Java IDEs & Tools

This section documents the current Java release line, with Java 25 LTS as the reference point (no specific patch version is pinned), as published at the Java developer portal, the Java Tutorials, and the Java SE API specification — which are the references these pages are written and verified against.

This content was generated with the assistance of AI and should be verified against the official documentation before being relied on in production.

This section’s bibliography lists the reference material consulted while preparing these pages.

This page lists the IDEs and editors most commonly used to write Java, with a link to each product’s official page. A full IDE gives you incremental compilation, a debugger and refactoring out of the box, while an editor with extensions is lighter and suits small projects and quick edits.

IDEs

  • IntelliJ IDEA — JetBrains' IDE for Java and other JVM languages, with deep code analysis, refactoring and built-in Maven and Gradle support.

  • Eclipse IDE — the open source, plugin-based IDE with its own incremental Java compiler.

  • Apache NetBeans — the Apache Software Foundation’s open source IDE, with first-class Maven and Gradle support.

  • BlueJ — a lightweight IDE designed for teaching and learning object-oriented Java.

Editors with extensions

  • VS Code Extension Pack for Java — turns Visual Studio Code into a Java environment with language support, debugging, testing and project management.

See also