Free IDE for high-efficiency development

IntelliJ IDEA is a free Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for Java programming that’s great for developers who want to maximize their productivity. It is available under an Apache 2.0 license, which allows users to develop royalty-free and non-commercial products, plugins, and IDEs. The program is developed by JetBrains, a software development company.

This IDE has an open-source version called IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition, and a paid version called IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate. The two versions have distinct differences, but the Community Edition platform is quite similar to Ultimate. Plus, it has all the essential features that any developer would need. 

Great for code completion

IntelliJ IDEA has a lot of features, but its most popular key feature is its smart code completion capability. This basically means that the program can suggest classes, methods, fields, and keywords that are expected in the current code you’re trying to create. Aside from that, the IDE also predicts what you need and allows you to automate repetitive development tasks. It can help you quickly fill a field, access a tool window, set toggles, easily search through a list of numerous elements, and a whole lot more. 

The code completion feature has two types of suggestion lists: Basic completion and smart type-matching completion. The basic code completion appears when you press Ctrl+Space, then it suggests a list of possible names when applied to a part of a field, variable declaration, or parameter. Pressing Ctrl+Space twice will show inaccessible members, classes, and static fields and methods. Meanwhile, pressing the command three times will expand the suggestion list of the basic code completion to all classes in the project.

Smart type-matching completion and programming languages

Now, while the basic completion can practically give you everything, the smart type-matching completion only gives you suggestions that are relevant to the current context. By default, the IDE already displays the completion pop-up automatically while you type. So, if smart completion is disabled, the shortcut command is Ctrl+Shift+Space to turn it on. What’s great about the smart completion feature is that it lets you complete static method calls, collections, lists, and arrays. This can help you speed up your coding process, making your work more efficient.

IntelliJ IDEA supports numerous programming languages, including Java, Markdown, Groovy, XSL, Kotlin, HTML, XML, JSON, YAML, Python, and a whole lot more. However, with the Ultimate version, you can use JavaScript, CSS, TypeScript, SQL, SCSS, Sass, Less, Stylus, ActionScript, and CoffeeScript—all without needing plugins. A small downside, however—albeit the IDE supporting numerous languages—is that it has a lot of plugins installed, which can make the software freeze or crash if you have low RAM.

Powerful IDE

To sum, IntelliJ IDEA is a very powerful IDE that caters to a lot of programmers and programming languages. Its platform and features are designed to help you code your programs faster and more efficiently. While it may freeze if you have low RAM, that’s a minor issue compared to its capabilities. The smart code completion is definitely a crowd-pleaser, as it doesn’t just give you random suggestions.