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IntelliJ IDEA

Java and polyglot integrated development environment for professional software developers on desktop platforms.

Primary category: Coding Tools
About this data
This page reflects aggregated public online discussion, not statements of fact or our own opinion. Scores summarize the tone of relevant public mentions and carry the limitations described in our methodology. See how this is calculated.

Updated June 8, 2026

Overall Pulse Score

50
Pulse Score

-18 over this period

A 0-100 index summarizing the tone of 19 relevant public mentions gathered from public online communities across 8 weeks in the selected period. It measures online sentiment, not a rating of the product's quality.

Weekly Sentiment Trend

Pulse Score by week over the selected period. Each point is one complete week of mentions.

This week in public discussion

Over the recent period, community discussion around IntelliJ IDEA was relatively modest in volume with sentiment roughly split. Several commenters praised its standing as the go-to tool for serious Android and Kotlin development, and one poster highlighted building a useful plugin for multi-task workflows. On the complaint side, mentions pointed to performance concerns like CPU heat during compilation, pricing friction around integrations, and some bug frustrations, keeping the overall tone fairly neutral.

AI-generated summary of public online discussion during this period. It reflects the tone of that discussion, not facts about the product or our views.

Sentiment mix by week

How the tone of public discussion splits each week.

PositiveMixedNeutralNegative

Most-discussed praise

Easy to use3
Strong features3
Good integrations3
Compared to rivals2
Feature requests1

Most-discussed complaints

Compared to rivals5
Bugs3
UI frustrations2
Feels slow2
Performance2

Themes across the selected period, with mention counts.

Sample public mentions

Showing 5 of 19 analyzed public mentions in this period, with links to the original source. We do not reproduce full threads.

I wanted to use worktree's the same way that cursor/windsurf/jetbrains air etc. do, i.e. but in intellij idea using claude code. It's a bit rudimentary and I wouldn't release it on the marketplace but I made a really good plugin that allows me to work on multiple tasks at once us...

Hacker NewsJun 9, 2026

14 inch, running primarily IntelliJ IDEA and Firefox. Around 10% CPU use most of the time, with of course the occasional spike for compilation.It's not hot, but with 22C ambient it is enough of a rise to be annoying.

Hacker NewsMay 28, 2026

I was trying to use copilot from: - Intellij IDEA plugin - but then quickly switched to official terminal application copilotI dropped it quickly in favour of claude in the terminal for various reasons: - that github's copilot license of 19USD/seat/mo was kind of doggy? It had so...

Hacker NewsMay 23, 2026

CLion in particular is abysmal, yeah. so is RustRover. `rustacean.vim` gave me much better Rust UX than RustRover. although, for Android and serious Kotlin work, IntelliJ IDEA is the IDE and you can do nothing about it. yes, there is Kotlin LSP made by JetBrains themselves, but t...

Hacker NewsMay 20, 2026

Project Link: https://github.com/anticleiades/swing-fluid-swipeIntelliJ Fork (the proof of concept): https://github.com/anticleiades/intellij-community/tree/poc-.... Please use the poc-fluid-swipe branch.Video Demo (if you don't want to recompile everything): https://drive.google...

Hacker NewsMay 7, 2026

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Deeper analysis

  • Feature depth and ecosystem integration dominated praise, though often framed as reluctant reliance rather than enthusiastic endorsement.
  • Sentiment traced a volatile but generally flat-to-slightly-declining path over the recent weeks after a mid-window high point.
  • Opinion was divided on whether tight workflow integration represented genuine value or an unavoidable constraint.
  • Concerns about bugs, performance heat, and plugin trust contributed a layer of ambient skepticism beneath surface-level positive mentions.
Praise themeMentions
Easy to use3
Strong features3
Good integrations3
Compared to rivals2
Feature requests1
Complaint themeMentions
Compared to rivals5
Bugs3
UI frustrations2
Feels slow2
Performance2

Discussion about IntelliJ IDEA over the past several weeks has been modest in volume, with the overall tone sitting at a middling level of sentiment that neither strongly praised nor strongly criticized the product. The low mention count means individual voices carried outsized weight, so the picture is more impressionistic than statistically firm. That said, the themes that surfaced were consistent enough to suggest real patterns in how commenters relate to the tool.

On the positive side, commenters pointed to specific features and integrations as genuine strengths. One commenter described building a plugin that enabled multi-task workflows, framing IntelliJ IDEA as a capable foundation for customization even if the result felt unpolished. Others implicitly acknowledged the product's dominance in certain ecosystems, with one commenter flatly stating that for serious Kotlin and Android work it is the IDE and there is no real alternative. This kind of resigned acknowledgment blended praise with frustration, a tone that ran through much of the discussion.

The complaint side was spread across bugs, performance, UI grievances, and pricing. A commenter mentioned ambient heat and CPU behavior during normal use, expressing low-level annoyance without calling it a dealbreaker. Pricing came up in a comparison context where the cost of adjacent tooling was described as questionable. A more pointed concern involved trust and plugin security, with one commenter describing manual code auditing because build reproducibility could not be assumed. This kind of skepticism directed at the broader ecosystem touched IntelliJ IDEA indirectly but colored the tone.

The score trajectory over the window showed considerable volatility given the small sample sizes involved. An early period of lower sentiment gave way to a noticeable uptick in mid-April before sliding back, then partially recovering in mid-May before dipping again most recently. The direction over the final weeks suggested a mild softening from a brief stable plateau, though no single event appeared to drive the movement. Opinion divided most clearly around whether the product's deep integration into certain workflows was a strength worth the trade-offs or a lock-in situation that generated as much frustration as loyalty.

AI-generated summary of public online discussion during this period. It reflects the tone of that discussion, not facts about the product or our views.

Member perspectives

Individual opinions from Pro members, posted over time. These are personal member views, not aggregated sentiment data.

Data summary

Total mentions analyzed (all time)
25
Mentions in selected period
19
Weeks in range
8
Pricing
Free tier; paid plans available
Sources
Hacker News (19)

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