminal built right into it. I know many other editors also provide this, but I really like how seamlessly the terminal works out of the box.
  • Most of the plugins you will ever need is already installed right off the box. I haven't installed anything new so far.
  • The rename/reformat functions are very intelligent. I feel very confident renaming something new.
  • There is a "validation" inspector which reports anything as small as spellings. This helps us keep our codebase very-very clean.
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Cons
  • IntelliJ IDEA wins as long as the language is Java. Outside that , e.g., in other languages, it is not so advanced.
  • It is licensed, with a steep licensing cost. All features are not included in the free edition.
  • It is not as light as Eclipse, so in a weak system, it can be a pain.
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  • Didn't find any apparent issue overall, except sometimes the WebStorm is running too many default validation check in the backend and response is slow, typically when we keep WebStorm running for some time, and if we restart the WebStorm it will take long time to be "warm up", perhaps, some JetBean team can consider some performance improvement
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Likelihood to Renew
VS Code is maturing and has a Scala plugin now. The overall experience with VS Code - for web development at least - is very snappy/fast. IntelliJ feels a bit sluggish in comparison. If that Scala plugin for VS Code is deemed mature enough - we may not bother renewing and resort to the Community Edition if we need it.
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It's an irreplaceable part of my toolkit and isn't that expensive per year.
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Usability
There is always room for improvement, but I haven't met any IDE that I liked more so far. Even if it did not fit a use case right out of the box, there is always a way to configure how it works to do just that.
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Great in debugging, testing, developing and maintaining softwares in a number of languages. Great support for many languages and their syntaxes. Great support of many third party extensions and plugins like GIT and html plugins. The RAM usage of WebStorm however could be really improved, it literally takes almost all of the RAM of my machine with 16GB RAM
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Support Rating
Customer support is really good in the case of IntelliJ. If you are paying for this product then, the company makes sure that you will get all the services adequately. Regular update patches are provided to improve the IDE. An online bug report makes it easier for the developers to find the solution as fast as possible. The large online community also helps to find the various solutions to the issues.
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I gave this rating because I have never needed their customer support, which is the highest level of support I suppose. When a product works just fine out of the box and everything you may need is well documented, it's a paradise for the customer. But I've seen some questions asked on their portal, and I've seen thorough answers given to the questions and the willingness to support the customer with follow-ups and everything else.
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Implementation Rating
This installs just like any other application - its pretty straight forward. Perhaps licensing could be more challenging - but if you use the cloud licensing they offer its as simple as having engineers login to the application and it just works.
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Highly recommend the JetBrains Toolbox, it remembers your recent projects and launches from the task bar.
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Alternatives Considered
In summary, IntelliJ is more polished and feature-rich out of the box, especially for Java development. Eclipse is extensible but can be rougher around the edges. IntelliJ costs money for advanced features, while Eclipse is free. IntelliJ offers many developers a better experience, but Eclipse remains a viable open-source alternative.
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VS Code is free and more popular. Popularity helps in that you can do pair programming more easily because you all use the same [tool]. It's also easier when trying to guide someone (especially a junior developer). However, Webstorm comes with more out-of-the-box and is generally faster and more effective. Webstorm has been around for many more years as well.
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Return on Investment
  • Boosts productivity: IntelliJ IDEA is efficient to operate, and with its shortcuts and customization, the possibilities to improve your productivity are endless.
  • Clean code: IntelliJ IDEA will catch or syntax errors, or even suggest a way something could be written better, or call our your duplicated code or unused imports.
  • An easy learning curve for new guys: It's much easier to use than some of the competition, so it helps the new guys hit the ground running by being easy to operate and understand.
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  • Our UX guys love the Emmet support provided by WebStorm and enjoy cranking out prototypes quicker than they could before.
  • I love the standardization provided by the tslint support. When all the devs code to the same standard, it makes our code more maintainable.
  • The test support makes it easier to write and execute tests, lowering the barrier to entry of creating test suite around our code. Testing makes maintenance of any codebase far more effective and efficient.
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ScreenShots

IntelliJ IDEA Screenshots

Screenshot of IntelliJ IDEA interface overview: the Project tool window (left) outlines the code structure and the Editor (right) is used to read, write, and explore the source code.Screenshot of IntelliJ IDEA analyzing the context. It then suggests the most applicable and relevant code.Screenshot of the Search Everywhere window, where users can search for files, actions, classes, symbols, settings, UI elements, and anything in Git, all from a single entry point.Screenshot of inspections to help find probable bugs and dead code, detect performance issues, and improve the overall code structure by providing quick-fixes for any code that contains potential concerns.Screenshot of IntelliJ IDEA's support for frameworks with dedicated assistance for Jakarta EE, JPA, Reactor, Spring and Spring Boot, and other popular frameworks.Screenshot of the AI Assistant that provides features for software development. It can explain code, answer questions about code fragments, provide code suggestions, generate documentation, and commit messages.

WebStorm Screenshots

Screenshot of Code CompletionScreenshot of JavaScript DebuggingScreenshot of Quick DocumentationScreenshot of Version Control IntegrationScreenshot of the Out-of-the-box Experience