No more JetBrains products for me

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Performance, Resource Use, and Indexing

  • Many report JetBrains IDEs (CLion, RustRover, WebStorm, PyCharm, DataGrip, Rider, etc.) as slow: long startup, frequent re-indexing, UI freezes, high CPU/RAM use, and occasional memory leaks/crashes.
  • Some say performance is acceptable or good on modern hardware if IDEs stay open all day, plugins are trimmed, and JVM memory settings are increased.
  • Re-indexing is a major frustration: users see repeated full re-index cycles (especially with multiple projects) and complain there’s no clear diagnostic showing why it’s happening.
  • Others note that language servers in editor-based workflows can also be slow or memory-hungry; experiences differ by language (Go and Java LSPs are singled out as problematic).

IDEs vs Editors (Zed, Vim/Neovim, Helix, VS Code, etc.)

  • Many have moved or are moving from JetBrains IDEs to lighter tools (Zed, Neovim/Helix, Sublime, VS Code, Kate, KDevelop), citing instant startup, low resource usage, and better “flow”.
  • Pro‑IDE voices argue that full IDEs provide superior static/dynamic analysis, refactoring, debugging, profiling, test integration, database explorers, and framework awareness (Java/Spring, C#, etc.), which are hard or impossible to fully replicate with LSPs and plugins.
  • Some adopt hybrid workflows: fast editor for most editing, JetBrains or Visual Studio only for debugging or heavy refactoring.

AI, Agentic Coding, and Product Direction

  • A subset claims “IDEs are dead” or diminished in an era of agentic coding, using AI agents to generate and edit code instead of manual editing.
  • Others strongly reject this, preferring to keep IDEs and have agents interact with them, or to keep AI separate entirely.
  • JetBrains’ AI assistant is widely criticized as intrusive, slow, and lower quality than using AI providers directly; UI elements (sidebars, ads, auto‑enabled features) are seen as clutter and have pushed some to cancel subscriptions or freeze on older versions.
  • Some appreciate new agent-connector protocols and the ability to disable AI, but see overall focus shifting from core performance/quality toward AI and UI churn.

Trust, UX, and Ecosystem Concerns

  • Users complain about constant UI reshuffles, a divisive “new UI”, and features moving behind paid tiers.
  • There are anecdotes of criticism being removed from JetBrains forums/blogs and a sense that subscription economics drive churn over polish.
  • Despite frustrations, many still see JetBrains as “best in class” for certain ecosystems (Java/Scala, C#, enterprise work) and stay for those strengths.