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Itai Katz
Itai Katz

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VS Code vs. WebStorm: A Comparison

Everyone has a clear IDE preference and lately I've been using both VS Code and WebStorm. Here's why:

VS Code

  • Free & open-source

  • It's customizable, multi-language, fast & lightweight

  • VS Code combines modern editing & debugging with code assistance and navigation

Webstorm

  • Highly comprehensive and intelligent

  • Makes running, debugging, and unit testing of Node.js apps easy

  • Great code refactoring & auto importing

Considerations

  • WebStorm gives you the majority of the features you'll need whereas with VS Code, you'll end up installing some extensions manually

  • WebStorm has amazing Git merge tools that provide for great visualizations of the Git diff changes, making merging complex changes a whole lot easier

  • WebStorm tracks all file changes out of the box & enables the inspection of file histories, directories & rollbacks

  • VS Code is lightweight, making it ideal for remote development & fast prototyping

Tl;dr VS Code is open-source, fast & lightweight and WebStorm maximizes code inspection and refactoring.

What's your IDE of choice?

Top comments (7)

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spotnick profile image
spotnick

Working close with Azure und Microsoft Tech in general I find that VSCode provides a better integration to Microsofts ecosystem than any other IDE. I tried Webstorm a few times but I never got really warm with it. But as always its mostly personal preferences :-)

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manuartero profile image
Manuel Artero Anguita 🟨 • Edited

I've been using VSCode since its beta version. I decided to master it above other IDEs (like WebStorm) cause 2 reasons:

  1. I love simplicity. I don't like having extra buttons (export test results to .pdf was a thing!) I prefer the vscode philosophy: "if you need something, call for it using the command palette or install the plugin" over the contrary: "you have all the options available, choose yours" which leads to endless sub-menus.

  2. I love customization. the direct approach from VSCode (a bunch of json files) is more transparent than in-app panels.

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olierxleben profile image
Oliver Erxleben

While language servers are quite good nowadays I prefer IntelliJ IDE features. I like the UI a bit more than VS Code (it looks alien on OS other than Windows). Most the tools I use are bundled within Webstorm and I almost don't need any extra stuff.

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siy profile image
Sergiy Yevtushenko

VS Code "fast & lightweight" only when it is started first time, without any plugins. Being equipped with plugins to reach comparable to WebStorm functionality, it does not make such an impression anymore.

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navotgil profile image
Gilad Navot

Did anyone buy Webstorm privately?
I can understand if you get it from your company but it seems unlikely anyone would actually be paying his own money for it

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jonrandy profile image
Jon Randy πŸŽ–οΈ

SublimeText - been using it since version 2. VSCode just seems to be a slower, more memory hungry copy of it

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curiousdev profile image
CuriousDev

I also like VS Code, but would give Webstorm a try. The git integration of VS Code could be better or what do you think?