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  1. Stackups
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  4. IDE
  5. Android Studio vs IntelliJ IDEA

Android Studio vs IntelliJ IDEA

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Android Studio
Android Studio
Stacks25.5K
Followers20.3K
Votes361
IntelliJ IDEA
IntelliJ IDEA
Stacks44.0K
Followers36.9K
Votes1.5K

Android Studio vs IntelliJ IDEA: What are the differences?

Android Studio and IntelliJ IDEA are two popular integrated development environments (IDEs). Let's explore the key differences between them.

  1. User Interface and Features: Android Studio is specifically designed for Android development and provides a user interface tailored to the needs of Android developers. It offers various Android-specific features, such as a visual layout editor, APK analyzer, and support for Android Virtual Device (AVD) manager. On the other hand, IntelliJ IDEA is a more generic IDE that supports a wide range of programming languages and frameworks. It lacks some of the Android-specific features found in Android Studio.

  2. Code Completion and Analysis: Android Studio includes powerful code completion and analysis tools that are specifically designed for Android development. It provides suggestions and auto-completion for Android APIs, resources, and framework-specific classes. IntelliJ IDEA also offers code completion and analysis features, but they may not be as tailored to Android development as Android Studio's.

  3. Gradle Integration: Android Studio has seamless integration with Gradle, which is the recommended build system for Android projects. It provides a dedicated Gradle view and supports Gradle-based tasks, such as building, running tests, and generating signed APKs. While IntelliJ IDEA also supports Gradle, its integration may not be as seamless and straightforward as Android Studio's.

  4. Emulator and Device Support: Android Studio comes with a built-in Android emulator and provides easy configuration and management of Android Virtual Devices (AVDs). It allows developers to test their applications on virtual devices with different screen sizes, resolutions, and Android versions. While IntelliJ IDEA can also work with Android emulators and physical devices, its support may not be as comprehensive or user-friendly as Android Studio's.

  5. Plugins and Extensions: Android Studio offers a wide range of plugins and extensions specifically designed for Android development. These plugins provide additional tools, libraries, and frameworks that can enhance the development workflow and productivity. However, IntelliJ IDEA has a larger ecosystem of plugins and extensions that cover a wider range of programming languages and frameworks beyond Android development.

  6. Ease of Setup and Configuration: Android Studio is designed to be a comprehensive IDE specifically tailored for Android development, which means it provides a more straightforward setup and configuration process for Android projects. IntelliJ IDEA, being a generic IDE, may require additional configurations and setup to work seamlessly with Android projects.

In summary, Android Studio offers a dedicated IDE with a user interface and features specifically designed for Android development, providing better support for Android-specific tools such as Gradle integration, code completion, and analysis. On the other hand, IntelliJ IDEA is a more generic IDE with a wider range of plugins and extensions, offering support for multiple programming languages and frameworks beyond Android development.

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Advice on Android Studio, IntelliJ IDEA

Jonas
Jonas

Jun 22, 2022

Decided

When I work with Java, I use IntelliJ IDEA. When I want super-b Refactoring and Search/Replace Functionality, I use IntelliJ.

When working on anything else, I've chosen to adopt Visual Studio Code - a IDE that implements many features important and interesting to the developer experience and doesn't make me miss many things from Jetbrains while being so lightweight that I install it everywhere, even when I would've just wanted to install Notepad++.

I install it everywhere, and if it's my machine, I sign into my GitHub Account to sync all Extensions and Settings and unlock all GitHub seamlessness-capabilities.

The browser-only capability is awesome and allows for extremely seamless and fast ad-hoc development from anywhere just by signing in to GitHub.

I only really use the GUI/Side-Bar Tools "Project Manager", "GitLens", "Git Graph" and "Git History". But i do have installed many other Developer Experience changing extensions as well. For the interested, you can take a look at my VS Code Extensions I documented over at my GitHub

[Addendum 2022/08] I recently found out about that VSCode also has Live Share Extension, similiar to the one Jetbrains added in one of the newer versions. Very neat and nicely implemented over SSH too. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/liveshare/


My Jetbrains History:

IntelliJ is an awesome tool. It does everything for you, without even noticing - i.e. automatic Gradle dependency installation or adding Gradle dependencies through GUI.

I really got to use most Shortcuts and enjoyed the Weekly Tips.

I can't emphasize enough how well it's Quick Fixes and Refactoring work.

It allows you to generate all kinds of boilerplate (e.g. Getter/Setter/Constructor, toString, JavaDoc). It has a ByteCode Previewer. It has an awesome Debugger.

Also: During my 4 years in apprentice as an IT-Technician in which I also worked on some Grails (Spring) Projects it also was nice that IntelliJ IDEA ULTIMATE, which I got for free thanks to an all-time available offer for students, had Grails-aware functionality. The primary functionality I'm talking about is the ability to automatically generate a graphical database diagram for by a click on the Domain Class. Experimenting with this I quickly understood all the Relation Database Paradigms and how to implement them with GORM, or how GORM translates to database through IntelliJ's Database Tab Integration.

70.6k views70.6k
Comments
christy
christy

Program Manager

Jul 1, 2020

Needs adviceonPythonPythonEclipseEclipseIntelliJ IDEAIntelliJ IDEA

UPDATE: Thanks for the great response. I am going to start with VSCode based on the open source and free version that will allow me to grow into other languages, but not cost me a license ..yet.

I have been working with software development for 12 years, but I am just beginning my journey to learn to code. I am starting with Python following the suggestion of some of my coworkers. They are split between Eclipse and IntelliJ IDEA for IDEs that they use and PyCharm is new to me. Which IDE would you suggest for a beginner that will allow expansion to Java, JavaScript, and eventually AngularJS and possibly mobile applications?

2.03M views2.03M
Comments
Manabu
Manabu

CEO, Co-Founder at WinguMD

Jun 13, 2020

Decided

I originally chose IntelliJ over Eclipse, as it was close enough to the look and feel of Visual Studio and we do go back and forth between the two. We really begin to love IntelliJ and their suite of IDEs so we are now using AppCode for the IOS development because the workflow is identical with the IntelliJ. IntelliJ is super complex and intimidating at first but it does afford a lot of nice utilities to get us produce clean code.

551k views551k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

Android Studio
Android Studio
IntelliJ IDEA
IntelliJ IDEA

Android Studio is a new Android development environment based on IntelliJ IDEA. It provides new features and improvements over Eclipse ADT and will be the official Android IDE once it's ready.

Out of the box, IntelliJ IDEA provides a comprehensive feature set including tools and integrations with the most important modern technologies and frameworks for enterprise and web development with Java, Scala, Groovy and other languages.

Flexible Gradle-based build system.;Build variants and multiple APK generation.;Expanded template support for Google Services and various device types.;Rich layout editor with support for theme editing.;Lint tools to catch performance, usability, version compatibility, and other problems.;ProGuard and app-signing capabilities.;Built-in support for Google Cloud Platform, making it easy to integrate Google Cloud Messaging and App Engine.
Smart Code Completion;On-the-fly Code Analysis;Advanced Refactorings;Database Tools;UML Designer;Version Control Tools;Build Tools
Statistics
Stacks
25.5K
Stacks
44.0K
Followers
20.3K
Followers
36.9K
Votes
361
Votes
1.5K
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 176
    Android studio is a great tool, getting better and bet
  • 103
    Google's official android ide
  • 37
    Intelligent code editor with lots of auto-completion
  • 25
    Its powerful and robust
  • 5
    Easy creating android app
Cons
  • 4
    Slow emulator
  • 4
    Huge memory usage
  • 2
    Complex for begginers
  • 2
    No checking incompatibilities
  • 2
    Using Intellij IDEA, while Intellij IDEA have too
Pros
  • 301
    Fantastically intelligent
  • 242
    Best-in-class ide
  • 190
    Many languages support
  • 158
    Java
  • 121
    Fast
Cons
  • 20
    Large footprint required to really enjoy (mem/disc)
  • 16
    Very slow
  • 8
    Bad for beginners
  • 7
    UI is not intuitive
  • 5
    Not nearly as many tools to integrate as vs code
Integrations
Android SDK
Android SDK
Java
Java

What are some alternatives to Android Studio, IntelliJ IDEA?

PhpStorm

PhpStorm

PhpStorm is a PHP IDE which keeps up with latest PHP & web languages trends, integrates a variety of modern tools, and brings even more extensibility with support for major PHP frameworks.

Visual Studio

Visual Studio

Visual Studio is a suite of component-based software development tools and other technologies for building powerful, high-performance applications.

WebStorm

WebStorm

WebStorm is a lightweight and intelligent IDE for front-end development and server-side JavaScript.

NetBeans IDE

NetBeans IDE

NetBeans IDE is FREE, open source, and has a worldwide community of users and developers.

PyCharm

PyCharm

PyCharm’s smart code editor provides first-class support for Python, JavaScript, CoffeeScript, TypeScript, CSS, popular template languages and more. Take advantage of language-aware code completion, error detection, and on-the-fly code fixes!

Eclipse

Eclipse

Standard Eclipse package suited for Java and plug-in development plus adding new plugins; already includes Git, Marketplace Client, source code and developer documentation. Click here to file a bug against Eclipse Platform.

RubyMine

RubyMine

JetBrains RubyMine IDE provides a comprehensive Ruby code editor aware of dynamic language specifics and delivers smart coding assistance, intelligent code refactoring and code analysis capabilities.

CLion

CLion

Knowing your code through and through, CLion can take care of the routine while you focus on the important things. Boost your productivity with the keyboard-centric approach (Vim-emulation plugin is also available in plugin repository), full coding assistance, smart and relevant code completion, fast project navigation, intelligent intention actions, and reliable refactorings.

Xcode

Xcode

The Xcode IDE is at the center of the Apple development experience. Tightly integrated with the Cocoa and Cocoa Touch frameworks, Xcode is an incredibly productive environment for building amazing apps for Mac, iPhone, and iPad.

Pharo

Pharo

A pure object-oriented programming language and a powerful environment, focused on simplicity and immediate feedback.

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