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JetBrains IDEs vs Windsurf comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 25, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

JetBrains IDEs
Ranking in IDE
4th
Average Rating
8.8
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Windsurf
Ranking in IDE
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.4
Number of Reviews
40
Ranking in other categories
AI Code Assistants (1st), AI Software Development (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the IDE category, the mindshare of JetBrains IDEs is 7.0%, down from 7.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Windsurf is 5.6%, down from 9.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
IDE Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Windsurf5.6%
JetBrains IDEs7.0%
Other87.4%
IDE
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2014131 - PeerSpot reviewer
DevSecOps Security Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Long-term coding has benefited from intuitive UI and tools but now needs lighter performance
I am using the code completion feature in IntelliJ, and it helps me with my development processes. I use advanced debugging tools. The advanced debugging tools are useful for resolving code issues. The integration with version controls is seamless. GitHub is what I use. For my professional role, I need to use GitHub Enterprise, and the way it is set up in my enterprise, it does not allow linking it with IntelliJ. That is where I am stuck using the CLI. GitHub itself has a very robust CLI, so I have no complaints there. For personal use, GitHub integrates really well with IntelliJ. The UI is pretty good and very intuitive. I actually use the new UI which IntelliJ provides, and that is very intuitive and good.
DHARMA-TEJA - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Enginner at Sera AI
Feature workflows have become faster and context-aware development is now system-focused
Windsurf has become less of a tool and more of a core part of how I build. I do not think in terms of writing code line by line anymore; I think in terms of features, flows, and systems, and Windsurf helped me translate that into actual implementation across the codebase. It fits especially well when I am doing rapid prototyping, exploring new ideas or architectures, or iterating on existing features quickly. At the same time, one thing I have noticed in my workflow is around model switching. When I switch between models, the GPT generating agent models sometimes the deeper context regarding decision reasoning or intermediate steps does not fully carry over, so I end up re-establishing context manually every time. It is so much painfully manual; that is not a blocker, but since I work on fairly complex multi-step systems, having strong cross-model memory consistency would make it even more powerful. One thing I would really appreciate is stronger cross-model memory and context continuity. Right now, when I switch between models, the surface-level context is there, but the deeper reasoning regarding why certain decisions were made or how a flow evolved does not always carry over fully. Since I work on complex and multi-step agents, I end up re-establishing the context manually. If Windsurf could maintain a kind of shared memory layer across models where intent, decisions, and intermediate steps persist, it would make the whole experience much more seamless. Improving the memory continuity and control would take it from powerful to extremely reliable at scale. Overall, Windsurf is already a strong tool, but there are a few areas where improvements would make a big difference, especially for advanced workflows. The first is cross-model memory and context continuity. The second is better control over agent execution. Right now, when switching between models—for instance, if I am using a tier of models and then I reach a limit, and then I need to switch to a lesser limit model—the high-level context is there, but deeper reasoning is lost. A shared memory layer across models would make the experience much more seamless. Furthermore, while Cascade is powerful, for larger changes, it would help to have more visibility or control, such as previewing the execution plan and guiding steps before it runs. The UI and documentation provided are pretty good, though I think there is room for true visibility and feedback during agent execution. While the amount of time put into the design and documentation is great, figuring out things with the documentation can often be done without any third-party help. Some advanced use cases are not fully explored in the documentation, but the best practices for using agents effectively are very clear, such as how to structure prompts for multi-file changes and how to guide Cascade for better outputs. Real-world advanced examples are already implemented in there; that could be very helpful for us. The main advice I would give to others looking into using Windsurf is to not use it as a traditional code assistant. Windsurf really shines when you treat it as a feature-level or system-level tool, not just something for autocomplete or small snippets. So instead of thinking "write this function," think more toward "build this flow." Learn how to guide it properly. That is the main thing I would advise: learn how to guide it properly, how to prompt it properly, and start with real use cases, not toy examples.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Good support for refactoring."
"The best features offered by JetBrains IDEs include a super attractive set of language-specific tools including debuggers, symbol monitors, and the extensions that come with it, which helps me get a much more in-depth view of my code rather than relying on print or log statements."
"The UI is pretty good and very intuitive."
"It seems to me as one of the best IDEs in the market, they are always releasing new versions with positive improvements, and in my opinion, I recommend it in its entirety."
"Having the complete development environment in Linux in the same way as in Windows is already the best."
"From the very beginning to the deepest thing I could possibly want to develop, I believe I could do it all using JetBrains IDEs."
"Fast, and I never had a crash."
"Windsurf has significantly improved our software development, making it much faster and without errors."
"I have seen a return on investment with Windsurf because I have saved time and money and needed fewer resources since using it."
"At Ser AI, the biggest positive impact of Windsurf has been on speed of execution and iteration, as features that would normally take a couple of days to wire up end to end can now be done much faster because a lot of the repetitive glue work is handled, enabling more experimentation in less time and better focus on product and logic instead of boilerplate work."
"As I mentioned previously, I recently completed a project task module with Windsurf which was planned to be completed within two weeks with three developers, however, I was able to complete it within a single week and I was the only person who worked on it."
"Windsurf has positively impacted my organization in that writing code is very fast and easy."
"Earlier we were handling two projects, but now we can handle 14 projects."
"I think Windsurf is the one that offers the most consistent experience."
"Windsurf has absolutely impacted my day-to-day work by making things faster, mainly through autocomplete."
 

Cons

"I see as a disadvantage the high prices of the license purchase that is almost $ 500 per year since this limits the use of IDE and especially for those developers who work on their own since it requires a large investment."
"One of the most important things to improve is the consumption of resources, mainly memory."
"One of the main issues with JetBrains IDEs is that it is very heavy, taking a lot of time to load and using a lot of memory."
"I have noticed that when I switch to less powerful machines, IntelliJ seems to use up the RAM and the machine gets really slow and really hot quite quickly, which is not the case with Visual Studio."
"Sometimes, plugins (from third parties) are not updated."
"One thing I think could be improved in JetBrains IDEs is the integration with ChatGPT, which I feel could be deeper."
"Windsurf is stable approximately 95% of the time, but there are occasional latency issues that occur."
"Since using Windsurf, I notice more errors, but we deliver approximately twice as fast."
"Windsurf can be improved by integrating newer features and the latest features that tools like Claude Code provide, since I think the core team has been absorbed into Google and many people have been switching over to other IDEs."
"The main improvements I would suggest for Windsurf are stronger context handling for bigger projects and a bit more control over the code it generates."
"Windsurf's stability is a good question. I do not know if it is due to my computer configuration or Windsurf itself, but Windsurf CASCADE agent pane on the right side does not open most of the time."
"Windsurf can improve its analytical solutions and inbuilt features, as I currently have a dependency on external third-party tools that could be introduced into Windsurf itself to reduce that time or dependency."
"From an accuracy perspective, Windsurf sometimes hallucinates and deviates from the expected results."
"I would like to add that Windsurf is very good and fits well into my workflow, but I would prefer if the cascade agent of Windsurf could be a little better."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Insurance Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise3
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business21
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise18
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for JetBrains IDEs?
I have no issues at all with pricing, setup cost, and licensing.
What needs improvement with JetBrains IDEs?
JetBrains IDEs could be improved with even better integration of AI tools. I would also like it to make it easier to detect new features.
What is your primary use case for JetBrains IDEs?
My main use case for JetBrains IDEs is Java development and technical writing. I have a lot of ongoing open-source projects. I also do a lot of technical writingAzul, which is done in AsciiDoc or i...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Windsurf?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that we primarily used a testing license for the whole enterprise. I did not participate in working with pricing and setup costs; it was han...
What needs improvement with Windsurf?
Regarding improvements for Windsurf, I think it would be good if we had an integration with the cloud, a sort of cloud that way we can have autonomous agents that can handle tasks without human int...
What is your primary use case for Windsurf?
On a day-to-day basis, I use Windsurf's agentic mode, the cascade, to develop features in different projects that I work on. Most of my feature development starts with working with Windsurf's casca...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Citi, Siemens, Salesforce, Twitter, HP, New York Times, Pintrest, Airbnb, Expedia, Samsung, Volkswagen, Wikipedia, NASA
Dell, Anduril, MongoDB, Zillow, Atlassian
Find out what your peers are saying about JetBrains IDEs vs. Windsurf and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.