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StackBlitz vs WebStorm: What are the differences?

Introduction:

In this Markdown document, we will compare the key differences between StackBlitz and WebStorm, two popular development environments for web development.

Key Differences between StackBlitz and WebStorm:

  1. Intuitive Browser-based Environment: StackBlitz provides a browser-based coding environment that allows developers to write and test their code directly in the browser. On the other hand, WebStorm is a standalone Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that needs to be installed on the developer's machine. This difference allows StackBlitz to be easily accessible from anywhere without the need for installation, making it more convenient for quick prototyping and collaboration.

  2. Features and Functionality: WebStorm offers a wide range of advanced features, such as code refactoring, static analysis, and debugging tools, that can enhance developer productivity. StackBlitz, while not as feature-rich as WebStorm, provides a simplified and streamlined development experience with essential tools like code editing, code completion, and live preview capabilities. This simplicity makes StackBlitz more beginner-friendly and suitable for small projects or learning purposes.

  3. Local Development Environment: WebStorm supports local development by allowing developers to work with their preferred code editors, version control systems, and local development servers. StackBlitz, being browser-based, primarily focuses on cloud-based development and might have limitations when it comes to working with local files, running local servers, or integrating with specific development tools or libraries.

  4. Project Structure and Management: WebStorm provides robust project management features, including support for multiple projects, easy navigation between files, and powerful search capabilities. StackBlitz, on the other hand, is designed to work with a single project at a time and provides a simplified project structure. While this simplicity can be advantageous for small projects, it might be limiting for larger applications that require complex project organization.

  5. Integration with External Tools: WebStorm offers seamless integration with various external tools and plugins, allowing developers to customize their development workflow and leverage third-party tools like build systems, task runners, and linters. StackBlitz, being a cloud-based platform, may have limitations in terms of integrating with external tools and might not provide the same level of flexibility and customization as WebStorm.

  6. Pricing and Licensing: StackBlitz offers a free tier with limited features, but also provides paid plans for more advanced usage or enterprise requirements. WebStorm, being a commercial IDE, requires a paid license for full access to all features. This difference in pricing models makes StackBlitz a more affordable option for individual developers or small teams, while WebStorm might be preferred by larger organizations with specific compliance or support requirements.

In Summary, StackBlitz offers an intuitive browser-based coding environment with essential features, while WebStorm provides a more feature-rich standalone IDE with advanced tools and robust project management capabilities. StackBlitz is suitable for quick prototyping and collaboration, while WebStorm is preferred for professional development projects, especially those involving complex project structures and extensive customization.

Advice on StackBlitz and WebStorm
Johnny Bell

When I switched to Visual Studio Code 12 months ago from PhpStorm I was in love, it was great. However after using VS Code for a year, I see myself switching back and forth between WebStorm and VS Code. The VS Code plugins are great however I notice Prettier, auto importing of components and linking to the definitions often break, and I have to restart VS Code multiple times a week and sometimes a day.

We use Ruby here so I do like that Visual Studio Code highlights that for me out of the box, with WebStorm I'd need to probably also install RubyMine and have 2 IDE's going at the same time.

Should I stick with Visual Studio Code, or switch to something else? #help

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Replies (15)
Erik Ostrom
Recommends
on
RubyMineRubyMine

If you're working with both Ruby and JavaScript, buy RubyMine and shut down the other two. It's much better for Ruby than Visual Studio Code is. It can also do everything WebStorm does, if you install the plugins you need from JetBrains, and they all work together nicely.

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Marc Swikull
Recommends
on
RubyMineRubyMine

If you install RubyMine, you shouldn't need WebStorm, as all the functionality of WebStorm appears to be included in RubyMine. (See here: https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/a/132950).

I've used PhpStorm for several years and have never needed to open (or even download) WebStorm for anything front-end or JavaScript related.

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Russel Werner
Lead Engineer at StackShare · | 6 upvotes · 271.5K views
Recommends
on
WebStormWebStorm
at

I work at the same company as you and I use WebStorm for 99% of my tasks. I also have RubyMine installed and use that when I have to tweak some backend code. I tried using RubyMine for JavaScript but was unhappy with how it felt and I believe that WebStorm is faster because it has less plugins and language extensions running. Summary: Buy and use WebStorm for primary development and keep VS Code around for when you have to touch Ruby.

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Danny Battison
Recommends
on
PhpStormPhpStorm

JetBrains all the way - my entire team uses PhpStorm and none of us would even consider switching.

The availability of IDEs for other languages along with consistency in environment and keyboard shortcuts is also a godsend, which is the reason I'd also choose Rider over Visual Studio (but also VS for Mac is trash, but I digress...)

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Recommends
on
Visual Studio CodeVisual Studio Code

I've never had much issue running multiple IDEs and generally pick them based on the languages they best support. For front end work where I mainly use TypeScript, I stick heavily with Visual Studio Code. However, for backend work which we do primarily in Python, PyCharm is my go-to editor. The one thing that I do however is I do remap keyboard shortcuts so I get consistent keyboard ability even when I switch IDEs.

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Recommends
on
Visual Studio CodeVisual Studio Code

If I have to choose one I would go with VS Code; it’s become pretty mature and keeps getting better. If those plugins are creating problems for you then just uninstall them, find an alternative, or make a PR to fix. But at the end of the day these are IDE’s and they are meant to save you time. I would go with whatever helps you develop code faster. If restarting VS code slows you down then make a switch, that personally would annoying the crap out of me. Else maybe it’s a quick restart, not the end of the word, hopefully someone will fix at some point.

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Recommends
on
Visual Studio CodeVisual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code is a text editor. And this is best option in my opinion. For Ruby, I cannot say how VS Code is good. If you wanna choose IDE, RubyMine should fit your needs. Because IDEs are more compatible with major needs. But text editors are just text editor. You can do same things with also text editors. I recommend to try both VS Code and RubyMine. And you will be able to find which fits better for your needs

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Recommends
on
PhpStormPhpStorm

So here is the deal man, bottom line you want to write code. All of these tools are built in a mouse-driven world, they are designed not for engineers, but office monkeys. If you want a real workflow that gives you ultimate performance, customization and speed you need to use a modal editor, I suggest NeoVim. Start using it 20% of the time on single file edits, watch youtube videos about it and teach yourself vim gestures. It will infuriate you for 6 weeks, make you cry for another 2 months. But as you use it more, as long as your usage goes over 40% of the time, in 6 months you will understand why most of the world's too engineers use it. Settling on lesser editors out of laziness is exactly the attitude that results in shitty the engineering. Yeah it's hard. You're smart. You do hard things. Once it isn't hard anymore you will blow yourself away at how much more efficiently you edit files.

Also vim keybindings in a mouse driven editor does not cut it. Managing files, buffers and workflow is half of the value of vim/neovim. It is OK if you have to use an IDE (currently I only use an IDE for java development, so I have little choice)

So use VSCode while you teach yourself vim.

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Lungu Alexandru-Mihai
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on
VimVim

Well you can try for a while MacVim because it is already configured with tons of plugins. My favourite text editors are Sublime Text and TextMate which are lightweight and speedy. My feeling is that JetBrains IDEs are making you brainless.

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Recommends
on
Visual Studio CodeVisual Studio Code

If you find something that works and are comfortable with it, stay with it. Changing IDE's and learning their idiosyncrasies takes valuable time away from programming while learning setups and keyboard short cuts. I personally use VS Code for cost and decent multiple language support. I've had issues occasionally with it locking up, but it is under heavy development and continually improving. I have also found it more intuitive for new programmers. ** Having profiles for different languages can reduce the amount of plugins running and issues they can cause.

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Recommends
on
PhpStormPhpStorm

I usually have both running but do the bulk of my language work in the appropriate JetBrains flavor. One thing to watch out for in VS is that under the hood it is running the tools needed for whatever language you are working with. This is where tools like JetBrains shine. While I am sure you can tune the heck out of what you use in VS, the provides context and clarity...

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Kyle Schoonover
Senior Software Engineer at Nordstrom · | 2 upvotes · 234K views
Recommends
on
Visual Studio CodeVisual Studio Code

I'm personally a Visual Studio Code fan. I've used it for both Go and Java. It really depends on the quality and support of the plugins. Typically VS Code doesn't crash as much as a bad plugin causes an unforeseen error. Make sure you stay up to date and look at alternative plugins.

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Recommends
at

Visiual Studio is the best

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Recommends

An integrated development environment software with huge potential in the future is VS Code. So I would personally say you can use VS code.

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Recommends
on
Visual Studio CodeVisual Studio Code

Are you using the prettier-vscode VSCode extension or prettier via prettier-eslint? The prettier-vscode extension recommends you...

Use prettier-eslint instead of prettier. Other settings will only be fallbacks in case they could not be inferred from ESLint rules.

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Pros of StackBlitz
Pros of WebStorm
  • 9
    It just works
  • 5
    Fast loading
  • 4
    Can sign-in with third-party account. E.g. Github
  • 2
    Full terminal
  • 187
    Intelligent ide
  • 128
    Smart development environment
  • 108
    Easy js debugging
  • 97
    Code inspection
  • 95
    Support for the Latest Technologies
  • 55
    Created by jetbrains
  • 53
    Cross-platform ide
  • 36
    Integration
  • 30
    Spellchecker
  • 24
    Language Mixing/Injection
  • 11
    Debugger
  • 10
    Local History
  • 8
    Web developer can't live without this
  • 7
    Fast search
  • 7
    Git support
  • 6
    Angular.js support
  • 6
    Sass autocompletion
  • 5
    Better refactoring options
  • 5
    FTP
  • 5
    There is no need to setup plugins (all from the box)
  • 5
    Show color on the border next to hex string in CSS
  • 5
    Smart autocompletion
  • 5
    JSON Schema
  • 5
    Awesome
  • 5
    Built-in js debugger
  • 5
    Running and debugging Node.js apps remotely
  • 4
    Easy to use
  • 4
    A modern IDE stuck in the 90s
  • 4
    TypeScript support
  • 4
    Smart coding assistance for React
  • 4
    Node.js integration
  • 4
    111
  • 4
    Protractor support out of the box
  • 4
    Intelligent
  • 4
    Paid but easy to crack
  • 3
    Dart support
  • 3
    Solid intelligent features
  • 3
    Great app
  • 3
    Integrated terminal
  • 3
    Vagrant and SSH Console
  • 3
    Free for students
  • 3
    Unused imports inspection
  • 3
    Docker intergration
  • 2
    Remote Files Syncronization
  • 2
    Grate debug tools for React Apps
  • 2
    Easier to keep running than eclipse
  • 1
    Auto imports
  • 1
    Vim support
  • 1
    Rename helpers
  • 1
    Auto refactoring helpers
  • 1
    Less autocompletion
  • 1
    GIT partial commits

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Cons of StackBlitz
Cons of WebStorm
  • 1
    Cannot upload Images
  • 1
    Not able to upload Images
  • 1
    Only support projects scaffolded with @angular/cli
  • 4
    Paid
  • 1
    Expensive

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What is StackBlitz?

StackBlitz is the browser-based IDE that eliminates time-consuming local configuration and lets you spend 
more time coding. Develop with Next.js, React, Angular, Vite, and more in a Node.js development environment entirely in your browser

What is WebStorm?

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

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What companies use StackBlitz?
What companies use WebStorm?
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What tools integrate with StackBlitz?
What tools integrate with WebStorm?

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What are some alternatives to StackBlitz and WebStorm?
CodePen
It is a social development environment for front-end designers and developers.. It functions as an online code editor and open-source learning environment, where developers can create code snippets, creatively named "pens", and test them.
CodeSandbox
CodeSandbox allows developers to simply go to a URL in their browser to start building. This not only makes it easier to get started, it also makes it easier to share. You can just share your created work by sharing the URL, others can then (without downloading) further develop on these sandboxes.
Glitch
Combining automated deployment, instant hosting and collaborative editing, Gomix gets you straight to coding. The apps you create are instantly live, hosted by us, and always up to date with your latest changes. Build products, prototype ideas, and hack solutions to problems.
Visual Studio Code
Build and debug modern web and cloud applications. Code is free and available on your favorite platform - Linux, Mac OSX, and Windows.
Git
Git is a free and open source distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency.
See all alternatives