StackShareStackShare
Follow on
StackShare

Discover and share technology stacks from companies around the world.

Follow on

© 2025 StackShare. All rights reserved.

Product

  • Stacks
  • Tools
  • Feed

Company

  • About
  • Contact

Legal

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service
  1. Stackups
  2. DevOps
  3. Build Automation
  4. IDE
  5. IntelliJ IDEA vs Nightwatchjs

IntelliJ IDEA vs Nightwatchjs

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

IntelliJ IDEA
IntelliJ IDEA
Stacks44.0K
Followers36.9K
Votes1.5K
Nightwatchjs
Nightwatchjs
Stacks214
Followers323
Votes11
GitHub Stars11.9K
Forks1.4K

IntelliJ IDEA vs Nightwatchjs: What are the differences?

IntelliJ IDEA and Nightwatchjs are both popular tools used for software development and testing. However, they have key differences that make them suitable for different purposes.

  1. IDE vs Testing Framework: IntelliJ IDEA is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that provides a comprehensive set of tools for software development, including code editing, debugging, and version control integration. On the other hand, Nightwatchjs is a testing framework specifically designed for writing automated tests for web applications.

  2. Language Support: IntelliJ IDEA supports a wide range of programming languages, including Java, Kotlin, and JavaScript, making it a versatile tool for developers working with different technologies. Nightwatchjs, on the other hand, is primarily focused on JavaScript and is used for writing end-to-end tests for web applications.

  3. User Interface: IntelliJ IDEA has a highly customizable and feature-rich user interface that is optimized for coding productivity. It provides advanced features like code completion, refactoring tools, and project management capabilities. Nightwatchjs, on the other hand, is more focused on providing a simple and easy-to-use testing framework with built-in commands for common test automation tasks.

  4. Debugging Capabilities: IntelliJ IDEA offers advanced debugging capabilities, allowing developers to set breakpoints, inspect variables, and step through their code to identify and fix issues. Nightwatchjs also provides some debugging features like logging and executing individual test scripts, but it is not as robust as the debugging tools available in IntelliJ IDEA.

  5. Community Support: IntelliJ IDEA has a large and active community of developers who contribute plugins, tutorials, and support resources to help users maximize the potential of the IDE. Nightwatchjs also has a supportive community, but it may not be as extensive as the community surrounding IntelliJ IDEA due to its more specific focus on automated testing.

In Summary, IntelliJ IDEA is an IDE suited for software development with versatile language support and advanced debugging capabilities, while Nightwatchjs is a testing framework specialized in writing automated tests for web applications with a simpler user interface.

Share your Stack

Help developers discover the tools you use. Get visibility for your team's tech choices and contribute to the community's knowledge.

View Docs
CLI (Node.js)
or
Manual

Advice on IntelliJ IDEA, Nightwatchjs

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
Simon
Simon

Software Engineer at Picnic Technologies

Aug 21, 2020

Review

Notepad++ is insanely simplistic. It doesn't help much with the coding, as it doesn't have stuff like auto-completion. Atom is a great editor for pretty much any language. It has a plugin ide-java to support Java programming. When starting with Java, I would recommend it. But, when becoming even a bit better in the language, I would suggest a more mature IDE like IntelliJ or Eclipse. The refactoring and code manipulation tools make it a lot quicker to program. Only when getting started it might be a bit too much to both learn a language AND learn an IDE. So Atom might be better to get started.

348 views348
Comments

Detailed Comparison

IntelliJ IDEA
IntelliJ IDEA
Nightwatchjs
Nightwatchjs

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.

Nightwatch.js is an easy to use Node.js based End-to-End (E2E) testing solution for browser based apps and websites. It uses the powerful Selenium WebDriver API to perform commands and assertions on DOM elements.

Smart Code Completion;On-the-fly Code Analysis;Advanced Refactorings;Database Tools;UML Designer;Version Control Tools;Build Tools
e2e; test; javascript; nodejs
Statistics
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Stars
11.9K
GitHub Forks
-
GitHub Forks
1.4K
Stacks
44.0K
Stacks
214
Followers
36.9K
Followers
323
Votes
1.5K
Votes
11
Pros & Cons
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
Pros
  • 3
    Open source
  • 2
    Automates browsers
  • 2
    Testing
  • 1
    Cross-Browser Testing
  • 1
    Parallel Test Running
Cons
  • 2
    No automatic wait
  • 1
    Configuration complexity
  • 1
    Less flexibility
  • 1
    Limited native mobile app support
  • 1
    Limited browser support
Integrations
Java
Java
Node.js
Node.js
Selenium
Selenium

What are some alternatives to IntelliJ IDEA, Nightwatchjs?

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.

BrowserStack

BrowserStack

BrowserStack is the leading test platform built for developers & QAs to expand test coverage, scale & optimize testing with cross-browser, real device cloud, accessibility, visual testing, test management, and test observability.

Selenium

Selenium

Selenium automates browsers. That's it! What you do with that power is entirely up to you. Primarily, it is for automating web applications for testing purposes, but is certainly not limited to just that. Boring web-based administration tasks can (and should!) also be automated as well.

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!

Sauce Labs

Sauce Labs

Cloud-based automated testing platform enables developers and QEs to perform functional, JavaScript unit, and manual tests with Selenium or Appium on web and mobile apps. Videos and screenshots for easy debugging. Secure and CI-ready.

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.

Android Studio

Android Studio

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.

Related Comparisons

GitHub
Bitbucket

Bitbucket vs GitHub vs GitLab

GitHub
Bitbucket

AWS CodeCommit vs Bitbucket vs GitHub

Kubernetes
Rancher

Docker Swarm vs Kubernetes vs Rancher

gulp
Grunt

Grunt vs Webpack vs gulp

Graphite
Kibana

Grafana vs Graphite vs Kibana