Both Netbeans and Eclipse are mature IDE’s. Both started off as a editors for java and have come a long way and can no longer be considered as java code editors. In this article I shall compare both the IDE’s based on usability, features and performance.

Trends

Firstly I started off by checking the popularity of both the IDEs on Google Trends. It was not surprising that Eclipse was way more popular than Netbeans.

Eclipse IDE trend:

Netbeans IDE trend

:

But the trends also displayed an interesting movement. The popularity of Eclipse seemed to be gradually going down while the there was a sudden increase in popularity of Netbeans at around the end of 2007. So I decided to compare both the IDE trends in one graph. This is what I found.

Somewhere around the last quarter of 2007 Netbeans gained more popularity than Eclipse. Another interesting thing was that Netbeans seemed to be very popular in China.

Features

While I could easily find the features list of Netbeans, It was little hard to find a feature list for eclipse.

Netbeans:

Easy-To-Use Java GUI Builder :- Netbeans comes with a professional and easy to use GUI builder. I guess there is no GUI builder that can match the ease of use and power of Netbeans GUI builder.

Visual Web and Java EE Development :- NetBeans IDE also provides tools for building all Java EE components, including Enterprise Java Beans (EJBs), web pages, servlets, and web services. It comes with built in editor for JSP’s and Java script with code completion feature. Developing web applications with Netbeans is simply a breeze.

Visual UML Modeling: - Netbeans also provides a powerful platform for UML Modeling. Designers and analysts design applications using the UML modeling language, and then developers generate Java code from the UML model. You can also update the model from changes made in the source code (Forward and Reverse Engineering).

Visual Mobile Development :- If you are looking for a editor for developing mobile applications then Netbeans is the best IDE for you, It comes with very powerful built in editor and tools for J2ME application development. Recently Netbeans also added Mobile Game Builder which makes mobile game development easy as never before.

Ruby and Rails Support :- Netbeans even supports Ruby and Rails. The editor indents, completes, and highlights your Ruby code syntactically as well as semantically. It parses your code live as you type, so it can match words and brackets, mark errors and occurrences, and display new quick fixes.

C and C++ Development: - Netbeans also provides full fledged support for developing C/C++ projects. The C/C++ editor supports syntax highlighting, automatic code completion, automatic indentation and formatting (including a choice of formatting styles), bracket matching, code folding, templates. NetBeans IDE can find classes, variables, functions, #include directives, derived classes, and more. It also supports debugging C/C++ projects.

Profiler: - Netbeans comes with a built-in profiler and you can do several common profiling tasks, such as standard CPU or memory profiling, or simple monitoring. It provides almost all features that commercial profilers provide like Heap Walker, Profiling Points, CPU profiling, thread monitoring/debugging and remote profiling.

Reporting: - Reporting is a feature that does not come built-in with the Netbeans IDE. However, you can Integrate Jasper Reports easily into Netbeans IDE. Jasper is a Powerful Reporting Platform.

Eclipse:

Eclipse comes only with built-in support for Java projects, Several free and commercial plugins are available that can provide the above mentioned features that come as a built-in feature in Netbeans.

GUI Editor: A big drawback of eclipse is that it does not come with a built in GUI Editor. There are some free plug-ins(Jigloo and Visual Editor Project) available that can add GUI editing functionality to Eclipse, they are no match for the GUI editor of Netbeans.

J2EE Projects: Another big or perhaps bigger drawback with Netbeans is that it does not come with built-in support for J2EE projects. Luckly, there are some third party plugins available that provide functionality similar to the built in J2EE support of Netbeans. Some major plug-ins include: Lomboz and MyEclipse. Lomboz is free and opensource while MyEclipse is commercial.

UML Editing: Eclipse does not come with a built in UML editor, this may be because IBM has its rational family of products for that purpose. UML Editing support can be added to eclipse with third party plug-ins. Most of the good ones are commercial and very expensive. If you are looking for a free UML editor, you must go for Netbeans. Below is a list of some good UML editor plug-ins for Eclipse:

1) Model Development Tools (MDT) (free)

2) Omondo (commercial)

3) visual-paradigm eclipse UML plugin(commercial)

Mobile Development: Again, None of the Eclipse plugins can match the mobility support provided by Netbeans. Netbeans is simply the best editor for developing mobile applications. However, if you really want to use eclipse, then you can install the eclipseme plugin for developing mobile applications/games in eclipse.

Ruby: Some nice plug-ins are available for eclipse which provide support for developing Ruby and Rails projects in Eclipse.

1) RadRails

2) Rubyeclipse

RadEclpise is my choice because it provides more functionality than Netbeans.

C and C++:- Eclipse C/C++ Development Tooling – CDT is a very powerful plug-in that adds C/C++ project capabilities to Eclipse. It also provides support for importing Microsoft Visual C++ projects.

Profiling:- Another big drawback with Eclipse is the absence of profiling. Though there are some plug-ins like Eclipse TPTP and “Eclipse Profiler Plugin”, you may have to use very expensive tools like Optimize IT if you want the same profiling features like Netbeans. There is a decent plug-in named

Reporting:- You can use Birt reports thought it is not as powerful as jasper reports.

Features wise Netbeans is a clear winner, but there is something that makes people go for Eclipse. I guess it is performance and usability. Performance wise Eclipse seems to be a bit faster than Netbeans and usability wise it is far ahead of Netbeans. At the same time, if you need support Netbeans mailing list are always there for you, there is no question or problem that is left un answered- Hats off SUN!!!.

Also, many developers are very much used to Eclipse and feel uncomfortable switching to Eclipse. One main reason for that is that the short cut keys in Netbeans is completely different from Eclipse and manually reconfiguring them is a pain. I guess Sun can make Netbeans even more popular by providing a Eclipse compatible Shortcut keys option.

Conclusion

I guess that the IDE you choose should depend on your needs.

Core Java Developer: IF you are a core java developer and are looking for a IDE, the your should go for Netbeans for is fantastic support and profiler. If you are already using Eclipse and are comfortable, I guess it is better to stay with Eclipse for its usability and speed. Also getting adjusted to Netbeans shortcuts takes time.

Swing Applications Developer: You can blindly select Netbeans if you rely if GUI Editing tools. If you prefer manually coding GUI’s then you can go for Eclipse.

Web Application Developer: In this area Netbeans already provides features that Lomboz adds to eclipse. So I guess, Netbeans is a better Choice.

UML Development: Clearly Netbeans is the winner.

Mobile Applications Development: No IDE can beat Netbeans in this area.

Ruby and Rails Development: RadEclipse is the best; it’s free and provides more features than Netbeans. The usability of Eclipse adds a plus.

C/C++: Developing C/C++ applications on an IDE written in java seems to be pretty weird, but both Netbeans and “Eclipse C/C++ Development Tooling” provide good C/C++ project development functionality, I could’nt make a choice here.

Overall, I guess Netbeans has a better future than Eclipse.

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Joe   |192.9.112.xxx |2008-06-11 04:17:22 There already is an Eclipse shortcut profile in NetBeans.

brisssou   |213.30.139.xxx |2008-06-11 06:05:53 About Eclipse and J2EE, I guess you forgot to talk about WTP.

Wade Chandler  - NetBeans Eclipse key mappings/short cut mappings.     |67.187.101.xxx |2008-06-11 06:29:45 NetBeans has an Eclipse keymap. Not sure if you new that, so posting it. See: Tools|Options|Keymap and select the Eclipse profile from the drop down. Wade

Wade Chandler  - NetBeans and Eclipse usability and performance     |67.187.101.xxx |2008-06-11 06:43:19 You mentioned NetBeans usability not being as good as Eclipse's. Could you further detail that? I'm personally curious because years ago this is the exact reason I stuck with NB because I found it more usable from a usability perspective. I have used Eclipse over the years to try and keep a perspective, but only from a trying it out point of view, and to me I always draw the same conclusions. Maybe I've just been a long time NB users for so long that it's hard to break old habits :-D. Then on performance. I have seen people write this, even on the NB mailing lists. Yet, on every system I try, except those where they need more RAM or have a graphics driver issue, as NB uses Swing which uses DirectDraw on Windows, the performance matchup has been pretty much hand in hand. Especially now that the new editor changes in 6.1 have made code completion much faster in long method bodies code where completion comes up just as fast...

tony petruzzi     |72.158.234.xxx |2008-06-11 06:43:35 i would only switch to netbeans if mark drew announced that he was porting cfeclipse over to it.

Wade Chandler  - NetBeans and Eclipse usability and performance - p     |67.187.101.xxx |2008-06-11 06:49:58 It cut off my post... ... in NB now as in Eclipse. For other areas I have tested with regard to code completion the NB completion was just as fast as Eclipse. Now, that isn't in the JSP editor, but the Java editor. I haven't made comparisons there. My slowest system is an older Gateway, by today's standards, with an Intel processor stepping at 1.83Ghz, 1GB RAM, and a 4200RPM IDE disk. I have worked on many different projects ranging EE, SE, and SuperWaba using NB with that system. Anyways, just very curious for more elaboration on those comments, and maybe they can be addressed. Thanks, Wade

Donal  - Eclipse GUI builder   |207.107.181.xxx |2008-06-11 12:19:38 Actually there's a really nice Swing GUI builder available for Eclipse. It's called Jigloo.

Anonymous   |66.161.5.xxx |2008-06-11 13:38:26 i favor eclipse, but only because i can't find a font/size/style combination i like in netbeans...i think eclipse factors in the windows font scaling settings, netbeans does not...trebuchet ms bold 9 looks different between eclipse and netbeans on my machine.

me  - Netbeans is the king of ruby development.   |61.148.56.xxx |2008-06-24 02:26:47 As to Ruby and Rails Development, NetBeans is too much better than eclipse. The author apparently is not famillar with ruby development. Search Ruby netbeans on google, you'll what's happening in the real world.

Mohd  - developer   |81.10.84.xxx |2008-07-02 05:11:17 J2EE Projects: Another big or perhaps bigger drawback with Netbeans is that it does not come with built-in support for J2EE projects. Luckly, there are some third party plugins available that provide functionality similar to the built in J2EE support of Netbeans. Some major plug-ins include: Lomboz and MyEclipse. Lomboz is free and opensource while MyEclipse is commercial. --- did you mean Eclipse instead of Netbeans

Vins  - NetBeans   |151.53.226.xxx |2008-12-18 05:34:56 I use NetBeans and Eclipse and i think that the IDE of NetBeans is better then the Eclipse one, for some little differences: the indentation in NetBeans is automatic, and the code completion is more intuitive. Bye Vincenzo

Sushant  - Netbeans is Better     |59.161.83.xxx |2009-02-16 11:02:57 I started my java learning with Eclipse, then soon after came to know about Netbeans. Once i started with Netbeans, i had no reason to switch back to eclipse. Its amazing. Except only few drawbacks(its little slow on low ram), its uncomparable. Its platform and intutive editor is , i think the best tutorial in itself. within 2 years, i am a well mature developer. thats all beacuse of Netbeans. Long live NB 6

bdg  - Netbeans simply works   |139.80.112.xxx |2009-02-24 19:58:01 I started working with Eclipse too because that is what I was taught with at university. We used Jigloo for GUI development where the best layout available was gridbag. What a pain, I spent more time on layout than coding >:[ Then there where the times I spent trying to find and download Eclipse. After searching through much of their site and trying multiple downloads I was lucky if I finally found a IDE. In Netbeans GUI development is intuitive like you would expect from VB or Delphi so I can focus on code, not layout. The routine code is nicely hidden from view which keeps code much more readable. Any loss of time from re-compile performance is more than made up for by time saved with intuitive tools, and I can find and download the IDE with just two clicks! I wish I was taught with Netbeans from the start, I could have saved so much time.

Edward  - .NET Developer   |124.13.206.xxx |2009-03-25 21:25:21 I am starting to learn Java, using notepad. I think based on the very good comments, i have to choose NetBeans for a good start. Thanks.

Ady  - NetBeans rules   |87.116.145.xxx |2009-03-28 11:17:07 I also started with Eclipse when I was learning Java. But, since I used Delphi before I started to learn Java, I liked the idea to visualy create a form, and then write a code for events. I only started in Eclipse because lot of people used it. But, I was so devastating when I found out that I have to code my form's look manualy. I even thought what the hell is this? Is Java worst then Delphi? But then I found NetBeans. And my Java learning started to really make some sense, and now I like to code in Java, because NetBeans visual designer saved me from my pain in the ass. I mean, why to spend a lot of time creating your form, when you can do it easily, and fast and you can always check and change the look of your form with just one click. With NetBeans, your main concern is what do you want your form to do. With Eclipse, you have to think about 2 things: How your form looks like, and how do you want it to act. Great a...

Ady  - NetBeans rules (2)   |87.116.145.xxx |2009-03-28 11:19:00 (Part 2) Great article, I really like it! And NetBeans Java gui designer is actually the same as VS C# gui designer. But, who cares? It works and is much better than Jigloo for Eclipse. And the best thing is: It's part of the software, so no need to download some special add-on to visualy build guis. Ewerything is there in one software! That's what NetBeans is. Cheers, Ady

Raghav   |59.178.160.xxx |2009-04-05 12:44:09 I've used NB for GUI building using swing. Now I have some C/C++ programming to do - mostly basic things. Which IDE do you all suggest? Thanks

silf  - netbeans   |89.212.252.xxx |2009-04-14 13:20:54 Performance wise netbeans on windows does not even come close to eclipse. So many lockups on netbeans (gui, debugger, wizards and autocomplete just randomly freezes even on 6.5, sometimes even simple open file is a problem for N. Not to mention bugs with autogenerated classes (jaxb, jaxws), mostly fixed in 6.5. But feature wise netbeans and it's support for j2ee beats eclipse hands down.

Lyn Scott  - x     |200.109.251.xxx |2009-04-19 08:04:16 Eclipse have more people but Netbeans is better IDE, it seems that Eclipse has the Microsoft charm! (ex: Windows vs Linux),.. with a product of less quality they have more people using it! amazing!!

Netbeans  - x   |158.169.9.xxx |2009-04-28 08:55:05 On the contrary, I think that Netbeans has the Linux charm - a few people that are using it not because they are smarter, but because they are just nerds and want to behave geekish.

vimert   |78.69.180.xxx |2009-05-18 16:30:30 VIM is all I need

Sandro   |213.180.164.xxx |2009-06-15 15:05:49 Netbeans (especially the graphical editor) is for people who don't know what they do or for people learning how to program. And eclipse is for people know how to programm. NetBeans is too restricted in many ways...

Tuhin Kumar Das  - Netbeans Vs Eclipse     |116.72.243.xxx |2009-07-03 11:31:08 I have been using Eclipse more than 4 years. I started using Netbeans 2 weeks ago. I found Netbeans to be far better than Eclipse and I will stick to it.

Stefan Pop  - Netbeans & Eclipse questions   |89.217.18.xxx |2009-07-05 13:03:35 Hello everybody, I have some questions. I am not (yet) a Java developer. At which level can several developers collaborate toghether in a moderate project if one is working in Eclipse and the other in Netbeans? It is possibly and efficient? Could they work , for example, with the same classes? Thank You

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