IntelliJ IDEA is free too

People talk a lot about how Eclipse is so great because it’s free. IntellIJ IDEA is free if you’re willing to test the alpha/beta versions. The final releases (like 4.0 and 4.5) cost money, but with the Early Access Program you get to use a great IDE and have some input on how the product will turn out.

The EAP builds are usually stable, and you get to use new cutting edge features (refactorings, code inspections, etc.) sooner than you would otherwise.

To download IntellIJ IDEA 5.0 Early Access, visit http://intellij.net/eap/. You’ll have to sign up for an EAP account, but after that it’s an easy download and install.

20 Responses to “IntelliJ IDEA is free too”

  1. Anonymous Says:

    I think that EAP license is valid only a month. So you have to uninstall and install these version once in a month. That’s sometimes frustrating.

  2. Edwin Hautus Says:

    No need to uninstall anything, but you do have to pick up a new license key from the web site every now and then. And then there are certain gaps when there is no key available - just enough to make you buy the product if you can affort to.

  3. Anonymous Says:

    Thanks for info. I use IDEA in work but can’t afford to by it to my own projects.
    Recently I tried to use eclipse but my experiences were similar to author of this blog. Idea is heaven compared to eclipse.

  4. Mike Shoemaker Says:

    if you are going to use intellij for writing non commercial code at home, they make an edu discounted version available to virtually anyone. See my Blog Entry for details.

  5. Michal Says:

    Hi all,

    IDEA costs 499 amer. $ - how much is it ? How long do you need to work to get this money ? I come from Poland
    (Europe), I need to work 10 days to buy the IDEA licence, but I guess that for programmer from much more developed countries it can be much less. For several days of work you can get one of the most powerful IDEs, so in my opinion it
    is worth much more,

    regards
    Michal.

  6. Jasper Says:

    Just noticed today IDEA are doing personal licences for $250. Wish they were doing that when I payed $500 about 6 months ago when there was no EAP licence for a couple months. Could not live without it now after 2 years of being converted :-)

  7. Ed Burnette Says:

    If something’s missing in Eclipse, request it, change it, or fork it!

  8. Sukanta Rudra Says:

    Eclipse is fine but myeclipse is resource hungry. I am not very sure about ItelliJ and its J@EE features regarding, resource consumption.From my experiance myEclipse is very very resource hungry. With PIV processor and 265 MB RAM, it just “walks” cannot “run”!!! Can anyone give a feedback on ItelliJ?

  9. Jasper Says:

    IntelliJ is not hugely dependent on CPU other than compiling which is really javac but it is quite memory hungry if you have large projects. I am not using the J2EE features but doubt it will make much of a difference. My current project uses about 150-200Mb RAM for 2000 classes + lots of large libraries. I think most of the ram usage is for indexes for fast code intelligence so it’s directly proportional to the project size. You need to look at some more ram for any serious development, depending if you are on Windows or Linux, but at least 512Mb should be minimum.

  10. Klaus Says:

    Hi,
    if I’m running IDEA on my 256 MB home PC on a project with several hundred classes and large libraries, I have sometimes trouble to run deep into OS paging. So, I think - as Jasper - you need at least 512MB RAM for any serious development with IDEA. Small projects work fine with 256MB, but as soon as you deal with large JAR libraries and 100+ packages things will get worse…
    Klaus

  11. Anonymous Says:

    In my opinion, Idea 4.5 is so much smoother than Eclipse 3.0. I have been using Idea now for over 2 years, however, there is so much momentum and ‘extras’ behind Eclipse, lots more plug-ins (free and pricey ones), many howto article on Eclipse, more products integrate with Eclipse. I would like to stick with Idea for another year, but where are all the ‘extras’ for it?

  12. Charlie Hayes Says:

    Heres a review favoring IDEA, but most of the comments are by Eclipse zealots… Anyway….
    http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=9380

  13. Markus Says:

    @11: Also IDEA has lot’s of free plugins and it is working much smoother than Eclipse3/3.1pre
    Check out: http://www.intellij.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/IntelliJPluginsHome

    Good luck, I stick with IDEA, its such a good IDE.

  14. Calum Says:

    I think, from the IDEA license (http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/licensing/license.html) that you could use your work copy at home as well (if your employer allowed it):

    “You may:
    (i) install and use the Software on any number of Your computers and on any operating system, provided that the number of concurrent users never exceeds the number of licensed users for which a corresponding license fee has been paid;”

  15. anptr Says:

    Download the latest 30 day evolution version. Then type in google “itelliJ idea 4.5 keygen” and find the license.

  16. dont mind Says:

    antptr,

    I’ve tried google to find “intellij keygen”

    I have downloaded a keygen created by TMG.
    http://flz.keygen.us/46688/I/intellijideav4.0.2.1179keygentmg.zip

    it says that it is for version 4.0.2

    But, the reg key is also valid for 4.5

  17. Rayz Says:

    I’m curious.

    Why do folk think it’s OK to pirate software, from a relatively small developer?

  18. Rayz Says:

    Hell, why do folk think it’s OK to pirate software, period?

  19. java_developer Says:

    No it’s not OK to pirate software from a company like IntelliJ. Look either you want there to be excellent software like IntelliJ created by excellent companies that employ programmers or you don’t- that’ sreality. I am so very very unemployed and going broke quickly, but it never occurs to me to pirate software from a company whose end product is probably one of the keys to my salvation.

    I worked with Eclipse for 3 months at the end of 2005 at a client’s request. That’s long enough to *really* try it in it’s mature form. There is no comparison. IntelliJ gets it, IBM doesn’t.

    Why go to the trouble of pirating software if Eclipse is free anyway? Like the guy above said, dn’t like something about Eclipse? Then fork it. Of course, that will puit you face first into the world that is Eclipse, so bon voyage, and be sure to write.

    IntelliJ is fantastic and to keep it fantastic I am willing to save and go without lattes for a year and pay what they’re asking, which is very very very reasonable.

    I suppose there are always a small number of Machiavellian types for whom the above doesn’t compute, but mostly those guys get kicked upstairs to management and then of course later we see them doing the perp walk.

  20. fr_java_mo Says:

    Posting a keygen on this forum is plain unethical.

    While you are at it, why dont you forge a few credit cards
    and steal you neighbours car too ..asshole.

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