IntelliJ IDEA vs Notepad++

Overview

Notepad++

Stacks20.4K

Followers16.8K

Votes422

IntelliJ IDEA

Stacks44.0K

Followers36.9K

Votes1.5K

IntelliJ IDEA vs Notepad++: What are the differences?

Key Differences between IntelliJ IDEA and Notepad++

IntelliJ IDEA and Notepad++ are both popular text editors used for coding and development purposes. However, they have several key differences that set them apart.

User Interface and Design: IntelliJ IDEA offers a more modern and visually appealing user interface with a variety of customizable themes and built-in tools for code analysis and debugging. On the other hand, Notepad++ has a simpler and more traditional interface with fewer advanced features and customization options.
Code Intelligence and Completion: IntelliJ IDEA provides advanced code intelligence features such as intelligent code completion, refactoring capabilities, and code analysis tools. It offers comprehensive support for a wide range of programming languages, including Java, Python, C++, and JavaScript. Notepad++, although it does provide basic code completion, lacks the advanced code intelligence features offered by IntelliJ IDEA.
Integrated Development Environment (IDE) Capabilities: IntelliJ IDEA is a full-fledged IDE with features like built-in project management, version control system integration, and debugger. It provides a seamless development experience by offering everything needed to write, test, and deploy code in one tool. Notepad++, on the other hand, is primarily a text editor and lacks many of the advanced IDE capabilities provided by IntelliJ IDEA.
Multi-Language Support: While Notepad++ supports a wide range of programming languages, IntelliJ IDEA excels in language-specific support and provides more advanced features and tools tailored to specific languages. It offers features like intelligent code completion, code formatting, and language-specific refactoring options that enhance productivity for developers working with different languages.
Integration with Build Tools and Frameworks: IntelliJ IDEA provides seamless integration with popular build tools and frameworks like Maven, Gradle, and Spring. It offers features like automatic dependency management, build configuration, and integration with code repositories. Notepad++ lacks this level of integration and relies on external tools for build and deployment processes.
Community and Plugin Ecosystem: IntelliJ IDEA has a thriving community of developers and a vast plugin ecosystem. It offers a wide range of plugins and extensions that further enhance its functionality and cater to specific development needs. Notepad++ also has a plugin system but has a smaller and less active community compared to IntelliJ IDEA.

In summary, IntelliJ IDEA is a feature-rich and powerful IDE that provides advanced code intelligence, integrated development capabilities, extensive language support, and seamless integration with build tools and frameworks. Notepad++ is a simpler text editor with a more traditional interface, limited language-specific support, and lacks many advanced IDE features.

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Advice on Notepad++, IntelliJ IDEA

christy

Program Manager

Jul 1, 2020

Needs adviceon

Python

Eclipse

IntelliJ IDEA

UPDATE: Thanks for the great response. I am going to start with VSCode based on the open source and free version that will allow me to grow into other languages, but not cost me a license ..yet.

I have been working with software development for 12 years, but I am just beginning my journey to learn to code. I am starting with Python following the suggestion of some of my coworkers. They are split between Eclipse and IntelliJ IDEA for IDEs that they use and PyCharm is new to me. Which IDE would you suggest for a beginner that will allow expansion to Java, JavaScript, and eventually AngularJS and possibly mobile applications?

2.03M views2.03M

Comments

Manabu

CEO, Co-Founder at WinguMD

Jun 13, 2020

Decided

I originally chose IntelliJ over Eclipse, as it was close enough to the look and feel of Visual Studio and we do go back and forth between the two. We really begin to love IntelliJ and their suite of IDEs so we are now using AppCode for the IOS development because the workflow is identical with the IntelliJ. IntelliJ is super complex and intimidating at first but it does afford a lot of nice utilities to get us produce clean code.

551k views551k

Comments

Samriddhi

Machine Learning Engineer at Chefling

Sep 26, 2020

Decided

Lightweight and versatile. Huge library of extensions that enable you to integrate a host of services to your development environment. VS Code's biggest strength is its library of extensions which enables it to directly compete with every single major IDE for almost all major programming languages.

1.04M views1.04M

Comments

Detailed Comparison

Notepad++	IntelliJ IDEA
Notepad++ is a free (as in "free speech" and also as in "free beer") source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several languages. Running in the MS Windows environment, its use is governed by GPL License.	Out of the box, IntelliJ IDEA provides a comprehensive feature set including tools and integrations with the most important modern technologies and frameworks for enterprise and web development with Java, Scala, Groovy and other languages.
Syntax Highlighting and Syntax Folding;User Defined Syntax Highlighting and Folding: screenshot 1, screenshot 2, screenshot 3 and screenshot 4;PCRE (Perl Compatible Regular Expression) Search/Replace;GUI entirely customizable: minimalist, tab with close button, multi-line tab, vertical tab and vertical document list;Document Map;Auto-completion: Word completion, Function completion and Function parameters hint;Multi-Document (Tab interface);Multi-View;WYSIWYG (Printing);Zoom in and zoom out;Multi-Language environment supported;Bookmark;Macro recording and playback;Launch with different arguments	Smart Code Completion;On-the-fly Code Analysis;Advanced Refactorings;Database Tools;UML Designer;Version Control Tools;Build Tools
Statistics
Stacks 20.4K	Stacks 44.0K
Followers 16.8K	Followers 36.9K
Votes 422	Votes 1.5K
Pros & Cons
Pros 104 Syntax for all languages that i use 60 Tabbed ui 56 Great code editor 54 Fast and lightweight 38 Plugins Cons 3 No default plugin manager 2 Can't install more advanced packets	Pros 301 Fantastically intelligent 242 Best-in-class ide 190 Many languages support 158 Java 121 Fast Cons 20 Large footprint required to really enjoy (mem/disc) 16 Very slow 8 Bad for beginners 7 UI is not intuitive 5 Not nearly as many tools to integrate as vs code
Integrations
No integrations available	Java

What are some alternatives to Notepad++, IntelliJ IDEA?

Sublime Text

Sublime Text is available for OS X, Windows and Linux. One license is all you need to use Sublime Text on every computer you own, no matter what operating system it uses. Sublime Text uses a custom UI toolkit, optimized for speed and beauty, while taking advantage of native functionality on each platform.

Atom

At GitHub, we're building the text editor we've always wanted. A tool you can customize to do anything, but also use productively on the first day without ever touching a config file. Atom is modern, approachable, and hackable to the core. We can't wait to see what you build with it.

Vim

Vim is an advanced text editor that seeks to provide the power of the de-facto Unix editor 'Vi', with a more complete feature set. Vim is a highly configurable text editor built to enable efficient text editing. It is an improved version of the vi editor distributed with most UNIX systems. Vim is distributed free as charityware.

Visual Studio Code

Build and debug modern web and cloud applications. Code is free and available on your favorite platform - Linux, Mac OSX, and Windows.

PhpStorm

PhpStorm is a PHP IDE which keeps up with latest PHP & web languages trends, integrates a variety of modern tools, and brings even more extensibility with support for major PHP frameworks.

Visual Studio

Visual Studio is a suite of component-based software development tools and other technologies for building powerful, high-performance applications.

WebStorm

WebStorm is a lightweight and intelligent IDE for front-end development and server-side JavaScript.

NetBeans IDE

NetBeans IDE is FREE, open source, and has a worldwide community of users and developers.

PyCharm

PyCharm’s smart code editor provides first-class support for Python, JavaScript, CoffeeScript, TypeScript, CSS, popular template languages and more. Take advantage of language-aware code completion, error detection, and on-the-fly code fixes!

Eclipse

Standard Eclipse package suited for Java and plug-in development plus adding new plugins; already includes Git, Marketplace Client, source code and developer documentation. Click here to file a bug against Eclipse Platform.

Related Comparisons

IntelliJ IDEA vs Notepad++: What are the differences?

Key Differences between IntelliJ IDEA and Notepad++

IntelliJ IDEA and Notepad++ are both popular text editors used for coding and development purposes. However, they have several key differences that set them apart.

User Interface and Design: IntelliJ IDEA offers a more modern and visually appealing user interface with a variety of customizable themes and built-in tools for code analysis and debugging. On the other hand, Notepad++ has a simpler and more traditional interface with fewer advanced features and customization options.
Code Intelligence and Completion: IntelliJ IDEA provides advanced code intelligence features such as intelligent code completion, refactoring capabilities, and code analysis tools. It offers comprehensive support for a wide range of programming languages, including Java, Python, C++, and JavaScript. Notepad++, although it does provide basic code completion, lacks the advanced code intelligence features offered by IntelliJ IDEA.
Integrated Development Environment (IDE) Capabilities: IntelliJ IDEA is a full-fledged IDE with features like built-in project management, version control system integration, and debugger. It provides a seamless development experience by offering everything needed to write, test, and deploy code in one tool. Notepad++, on the other hand, is primarily a text editor and lacks many of the advanced IDE capabilities provided by IntelliJ IDEA.
Multi-Language Support: While Notepad++ supports a wide range of programming languages, IntelliJ IDEA excels in language-specific support and provides more advanced features and tools tailored to specific languages. It offers features like intelligent code completion, code formatting, and language-specific refactoring options that enhance productivity for developers working with different languages.
Integration with Build Tools and Frameworks: IntelliJ IDEA provides seamless integration with popular build tools and frameworks like Maven, Gradle, and Spring. It offers features like automatic dependency management, build configuration, and integration with code repositories. Notepad++ lacks this level of integration and relies on external tools for build and deployment processes.
Community and Plugin Ecosystem: IntelliJ IDEA has a thriving community of developers and a vast plugin ecosystem. It offers a wide range of plugins and extensions that further enhance its functionality and cater to specific development needs. Notepad++ also has a plugin system but has a smaller and less active community compared to IntelliJ IDEA.

IntelliJ IDEA vs Notepad++

Overview

IntelliJ IDEA vs Notepad++: What are the differences?