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PyCharm pros and cons

Vendor: JetBrains

4.3 out of 5

15 reviews
100% willing to recommend

Pros & Cons summary

PyCharm offers AI-powered code completion, customizable syntax highlighting, and direct GitHub integration. Its hints and debugging tools enhance coding speed and accuracy. A built-in debugger and smart code analysis make it a complete IDE. However, it's memory-intensive with complex customization, less intuitive Notebooks, unsupported OpenCV features, and less comprehensive refactoring compared to IntelliJ. Despite these, PyCharm remains a robust tool for developers.

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

The best feature of PyCharm is that it gives hints whenever issues are detected while coding, helping to code faster and with fewer errors.

The recent AI-powered code completion and syntax highlighting are customizable and enhance the development experience.

PyCharm provides easy integration with GitHub, allowing changes to be pushed directly, and offers plugins like GitHub Copilot for auto code completion and assistance.

The debugging tools are effective, showing errors and problem lines, making it easier to fix issues during development.

PyCharm includes a smart code analysis capability, a built-in debugger, and automated package installation, making it a fully integrated IDE.

CONS

PyCharm has challenges with memory efficiency, leading to heavy resource usage and slow operation.

Notebooks in PyCharm lack intuitive design compared to other tools.

Some OpenCV features are unsupported in PyCharm despite being part of its package.

Customization in PyCharm can be complex and challenging for users.

The refactor capabilities in PyCharm are less comprehensive than those in IntelliJ.

PyCharm Pros review quotes

reviewer1698624

Senior Data Scientist at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

Oct 21, 2021

The solution has a great debugging feature.

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Technical lead at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

Apr 5, 2022

It is an excellent, fully integrated IDE with smart code analysis capability and a built-in debugger. It is a fantastic tool.

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Srujan Panuganti

Scientist - Instrument II at AbbVie

Nov 16, 2022

The solution has a nice environment and extensions that make it easy to develop software.

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RM

Senior Project Manager at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Jan 20, 2023

The best feature of PyCharm is that it gives you hints whenever it detects any issues while you are coding. This is important because it helps us code faster and without any errors.

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reviewer1781622

Lab Head at a computer software company with 11-50 employees

Oct 20, 2023

The product's IDE feature is quite user-friendly.

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Technical lead at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

Jan 31, 2024

The recent AI-powered code completion is pretty cool.

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YR

Yehuda Rothstein

Developer at ExcaliburFRC

Feb 7, 2024

Good syntax highlighting and very it's very customizable.

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Lead Developer at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

Mar 28, 2024

The integrated code structure makes coding more organized and manageable compared to using Python alone.

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Shravan Revanna

Vice President at E-Cell Ramaiah

Jul 17, 2024

We have integrated the tool with GitHub. PyCharm provides easy integration with GitHub, allowing us to push changes directly. Many plugins are available on PyCharm for GitHub integration, including GitHub Copilot for auto code completion and GitHub Copilot Chat for assistance with code-related queries.

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Network and Programming Specialist at Twentytwo Integration

Aug 19, 2024

The automated package installation is helpful. I like the code highlighting features. A huge library of plugins is available, including AI coding tools, though I don't use those myself. The debugging tools are good, showing errors and problem lines.

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PyCharm Cons review quotes

reviewer1698624

Senior Data Scientist at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

Oct 21, 2021

Notebooks in PyCharm is not as intuitive as it could be.

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Technical lead at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

Apr 5, 2022

There should be support for the RUST plugin in the Community edition for debugging.

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Srujan Panuganti

Scientist - Instrument II at AbbVie

Nov 16, 2022

The solution does not support some features of OpenCV even though it is part of a PyCharm package.

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Free Report: PyCharm Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about PyCharm. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2026.

884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.

RM

Senior Project Manager at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Jan 20, 2023

PyCharm's use of system resources can get pretty heavy. Loading, in particular, takes longer than I would like and I think they should optimize it so that it's a bit lighter on the system.

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reviewer1781622

Lab Head at a computer software company with 11-50 employees

Oct 20, 2023

They should improve the product's interactiveness.

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Technical lead at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

Jan 31, 2024

There is room for improvement in memory usage. It uses too much memory. It can get a bit heavy, especially when you have too many open files and the system becomes very slow.

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YR

Yehuda Rothstein

Developer at ExcaliburFRC

Feb 7, 2024

The navigation can be better.

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Lead Developer at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

Mar 28, 2024

The user interface and overall user experience could be more intuitive to make it easier for users to navigate and utilize the software effectively.

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Shravan Revanna

Vice President at E-Cell Ramaiah

Jul 17, 2024

The solution is heavy because running it on laptops consumes a lot of memory and power. Typically, a laptop battery might last about eight to nine hours, but with the tool running, it reduces to two hours or one and a half hours at most. It is designed to handle large projects and heavy tasks, making it resource-intensive. For smaller projects, use IDEs like Visual Studio Code.

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Network and Programming Specialist at Twentytwo Integration

Aug 19, 2024

Customizing the tool can make it complicated.

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Show 4 more reviews (out of 14)

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