PyCharm

Developed by JetBrains, PyCharm is a cross-platform IDE that offers a variety of features such as version control, graphical debugger, integrated unit tester, and pairs well for web development and Data Science tasks. With PyCharm’s API, developers can create their custom plugins for adding new features to the IDE.

Category : IDE

  • First Release Date: 2010
  • Platform Compatibility: Windows, macOS, Linux
  • Who It’s For: Intermediate to advanced Python users
  • Supporting Languages: Python, Javascript, CoffeeScript, etc.
  • Price: Freemium (free limited feature community version, paid full-featured professional version)
  • Popular Companies using Pycharm Python IDE - Twitter, HP, Thoughtworks, GROUPON, and Telephonic.

    • Other features :

  • Code completion
  • Live updates to code changes
  • Python refactoring
  • Support for full-stack web development
  • Support for scientific tools such as matplotlib, numpy, and scipy
  • Support for Git, Mercurial and more
  • Comes with paid and community editions

    • Advantages
    1. Can boost productivity and code quality
    2. Highly active community for support
    Disadvantages
    1. Can be slow to load
    2. Requires changing default settings for existing projects for best compatibility
    3. The initial installation might be difficult

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    Spyder

    Spyder comes with support for packages like NumPy, SciPy, Matplotlib, and Pandas. Targeted towards scientists, engineers, and data analysts, Spyder offers advanced data exploration, analysis, and visualization tools.

    Category: IDE

  • First Release Year: 2009
  • Platform Compatibility: Windows, macOS, Linux
  • Who It’s For: Python data scientists
  • Price: Free

    • Other features :

  • Code completion
  • Syntax highlighting
  • Code benchmarking via Profiler
  • Multi-project handling
  • Find in Files feature
  • History log
  • Internal console for introspection
  • Third-party plugins support

    • Advantages
    1. Includes support for numerous scientific tools
    2. Comes with an amazing community support
    3. Interactive console
    4. Lightweight
    Disadvantages
    1. Comes with execution dependencies
    2. Can be a bit challenging at first for newcomers

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    IDLE

    Short for Integrated Development and Learning Environment, IDLE has been bundled with Python as its default IDE for more than 15 years. IDLE is a cross-platform IDE and offers a basic set of features to keep it unburdened

    Category: IDE

  • First Release Year: 1998
  • Platform Compatibility: Windows, macOS, Linux
  • Who It’s For: Beginning Python users
  • Price: Free
  • Popular Companies using IDLE Python IDE — Google, Wikipedia, CERN, Yahoo, and NASA.

    • Other features :

  • Code auto-completion
  • Shell window with colorized code, input, output, and error messages
  • Code formatting
  • Support for a multi-window text editor
  • Search within files
  • Debugger with breakpoints
  • Supports smart indentation

    • Advantages
    1. Perfect for beginners and educational institutions
    Disadvantages
    1. Lacks features offered by more advanced IDEs, such as project management capabilities

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    Wing

    The feature-rich IDE for Python, Wing, was developed to make development faster with the introduction of intelligent features such as smart editor and simple code navigation. Wing comes in 101, Personal, and Pro variants with Pro being the most feature-rich and the only paid one

    Category: IDE

  • First Release Year: 2000
  • Platform Compatibility: Windows, macOS, Linux
  • Who It’s For: Intermediate to advanced Python users
  • Price: $179 per user for a year of commercial use, $245 per user for a permanent commercial use license
  • Popular Companies using Wing Python IDE — Facebook, Google, Intel, Apple, and NASA

    • Other features :

  • Code completion, error detection, and quality analysis
  • Smart refactoring capabilities
  • Interactive debugger
  • Unit tester integration
  • Customizable interface
  • Support for remote development
  • Support for frameworks such as Django, Flask, and more

    • Advantages
    1. Works well with version control systems such as Git
    2. Strong debugging capabilities
    Disadvantages
    1. Lacks a compelling user interface

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    Cloud9 IDE

    Part of Amazon’s Web Services, Cloud9 IDE gives you access to a cloud-based IDE, requiring just a browser. All the code is executed on Amazon’s infrastructure, translating to a seamless and lightweight development experience.

    Category: IDE

  • First Release Year: 2010
  • Platform Compatibility: Windows, macOS, Linux
  • Popular Companies using Cloud9 Python IDE — Linkedin, Salesforce, Mailchimp, Mozilla, Edify, and Soundcloud.

    • Other features :

  • Code highlight, formatting, and completion
  • Requires minimal project configuration
  • Strong debugger
  • Built-in terminal
  • Real-time pair programming capabilities
  • Instantaneous project setup, covering most programming languages and libraries
  • Unobstructed access to several AWS services via terminal

    • Advantages
    1. Enables painless development of serverless applications
    2. Remarkably robust and globally accessible infrastructure
    Disadvantages
    1. Depends entirely on internet access

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    Sublime Text 3

    Sublime Text is one of the most commonly used cross-platform Code Editors and supports several programming languages, including Python. Sublime offers various features such as plenty of themes for visual customization, a clean and distraction-free user interface, and supports package manager for extending the core functionality via plugins.

    Category: Code Editor

  • First Release Year: 2008
  • Platform Compatibility: Windows, macOS, Linux
  • Who It’s For: Beginner, Professional
  • Supporting Languages: Python and C#
  • Price: Freemium
  • Popular Companies using Sublime Text Python IDE — Starbucks, Myntra, Trivago, Stack, and Zapier.

    • Other features :

  • Up-to-date plugins via Package Manager
  • File auto-save
  • Macros
  • Syntax highlight and code auto-completion
  • Simultaneous code editing
  • Go to anything, definition, and symbol

    • Advantages
    1. Uncluttered user interface
    2. Split editing
    3. Fast and high-performance editor
    Disadvantages
    1. Annoying popup to buy sublime license
    2. Confusingly large number of shortcuts
    3. Complicated package manager

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    Visual Studio Code

    Developed by Microsoft, Visual Studio Code is an acclaimed cross-platform code editor that is highly customizable and allows development in several programming languages, including Python. It offers a wide variety of features to programmers, such as smart debugging, customizability, plugin support for extending core features

    Category: IDE

  • First Release Year: 2015
  • Platform Compatibility: Windows, macOS, Linux
  • Who It’s For: Professional
  • Supporting Languages: All the major programming languages (Python, C++, C#, CSS, Dockerfile, Go, HTML, Java, JavaScript, JSON, Less, Markdown, PHP, PowerShell, Python, SCSS, T-SQL, TypeScript.)
  • Price: Free
  • Popular Companies using Visual Source Code (Python IDE) — The Delta Group, TwentyEight, Inc., Focus Ponte Global, Creative Mettle, and National Audubon Society, Inc.

    • Key highlights include:

  • Built-in support for Git and version control
  • Integrated terminal
  • Code refactoring
  • IntelliSense for smarter code highlight and completion
  • Intuitive code debugging capabilities
  • Seamless deployment to Azure

    • Advantages
    1. Regularly updated with active community support
    2. Free
    Disadvantages
    1. Vast collection of plugins can make finding the right one challenging
    2. Lackluster handling of large files
    3. Longer launch time

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    Jupyter

    Also known as Project Jupyter, it is an open-source and cross-platform IDE that many data scientists and analysts prefer over other tools. Perfect for working on technologies such as AI, ML, DL, along with several programming languages, Python included. Jupyter Notebooks offer seamless creation and sharing of code, text, and equations for various purposes, including analysis, visualization, and development.

    Category: IDE

  • First Release Year: 2015
  • Browser Compatibility: Chrome, Firefox, Safari
  • Price: Free
  • Popular Companies of Using Jupyter Python IDE — Google, Bloomberg, Microsoft, IBM, and Soundcloud.

    • Key highlights include:

  • Code formatting and highlight
  • Easy sharing via email, Dropbox
  • Produces interactive output
  • Plays well with Big Data
  • Can be run from local and cloud machines

    • Advantages
    1. Requires minimal setup
    2. Perfect for quick data analysis
    Disadvantages
    1. Inexperienced users may find Jupyter complicated

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    Eclipse + PyDev

    Eclipse is one of the top IDEs available, supporting a broad range of programming languages for application development, including Python. Primarily created for developing Java applications, support for other programming languages is introduced via plugins. The plugin used for Python development is Pydev

    Category: IDE

  • First Release Year: 2001 for Eclipse 2003 for PyDev
  • Platform Compatibility: Windows, macOS, Linux
  • Who It’s For: Intermediate to advanced Python users
  • Supporting Languages: Python, (Eclipse supports Java and many other programming languages)
  • Price: Free
  • Popular Companies using PyDev and Eclipse Python IDE — Hike, Edify, Accenture, Wongnai, and Webedia.

    • Additional benefits over Eclipse IDE:

  • Django, Pylint, and unit test integration
  • Remote debugger
  • Go to definition
  • Type hinting
  • Auto code completion with auto import

    • Advantages
    1. Easy to use
    2. Programmer friendly features
    3. Free
    Disadvantages
    1. Complex user interface makes it challenging to work with
    2. If you’re a beginner, then using Eclipse will be difficult

    Kris is IT consultant and business analyst with development backgrounds. As former developer he is trying to give advices on IT tools, here in Python language.