Opinion on Jetbrains tools - worth it?

Hades

Hades

Hades

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I used to be a software developer (various languages but mostly Java JEE and mainframe COBOL). I have recently returned to coding in my spare time for a personal web based project, which I hope will evolve into something useful. So far I've been using Sublime for HTML, CSS, PHP and the xampp built in query tool for database queries along with Toad. I've also been dabbling in Python but just using Sublime again.

But having noticed a 50% discount code for Jetbrains tools (the code is "Woot!" until end of November) I'm thinking of trying some of their tools. It looks like PHPStorm (PHP obviously), Pycharm (Python), Webstorm (Javascript, HTML, CSS), IntelliJ (HTML, CSS and Java/Android may come in handy) and Data Grip would be useful. In my old life as a Java developer I was used to IDE's (Eclipse based mostly, not IntelliJ). So I do appreciate the difference between IDE's and a code editor such as Sublime.

It is only a subscription based license which I general don't like. But any opinions on those specific tools, the support given by Jetbrains, etc, would be appreciated. Did anyone regret buying them?

Thanks.
 
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I've used PyCharm in the past for Django development. Overall I was very impressed with it and given the amount of time it saved me I think it was well worth the cost. I'm just getting back into programming now and will be signing up for PyCharm Professional as I find it so useful.

Don't forget that most JetBrains IDEs can install plugins from their other IDEs so it might not be needed to buy PyCharm, WebStorm and DataGrip. I know PyCharm already has database tools already built in so I never felt the need for DataGrip. Plus I think you can install some JavaScript plugins in PyCharm as well so you can work just fine with JavaScript in it.

Personally if I were you I'd avoid PHP like the plague. I spent a couple of weeks learning the language and it is just horrible. Python / Java / JavaScript / C# etc are all much better choices for back-end web development.

I'm just exploring deploying my websites with Docker at the moment and I believe PyCharm has some tools which work with Docker which is another reason why I am going to pay for the professional version.
 
JetBrains tools are great, highly recommend them.

Also have to agree with the php point, much nicer and better things to do backend development in after working with a few different languages and frameworks.
 
Hades said:
Thanks both. Good point about the plugins. I also do understand the point about PHP.
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Also checkout Gitlab. It offers CI / CD tools for free for your projects and, obviously, uses Git as the version control software. Can't really complain about the features.

Edit: Just tested the database tools in PyCharm. Yep it is as I thought. No need for DataGrip in addition to PyCharm. It has it all included.
 
If you haven't done so already, check out VS Code. It's free, has a lot of traction at the moment, and there are extensions for just about anything.
 
planty said:
If you haven't done so already, check out VS Code. It's free, has a lot of traction at the moment, and there are extensions for just about anything.
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I've just downloaded VS Code and have installed all the useful looking extensions but I still prefer PyCharm. I guess if I was going to use a text editor rather than an IDE I'd look into Emacs or Vim instead since they pretty useful text editors to know especially if you are working in the Unix world.
 
JetBrains are great. I regularly end up working in both Android and C# at the same time and I think I prefer IntelliJ to Visual Studio in a lot of places nowadays, the refactoring support is really good which I guess is powered by Resharper's engine.
If you only care about Android then IntellJ for Android is free. Similarly, the community version of PyCharm is free too and will likely do everything you need. It makes debugging Python so much easier than printing stuff out all over the place.

If you ever want to decompile .NET dotPeek is great too.
 
Cromulent said:
I've just downloaded VS Code and have installed all the useful looking extensions but I still prefer PyCharm. I guess if I was going to use a text editor rather than an IDE I'd look into Emacs or Vim instead since they pretty useful text editors to know especially if you are working in the Unix world.
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Fair enough, thought I'd suggest it in case it was useful to you. I don't use it for python so wasn't sure what it would be like. It is more than just a text editor though.
 
planty said:
Fair enough, thought I'd suggest it in case it was useful to you. I don't use it for python so wasn't sure what it would be like. It is more than just a text editor though.
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Oh, I appreciate the suggestion :). I just think something like Emacs or Vim would have more long term usefulness for myself since I often have to edit config files and stuff when I SSH into servers.

As text editors go it is certainly a nice looking one and seems to run nice and quickly. It is just I find the debugger and the test runner in PyCharm essential and now I've got used to it I feel lost without it.
 
I've just seen that Jetbrains have a perpetual fallback license. So if I bought the current "all products" annual subscription for an individual it means that when the subscription expires I can still use any of the products in future at their current version. This does seem a good deal, especially if the discount code works.

Even though I only need a couple of products it would mean that for £100 I'd get perpetual access to the 2017 versions of all their tools.

I will probably go for this even though I only need a couple of their products.

Question... I use different machines at different times (desktop and laptop). How does their licensing work? Can Install one license on both machines as long as I only use one at a time? E.g. desktop when at home and laptop when moving around? Or does it enforce one license per install? Thanks.

Edit: Yes looks like it can be installed multiple times. But the price is excl of VAT. So if the voucher works then for £120 it would provide 12 months of access and updates to all of their products, installed on several devices, across Windows, Linux and Mac OS, with a perpetual license to use all of them forever at 2017 versions thereafter. Considering the high praise their tools seem to get here and elsewhere that seems a very good deal.

Edit 2: Blast the coupon doesn't work. That idea is out of the window.
 
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A quick update. I emailed Jetbrains sales with several questions, including whether they have any Black Friday discounts. They don't have any BF discounts as such, but were prepared to offer a 15% discount on an annual All Products subscription (bringing it to £203 including VAT). I haven't yet decided and I don't know whether this is just something they would offer because it's BF and whether they would offer it to anyone else on other licenses. But I thought I'd mention it in case anyone was interested in similar.

Their sales team were quick to reply and provided clear communication.
 
Hades said:
A quick update. I emailed Jetbrains sales with several questions, including whether they have any Black Friday discounts. They don't have any BF discounts as such, but were prepared to offer a 15% discount on an annual All Products subscription (bringing it to £203 including VAT). I haven't yet decided and I don't know whether this is just something they would offer because it's BF and whether they would offer it to anyone else on other licenses. But I thought I'd mention it in case anyone was interested in similar.

Their sales team were quick to reply and provided clear communication.
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JetBrains already offer a lot of discounts to various groups of people. Some of them are up to 50% off. Check them out here.

https://www.jetbrains.com/store/?fromMenu#edition=discounts
 
Thanks. Saw those but I don't qualify for any. I'm not a student, I'm not a startup (yet - and it's still more expensive than a personal license) and I'm not an open source project. But thanks.
 
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Just a heads up for Jetbrains users that their 2017.3 updates have landed. Also GoLand has moved from RCA to a first commercial release (and is now part of the standard charging structure / IntelliJ plugin).

I've been using PHPStorm free trial for a while and really like it. I switched back to Eclipse PDT for a short time to compare it, and it's clear that PHPStorm is far better. At the end of my trial I think I will get an IntelliJ Ultimate subscription and add the plugins for the other languages.
 
Hades said:
Just a heads up for Jetbrains users that their 2017.3 updates have landed. Also GoLand has moved from RCA to a first commercial release (and is now part of the standard charging structure / IntelliJ plugin).

I've been using PHPStorm free trial for a while and really like it. I switched back to Eclipse PDT for a short time to compare it, and it's clear that PHPStorm is far better. At the end of my trial I think I will get an IntelliJ Ultimate subscription and add the plugins for the other languages.
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The only problem with IntelliJ IDEA is that it feels a bit bloated unless you disable all the plugins that you don't need which is why I'm mainly sticking to PyCharm since all I need is Python, PostgreSQL, Docker and JavaScript support (you can install the WebStorm JavaScript plugin in PyCharm I believe).

Although having said that I might download the trial version of IntelliJ IDEA again just to see what extra features it actually has out of the box.
 
As above, I couldn't code without Resharper now, such a powerful tool. I've been lucky that my last couple of jobs have also used it but the one that didn't, I missed it massively
 
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