JetBrains is a software development company, established in 2000, that focuses on creating tools to streamline and enhance the process of code development. The company's primary offering is a range of integrated development environments (IDEs) adaptable to various programming languages such as the JVM platform, C and C++, SQL, Go, PHP, Python, .NET, Ruby, Rails, and JavaScript. Complementing these IDEs, JetBrains also provides .NET and Visual Studio tools such as ReSharper and dotPeek, among others. To cater to collaborative efforts and remote work scenarios, JetBrains offers team tools like Space and TeamCity. Additionally, it has delved into creating programming languages, producing Kotlin and MPS. JetBrains is equally invested in promoting learning and education, reflected in dedicated tools like PyCharm Edu and IntelliJ IDEA Edu, and platforms for learning programming like JetBrains Academy.
Do You Manage Peer Insights at JetBrains?
Access Vendor Portal to update and manage your profile.
- Comprehensive Python Support - Virtual Environment Management - Integration with web development frameworks, particularly important for Python projects and machine learning/information visualisation - Debugging tools - Profiler for performance optimisation and refactoring
The focus on Python gives PyCharm an edge in supporting Python-specific tasks, Python debugging and detailed error handling.
Advanced refactoring features for extracting methods, renaming variables, methods, files, ... extracting or inlining variables and so on. Integrated testing support for pytest and unittest has been amazing for us, the ease of use when you want to iterate quickly and especially when working test-driven is amazing. The debugger is very user-friendly and straightforward. Support for frameworks, in our case specifically FastAPI, is also very helpful. The integrated database client, allowing you to stay inside your IDE when querying your databases while debugging or prototyping, will forever be one of my favorite features in JetBrains IDEs.
- Learning curve - too many features can be daunting, especially when you just want to get started. This is particularly true as it is an IDE for Python, a first language for many developers that they will have the most experience in. - Documentation is extensive, but tutorials integrated into the IDE would be super useful into actually learning how to use all of the capabilities of PyCharm
The main weaknesses include the slow startup time compared to more lightweight IDEs or even the python IDLE offering, a steep learning curve and some of their many features being locked behind a paywall.
For some junior developers who weren't familiar with JetBrains IDEs, it was a bit overwhelming and tough to get used to. Especially in one of our monorepos, PyCharm is very resource intensive. It sometimes slows down after working for a while and is often slow on initial startup. It can be quite pricey if you really want to get all the advanced features it has to offer.