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PyCharm pros and cons

Vendor: JetBrains

4.4 out of 5

14 reviews
100% willing to recommend

Pros & Cons summary

PyCharm impresses with its excellent debugging features, smart code analysis, AI-powered completion, and seamless GitHub integration with GitHub Copilot. Automated package installation and extensive plugins enhance its functionality. However, notebook usability is lacking, OpenCV support is incomplete, and high memory usage can slow systems, especially laptops. Customization options may add complexity. Despite these drawbacks, PyCharm's robust tools offer a productive coding experience for developers seeking efficiency.

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

PyCharm offers a great debugging feature and is a fantastic tool with smart code analysis.

It has a nice environment and extensions that simplify software development.

It provides hints when detecting code issues, aiding in faster and error-free coding.

AI-powered code completion and syntax highlighting enhance its coding capabilities.

Integration with GitHub is seamless, offering plugins for auto code completion and assistance.

CONS

Notebooks in PyCharm are not as intuitive as they could be.

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

PyCharm's use of system resources can be heavy, affecting its performance, particularly during loading.

There are issues with memory usage; PyCharm can be heavy, especially with many open files, making the system slow.

JetBrains tools, including PyCharm, have heavy resource usage and can be slow to start, particularly when beginning new projects.

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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Static Code Analysis

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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.

Read full review

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.

Read full review

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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Static Code Analysis

Download Free Report

Find out what your peers are saying about JetBrains, OpenText, Veracode and others in Static Code Analysis. Updated: January 2026.

881,082 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 3 more reviews (out of 13)

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