January 31, 2022
August 21st, 2025
Millions of developers program in Java. Numerous ingenious and influential apps are written in Java and are currently being used by a large number of users. Java has completed 26 years of its existence. Still, its relevance for modern enterprises and modern applications remains the same.
Nobody knew that the programming language Sun Microsystems was about to create would change the entire landscape of software development and make history in the computer programming world.
Java is not merely a language; it is converted into a vast ecosystem of languages, runtime platforms, open-source projects, SDKs, a wide range of tools, frameworks, and libraries.
While Java has a rich history of creating web, desktop, and mobile applications, it also counts as a strong player in the recent innovations in modernized application development, such as microservices, containers, CI/CD, cloud, and IoT.
Java continues to evolve at a faster pace than ever before. This is a reason why Java rules the development world, from smartcards to space vehicles and much more. With Java running critical applications worldwide and being a widely utilized language in the industry, here we are with the best Java IDEs that help you write Java applications efficiently.
IDE stands for the Integrated Development Environment.
It is one type of software application that provides developers with a complete environment for writing, debugging, and running code. It includes a source code editor, debugger, and build automation tools.
Here, we will be covering the popular Java IDEs that are widely used to create apps in Java.
Let’s get to know each other in detail.
Eclipse is one of the most commonly used IDEs in computer programming. It is written mainly in Java and is considered the best IDE for Java programming. It offers a base workspace and an extensible plug-in system that allows a customizable environment. It is primarily used for Java but can be used to develop applications in other languages via plug-ins, such as C, C++, C#, Clojure, D, COBOL, Haskell, JavaScript, Julia, PHP, Python, R, Rust, Ruby, and so on.
In its early days, it was an IBM-led project. The IBM subsidiary, Object Technology International, created it. Eclipse is popular as a Java-centric IDE, but it is also used to develop language IDEs for almost every available programming language. In 2004, the Eclipse Foundation was created, and the Eclipse Public License (EPL) is the fundamental license under which projects are released.
Eclipse is a free Java IDE and open-source software.
NetBeans is a popular open-source IDE for Java. It runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, and Solaris. It provides editors, templates, and wizards that help developers easily create applications in Java, C, C++, HTML5, PHP, and many other languages.
Apache Software Foundation maintains NetBeans and supports the development of all Java application types, such as web, EJB, mobile, and Java SE.
It offers a range of powerful tools and features, including syntax highlighting, refactoring, Maven support, version control, and code completion. One of the powerful features of NetBeans is modularity. Modules provide all the functions of the IDE, and this feature also helps NetBeans to be extended and support other programming languages. NetBeans is considered the best IDE for Java web development and enterprise application development, with modules such as a GUI design tool, NetBeans Profiler, and an editor.
IntelliJ IDEA is an integrated development environment written in Java. JetBrains developed it and is available as an Apache 2 licensed community edition.
It is the top-choice IDE for software developers, highly popular among them due to its intelligent coding assistance and sleek, ergonomic design.
IntelliJ IDEA for Java offers a smooth development workflow from design to deployment, testing, debugging, and refactoring. It works with all JVM languages such as Kotlin, Scala, and Go. With advanced support for popular Java frameworks, developer ergonomics, deep code insights, and a wide range of built-in tools and integrations with the context-aware environment, altogether, this IDE is in the category of the best IDE for Java programming as well as the best IDE for Java web development.
3 out of every 4 Java developers choose IntelliJ IDEA. Are you one among them?
MyEclipse is the best Java IDE for enterprise development and a commercially available IDE created and maintained by Genuitec, a member of the Eclipse Foundation.
This feature-rich Java IDE is widely used to build powerful applications with support for a wide range of frameworks. It offers many features, such as content assist, syntax highlighting, inline search, and as-you-type validation, which help developers write efficient code and increase developer productivity.
MyEclipse is built upon the Eclipse platform and offers several editions that let developers choose features and capabilities. It is a comprehensive Java IDE with features such as advanced database tooling, Maven project management, Spring development, and WebSphere support.
BlueJ is a free Java IDE specially designed for beginners. It was developed mainly for educational purposes and is considered the best IDE for Java beginners. Being a lightweight Java IDE, it has a simple interface, and its design differs from other development environments as its goals are specific to educational and learning purposes.
It is also suitable for small-scale software development. It is currently being maintained by a team at King’s College, London, England. BlueJ interface offers a class structure by displaying UML-like diagrams as its main screen. This helps beginners learn faster and more visibly.
It became free and open-source software in March 2009. It is exclusively designed for teaching, featuring a unique scope highlighting, object inspection during program execution, and a colored code block.
JDeveloper is a free IDE developed by Oracle Corporation. It covers an end-to-end development lifecycle of applications, right from design, coding, debugging, profiling, and optimization to deployment. It supports development in Java, XML, HTML, JavaScript, PHP, SQL, and PL/SQL.
Oracle aims to simplify Java development by providing a visual and declarative approach with an advanced coding environment.
With a rich set of coding features, visual utilities, and a powerful editor, JDeveloper is widely used and popular among the Java developer community.
It integrates with the Oracle Application Development Framework (Oracle ADF), which is an end-to-end Java Enterprise Edition-based framework.
jGRASP is a lightweight Java IDE that provides the automatic creation of software visualizations. It is implemented in Java and runs on all platforms that have a JVM installed. For languages other than Java, it serves as a source code editor.
It improves the comprehensibility of software by providing static visualizations of source code structure and structural visualization of data structures at runtime. It generates Control Structure Diagrams (CSDs) for Java, Complexity Profile Graphs, dynamic object viewers, and UML diagrams for Java that further improve the readability of code.
jGRASP can be used to work with free and commercial compilers for any programming language.
Android Studio is the official integrated development environment for Google’s Android operating system. It is built on JetBrains’ IntelliJ IDEA and specifically designed for Android development.
It is the most preferred IDE for Android app development with a set of powerful features that include a flexible Gradle-based build system, extensive tools & frameworks, a feature-rich emulator, layout editor, Lint tools, built-in support for Google Cloud Platform, and GitHub integration.
It is a replacement for the Eclipse Android Development Tools (E-ADT) as the primary IDE for Android app development.
Android Studio supports all the programming languages of IntelliJ IDEA. In 2019, Kotlin replaced Java as Google’s preferred language for Android app development, but Java is still supported and used by millions of developers for developing Android apps.
Kite is a free AI coding assistant and code auto-complete plugin. Kite supports over 16 languages and 16 code editors to help developers develop with lightning-fast completions that are context-aware of code.
By adding Kite to the code editor, developers can code faster, become more productive, and stay in the flow. It uses machine learning to automate tedious parts of coding, allowing for uninterrupted work on the same screen.
Developers prefer Kite to any other code completion tool as it is powerful, secure, and easy to use.
JCreator is a lightweight Java IDE for Windows created by Xinox Software. It is written in C++ and its interface is similar to that of Microsoft Visual Studio. It is faster and available in three editions – Lite Edition, Pro Edition, and Lite-Pro Edition.
It is only available for the Windows operating system and provides features that include customizable syntax highlighting, tabbed documents, project management, templates, wizards, and a fully customizable interface.
It is also considered the best IDE for Java beginners, offering a simple and easy-to-use interface along with essential features.
Codenvy is a cloud IDE and developer workspace platform that allows users to edit, run, and debug code.
It is based on the open-source Eclipse Che project. It is available as SaaS, on-premises, and white label. It provides users with containerized workspaces, cloud-based and on-premise deployment, one-click project onboarding, support for any programming language or IDE, version control, issue management, full-root access, and SSH.
Codenvy allows anyone to contribute to a project without the need to install software.
JBoss Forge is a software development tool that provides wizards and extensions for extending your Java IDEs. It offers several add-ons that enable developers to code faster, more straightforwardly, hassle-free, and efficiently. It is available for different technologies and solutions.
The JBoss Forge framework provides powerful possibilities for Java EE application development. JBoss Forge is available for macOS, Windows, and Linux. It can be used with a command prompt or an integrated IDE such as Eclipse, IntelliJ, and NetBeans. Red Hat owns it.
jEdit is the best Java editor that runs on any operating system with Java support, including Windows, Linux, BSD, and macOS. It is released as free software under the terms of the GPL 2.0 or later.
It was developed by Slava Pestov in 1998, and later he handed development to the free software community. It offers syntax highlighting for more than 200 languages, code folding and text folding capabilities, a highly customizable environment, extensible plugin architecture, and much more.
It is easy to use and set up, and anyone can extend its functionality using plugins. It is written in Java and called a ‘mature programmer’s text editor.’ jEdit is maintained by a worldwide developer team.
DrJava is also a lightweight Java IDE for Java development. It is designed to provide test-driven software development and includes many powerful features. DrJava is the best IDE for Java beginners and students, offering an intuitive interface, consistent appearance on different platforms, and the ability to evaluate Java code from a console interactively.
It is available for free under the BSD license and maintained by the JavaPTL group at Rice University. Version history and download links of DrJava are available and maintained by SourceForge.
It includes an intelligent program editor, an interactions pane, a source-level debugger, and a unit testing tool.
Greenfoot is an integrated development environment and educational software designed to make learning coding easy and fun. It is available for Windows, macOS, Linux, Solaris, and recent JVMs.
It is developed and maintained at King’s College London with support from Oracle. This project was initiated by Michael Kölling, creator of BlueJ. It is an excellent platform for learners and teachers with visual and interactive tools.
It is free to use and available under the GPL license. Greenfoot provides easy access to animated graphics, interaction, and sound, making it straightforward for beginners to develop 2D apps, graphical apps, and interactive games.
It also illustrates necessary abstractions and concepts of object-oriented programming with visualizations and guided interactions.
A large number of IDEs and editors are available for Java developers. The choice of an IDE usually depends on the project type and professional experience. The more you know, the more wisely you can choose from a range of IDEs that are available in the market. Java beginners may work with IDEs that are built for educational purposes. At the same time, experienced Java developers choose an IDE that has a plethora of modern features that increase productivity and make coding easier.
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