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NetBeans IDE vs PhpStorm: What are the differences?
Introduction
NetBeans IDE and PhpStorm are both popular integrated development environments (IDEs) for software development. While they have some similarities, there are key differences between the two that make them unique in their own ways.
Features and Functionality: NetBeans IDE is known for its extensive support for multiple programming languages, including Java, PHP, and HTML. It offers a wide range of features, such as code editing, debugging, and version control. On the other hand, PhpStorm is specifically designed for PHP development and provides advanced features tailored for PHP programmers, including intelligent coding assistance, refactoring tools, and built-in testing frameworks.
User Interface: NetBeans IDE has a more traditional and cluttered user interface that may feel overwhelming to new users. It provides a comprehensive set of tools and menus, which can be beneficial for experienced developers who prefer having everything at their fingertips. In contrast, PhpStorm has a more streamlined and intuitive user interface, with a clean layout and customizable shortcuts. It focuses on simplifying the coding experience and enhancing productivity.
Plugins and Integrations: Both IDEs support plugins and integrations to extend their functionality. NetBeans IDE has a vast collection of plugins available through its plugin manager, offering additional features and tools for various programming languages. PhpStorm, being specifically designed for PHP development, has a strong focus on PHP-related plugins and seamlessly integrates with popular frameworks and technologies in the PHP ecosystem, such as Symfony, Laravel, and PHPUnit.
Community and Support: NetBeans IDE benefits from a large and active community of developers, with extensive documentation, tutorials, and forums available for support. It has been around for a longer time and has established itself as a reliable IDE for multiple programming languages. PhpStorm, although relatively newer, has gained a significant following among PHP developers. Its community is growing rapidly, with dedicated forums and resources focused on PHP development.
Performance and Resource Usage: NetBeans IDE can be resource-intensive and may consume higher memory compared to PhpStorm. This can be attributed to its broader support for multiple programming languages and extensive features. PhpStorm, being optimized specifically for PHP development, tends to be faster and more lightweight, providing smoother performance even on lower-end hardware.
Pricing: NetBeans IDE is an open-source platform, available for free without any licensing costs. It is supported by the community and contributions from developers worldwide. PhpStorm, on the other hand, is a commercial product developed by JetBrains and requires a paid license for extended usage. It offers a free 30-day trial period but requires purchasing a license for ongoing use.
In summary, NetBeans IDE is a versatile IDE with support for various programming languages, while PhpStorm is focused specifically on PHP development, providing advanced features tailored for PHP programmers. They differ in terms of features, user interface, plugin ecosystems, community support, performance, and pricing.
When I switched to Visual Studio Code 12 months ago from PhpStorm I was in love, it was great. However after using VS Code for a year, I see myself switching back and forth between WebStorm and VS Code. The VS Code plugins are great however I notice Prettier, auto importing of components and linking to the definitions often break, and I have to restart VS Code multiple times a week and sometimes a day.
We use Ruby here so I do like that Visual Studio Code highlights that for me out of the box, with WebStorm I'd need to probably also install RubyMine and have 2 IDE's going at the same time.
Should I stick with Visual Studio Code, or switch to something else? #help
If you're working with both Ruby and JavaScript, buy RubyMine and shut down the other two. It's much better for Ruby than Visual Studio Code is. It can also do everything WebStorm does, if you install the plugins you need from JetBrains, and they all work together nicely.
If you install RubyMine, you shouldn't need WebStorm, as all the functionality of WebStorm appears to be included in RubyMine. (See here: https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/a/132950).
I've used PhpStorm for several years and have never needed to open (or even download) WebStorm for anything front-end or JavaScript related.
I work at the same company as you and I use WebStorm for 99% of my tasks. I also have RubyMine installed and use that when I have to tweak some backend code. I tried using RubyMine for JavaScript but was unhappy with how it felt and I believe that WebStorm is faster because it has less plugins and language extensions running. Summary: Buy and use WebStorm for primary development and keep VS Code around for when you have to touch Ruby.
JetBrains all the way - my entire team uses PhpStorm and none of us would even consider switching.
The availability of IDEs for other languages along with consistency in environment and keyboard shortcuts is also a godsend, which is the reason I'd also choose Rider over Visual Studio (but also VS for Mac is trash, but I digress...)
I've never had much issue running multiple IDEs and generally pick them based on the languages they best support. For front end work where I mainly use TypeScript, I stick heavily with Visual Studio Code. However, for backend work which we do primarily in Python, PyCharm is my go-to editor. The one thing that I do however is I do remap keyboard shortcuts so I get consistent keyboard ability even when I switch IDEs.
So here is the deal man, bottom line you want to write code. All of these tools are built in a mouse-driven world, they are designed not for engineers, but office monkeys. If you want a real workflow that gives you ultimate performance, customization and speed you need to use a modal editor, I suggest NeoVim. Start using it 20% of the time on single file edits, watch youtube videos about it and teach yourself vim gestures. It will infuriate you for 6 weeks, make you cry for another 2 months. But as you use it more, as long as your usage goes over 40% of the time, in 6 months you will understand why most of the world's too engineers use it. Settling on lesser editors out of laziness is exactly the attitude that results in shitty the engineering. Yeah it's hard. You're smart. You do hard things. Once it isn't hard anymore you will blow yourself away at how much more efficiently you edit files.
Also vim keybindings in a mouse driven editor does not cut it. Managing files, buffers and workflow is half of the value of vim/neovim. It is OK if you have to use an IDE (currently I only use an IDE for java development, so I have little choice)
So use VSCode while you teach yourself vim.
Visual Studio Code is a text editor. And this is best option in my opinion. For Ruby, I cannot say how VS Code is good. If you wanna choose IDE, RubyMine should fit your needs. Because IDEs are more compatible with major needs. But text editors are just text editor. You can do same things with also text editors. I recommend to try both VS Code and RubyMine. And you will be able to find which fits better for your needs
If I have to choose one I would go with VS Code; it’s become pretty mature and keeps getting better. If those plugins are creating problems for you then just uninstall them, find an alternative, or make a PR to fix. But at the end of the day these are IDE’s and they are meant to save you time. I would go with whatever helps you develop code faster. If restarting VS code slows you down then make a switch, that personally would annoying the crap out of me. Else maybe it’s a quick restart, not the end of the word, hopefully someone will fix at some point.
Well you can try for a while MacVim because it is already configured with tons of plugins. My favourite text editors are Sublime Text and TextMate which are lightweight and speedy. My feeling is that JetBrains IDEs are making you brainless.
I'm personally a Visual Studio Code fan. I've used it for both Go and Java. It really depends on the quality and support of the plugins. Typically VS Code doesn't crash as much as a bad plugin causes an unforeseen error. Make sure you stay up to date and look at alternative plugins.
If you find something that works and are comfortable with it, stay with it. Changing IDE's and learning their idiosyncrasies takes valuable time away from programming while learning setups and keyboard short cuts. I personally use VS Code for cost and decent multiple language support. I've had issues occasionally with it locking up, but it is under heavy development and continually improving. I have also found it more intuitive for new programmers. ** Having profiles for different languages can reduce the amount of plugins running and issues they can cause.
I usually have both running but do the bulk of my language work in the appropriate JetBrains flavor. One thing to watch out for in VS is that under the hood it is running the tools needed for whatever language you are working with. This is where tools like JetBrains shine. While I am sure you can tune the heck out of what you use in VS, the provides context and clarity...
Are you using the prettier-vscode
VSCode extension or prettier
via prettier-eslint
?
The prettier-vscode
extension recommends you...
Use prettier-eslint
instead of prettier
. Other settings will only be fallbacks in case they could not be inferred from ESLint rules.
An integrated development environment software with huge potential in the future is VS Code. So I would personally say you can use VS code.
Pros of NetBeans IDE
- Rich features76
- Crossplatform69
- Plugins(Git, SVN)49
- Easy to use38
- Extensible38
- PHP Support35
- Java support34
- File History28
- Code analysis21
- MySQL support18
- Free14
- Open source14
- Code completion10
- Strong Maven Support9
- NodeJs support8
- Webdev king6
- Easy maven project start6
- Best6
- Jira Plugin4
- Foss4
- Out of the box integration with maven, git, svn3
- History of changes, friendly tabs3
- Mandatory3
- Intuitive ui2
- Chrome plugin to live update javascript from browser2
- Groovy support2
- Native Nette support2
- I don't like NetBeans2
- Smarty support2
- Visual GUI Builder for Swing / AWT2
- Custom html tags support2
- Powerful refactoring1
- Composer commands inside IDE1
Pros of PhpStorm
- Best ide for php287
- Easy to use232
- Functionality218
- Plugins166
- Code analysis160
- Integrated version control87
- Great php ide for mac76
- All-round php ide73
- Local history62
- Themes53
- Best PHP IDE18
- Database control11
- Easy to find anything and everything in your code10
- Best bebugging9
- Best inspection variable9
- Command line integration7
- Great frameworks integration7
- PHPUnit integration7
- Getting Better7
- UX7
- Composer integration6
- Performance6
- Coolest IDE6
- Real time code validation5
- Easy to use and github interaction5
- Neat does the job and easy5
- Best ide for advanced php and symfony5
- Best ide for php4
- TypeScript support4
- Code indexing4
- It has no match. it filled one of the biggest void4
- Fast and relevant auto-complete4
- Great refactoring support4
- Cross platform4
- Integration with Vagrant and Docker3
- Debugger for Javascript3
- Good3
- Very good3
- Debugging in the Just-In-Time Mode2
- Perfect locahost / host sync2
- Awesome debugging features2
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Cons of NetBeans IDE
- PHP debug doesn't support conditional breakpoints2
Cons of PhpStorm
- Uses a lot of memory14
- Does not open large files10
- Slow9
- Uses Java machine8
- No way to change syntax highlight for files without ext3
- No save prompt or asterisk on file change2