User Reviews Overview
About Apache NetBeans
Apache NetBeans is an open-source integrated development environment (IDE) that provides tools for Java, JavaScript, HTML5, and many other languages. It provides smart editing tools and allows users to easily refactor code....
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- Industry: Civil Engineering
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Weekly for 1+ year
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Review Source
Best-in-class open-source IDE for desktop & mobile app development
Overall, I'm very much satisfied with this IDE thanks to its out-of-the-box compatibility with numerous languages I'm familiar with that's helped in facilitating my project development requirements.
Pros
The intuitive user interface, the variety of supported languages & library imports & the unparalleled ease of integrating iOS & Android emulators (on my MacBook) to test out my applications prior to publishing my builds makes NetBeans a truly fascinating piece of software that's genuinely made my workload easier. As to my latest project using NetBeans, I've recently developed a punch-in/punch-out web app system that runs on desktop & mobile for our company's employees.
Cons
I remember once encountering an issue when initially setting up my first Java project on the IDE (build 12.5 if I recall correctly) where I was unable to install the nb-javac plugin for my project. Turns out the issue was an outdated JDK which was quickly resolved with an update, though I really wish NetBeans would've notified me of the solution rather than figuring it out myself eventually.

- Industry: Banking
- Company size: 501–1,000 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Best IDE for Web, Desktop and Mobile Apps
It's been more than 3 years I am working on NetBeans and I am very satisfied. It helped me in developing multiple projects and especially integration with Ant, SVN, JEE servers and Maven. It is highly recommended to new developers.
Pros
NetBeans is very well organized in terms of code development and java web development. It works on different platforms like Windows and Linux. The best part of NetBeans is that it has visual web pack feature. It comes with a lot of useful features such as debugging, code completion, multiple programming language support, integration and plugins. It's integration is awesome with other tools. The best feature of this product is source control management like GitHub and other version control tools.
Cons
Sometimes NetBeans crash when used for a long period, which is frustrating. It does not come with any professional support but one can easily join different groups or take help from seniors or from different forums. While working on big projects it consumes a lot of memory space and slow down other system processes.
- Industry: Computer Software
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Weekly for 6-12 months
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Review Source
Cheaper but a bit older IDE
A bit old-school IDE with all important functions integrated. It is a cheaper but the overall experience is not so good like in another products in this category.
Pros
Netbeans is perfect for someone who tries to learn coding or the tool is required by his job requirements. It provides a IDE with debugging, deploy and code editing functions. Code completion and some inspections are also integrated in the app.
Cons
The UI is a bit difficult and the inspections and code completion performance is not so good. There are some plugins to make the UI make a bit more simple and modern but the overall experience is a step behind opposite of another products.
Top Apache NetBeans Alternatives

- Industry: Computer Software
- Company size: 1,001–5,000 Employees
- Used Weekly for 2+ years
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Review Source
Surpassed by the competition
Apache NetBeans is a good IDE, with good integration with Java. I would recommend it specifically to people that develop Java GUI applications with Swing. Its Swing integration is very intuitive, fully-featured and very reliable. Compared to Eclipse, working with Swing applications with NetBeans is a great option.
Pros
NetBeans is easy to use and install. I used it mainly on the Windows platform, and I used it mainly to develop Java software and Java GUI Applications with Swing.
Compared to other tools on the market, I think NetBeans has the best Swing support of all the IDEs I have tried (Eclipse tools have more bugs, Visual Studio Code does not natively support them).
Its debugging tools are easy to use and very functional.
Cons
NetBeans is usually slow to load and can be a resource hog. When working on my Mac laptop, battery drains quickly.
I had many bugs using NetBeans v12 on Mac. I kept from updating to the newest version because I felt they were more stable for my workflow.
Alternatives Considered
Eclipse IDEReasons for Switching to Apache NetBeans
I did not choose Apache over the other tools.
- Industry: Computer Software
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Netbeans - Excellent IDE for PHP development
Pros
There are lots of editors out there for PHP, but Netbeans is one of the best out there for debugging
Cons
Despite relatively simple requirements and few open pages, memory usage seems to quickly grow to where 3 gigs of RAM can be consumed. I'm not sure what all is in there.

- Industry: Information Technology & Services
- Company size: 1,001–5,000 Employees
- Used for 2+ years
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Review Source
The perfect IDE for java and network development
A great introduction to IDEs and compilers letting me start my programming career in Java.
Pros
Netbeans gives me great syntax highlighting which really saves me time when it come to programming in java. It quickly highlights any errors and lets me correct them. You can also have free version for those unsure. This really let me try all the features before getting involved in the premium version.
Cons
Comparing net beans to some newer software IDEs can make it feel a little less customisable in terms of themes and feel. But if you don’t normally change your theme or colour scheme then this won’t worry you.

- Industry: Computer Software
- Company size: Self Employed
- Used Weekly for 6-12 months
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Review Source
A software design student's perspective on using netbeans.
After having used it for about 1 year, this tool is very intuitive and easy to use if you know the programming language, thanks to the ease of writing code and the help it provides at the time of doing the same.
Pros
Netbeans is a tool that allows software development in an easy and efficient way if you know well the programming language in which you are working. It includes plugins that fulfill its function of facilitating the use of the IDE.
Cons
Netbens has some problems when cleaning and debugging, as well as some problems with the installation of libraries that are not in the IDE.
- Industry: Information Technology & Services
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
When the cache memory is full,, I have to manually empty it, software becomes slow
My experience with Apache netbeans has been amazing and productive .
Pros
The simplicity with drag and drop designing functionality really helps in meeting deadlines and still give a client a good product
Cons
I feel like the automatic cache memory dump function should be add on
- Industry: Information Technology & Services
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Hadning Application Development Like a Pro
Pros
When it comes to developing applications, Apache NetBeans is king and comes with easy debugging features.
Cons
Not ideal for new users - training is necessary
- Industry: Computer Software
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1-5 months
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Review Source
IDE for Java Developers
My university told me to develop a desktop application to make it easier for students to view their files.
Indeed I started developing a program using the Java language but I was facing several problems when I was changing the connection from one database to another and it took time from me to solve it.
For example I wanted to change the connection from the Oracle database to the SQL Sever database so I had several problems.
Pros
build graphical user interface applications on Java.
It has a JDK and can be linked to SQL DB.
It contains controls that can be dragged and placed on the designer page and a developer can build an application based on them.
Cons
It must improve the shapes of the controls and the way they drag drop in a better way.
- Industry: Information Technology & Services
- Company size: Self Employed
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
All you need IDE for web development
For the fact that it's open source and therefore for free, the quality of it is extremely good! For my need of development in classical combo HTML + CSS + JavaScript on front-end and PHP + MySQL on back-end it's a perfect solution that has served me for years without any major problems.
Pros
It has support for all commonly used languages in web development. Everything needed is available from the beginning without the need to get any extra plugins. Automatic code compilations are available in settings of each project, including CSS preprocessors and use of JavaScript modules so no other tools are needed. It has support for variety of frameworks, as well as testing tools, and has also it's own history tracking in git style which saves automatic snapshots each time you save a file.
Cons
Since it's an open source software, it's not perfect and it sometimes randomly freezes or crashes. Also because of the same reason the development of new features and updates are not as often as with other commercial software. Therefore it's not very practical for development with newer, fast changing technologies.
- Industry: Computer Software
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
The best to develop Java applications
Some yeas ago we moved from Eclipse to NetBeans because we liked many functionalities and a stable framework that this software offers.
It's a good choice, maybe the best, to develop a Java application. But when we write a web based application (eg. based on LAMP) or a mobile app, we switch to Visual Studio Code, a more complete, flexible and fast solution.
Pros
Fully features, good and proven UI, cross-platform. Good integrated tools and services: we like so much the database connector and the built-in UML modelling.
Cons
There are only two things we like least about this software:
1. if you need do write HTML/PHP/JavaScript code, you can find other solutions with more widgets, plugins, best auto-suggestion, ...
2. as it is developed on Java, you can get some hardware resources issues (especially RAM) by using this software intensively
- Industry: Information Technology & Services
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Weekly for 2+ years
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Review Source
My First java IDE
With netbeaan i was ablle to complite multiple school and personal peoject
Pros
The simplicity in using netbeans and the Swing frame work already intergrated in it which facilited the developtment of graphical user interfaces.
Cons
It visual interface is not very intuitive. lack of some necessary functionalities for development like version control software integrated.
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1-5 months
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Review Source
Coding with NetBeans
It's helping with my studies and my experience in coding
Pros
The real feeling of been using an easy code program
Cons
It's difficult to non English speakers users sometimes
- Industry: Computer Software
- Company size: Self Employed
- Used Weekly for 1-5 months
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Review Source
About NetBeans
Not so good, but not so bad.
Pros
I liked most about the project files system, And OOP system.
Cons
The SQL connections are cried me, Java tools are hard!
- Industry: Staffing & Recruiting
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Excellent and versatile IDE for Java GUI projects
Pros
NetBeans IDE has several shortcuts that reduce workload. It also offers a task management space that displays your work, as well as a good view so you can always see what you're working on. Netbeans features an appealing user interface that makes it simple to use. It is simple to install and use, and it interacts easily with Git, Mercurial, and Subversion. Netbeans has Controls that may be dragged and dropped onto a designer page and used to build an application.
Cons
The main disadvantage is that the view offered here is a single-type view IDE that lacks the ability to compile several snippets in a single file at the same time. It is hefty, and if you are using a low-end machine, it may hang. In the navigation window, the dark theme is not available.
- Industry: Computer Software
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Monthly for 6-12 months
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Review Source
It looks like an abandoned project
Years ago we traded Netbeans for Eclipse, and Eclipse for VS Code, but in 2020 we decided to test Netbeans again. In a few weeks of testing we noticed the same problems as always: it's slow, it's big, the screen and code editors don't seem to have evolved. It seems heavily still focused on older java, leaving plugin implementation for other languages a little out of place. We were definitely not productive and we couldn't believe that it would be worthwhile to have a project in the Netbeans format and trust it in the long run. The documentation is highly incomplete and appears to have been mostly generated by javadoc about programming comments. Often you don't find what you need.
Pros
It's free, manages the project in a more professional way, that is, it's more intuitive how you have files and folders inside a project, even if it hides or blocks some settings or accesses. You have a sense of the "whole" of the project better than some other similar tools. It has support for several plugins and does bring some productivity. It is still one of the few tools that have a reasonable form editor.
Cons
It's slow, big and old. The structure and look looks dated, it puts a lot of emphasis on java swing, the IDE's tools look the same as when it was still from Sun, and it practically smells musty. It's amazing how such a promising project looks like it's been ostracized, it just breathes and it's alive, but it doesn't evolve.

- Industry: Education Management
- Company size: 201–500 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Review Source
A perfect ide for application development supporting many programming language.
Apache netbeans helps me in developing java based applications. It supports profiling which is very much required for constraints based projects.
Pros
It is complete ide with all the modern coding tool like code refactoring, debugging, version control etc.
Cons
It very heavy ide. It is less user friendly than eclipse and does not has strong support team as eclipse and vs code has.

- Industry: Computer Software
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Good devlopment environment
My experience of using Apache NetBeans for PHP / MySQL development was good throughout except performance issues.
Pros
It is a good Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for Java, PHP and many other programming languages. Its syntax highlighter is pretty good. It is well in useful features. It is good in intellisense for supported programming languages. Its user interface for database is good. Its user interface for CSS is good and interactive. It is available for multiple operating systems like Windows, Linux and Mac OSX.
Cons
It has performance issues. The autocomplete feature for code suggestions loads very slowly. It feels like system is under pressure while running NetBeans.
- Industry: Information Technology & Services
- Company size: 10,000+ Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Apache NetBeans Review from a RPA Developer Perspective
Been using this software for years and even with it slowness it has served me well. Used it to build multiple java based programs and my overall experience with this product is satisfying as it has very good in-built functionalities.
Pros
It has a simple and logical user interface with multiple range of UI preferences. It is a very good platform to build and learn Java based applications. Also transitioning from other developing IDE's to netbeans IDE is painless. One of the best features of this IDE is that it allows users to load multiple projects at the same time and switching between the projects is very easy.
Cons
First thing I dislike about this software is the amount of RAM that is required to run this IDE. The start up is pretty slow and tends to slower the machine it runs. It gets really slow when running with background operations. Specially when you compile and run programs it tends to get stuck.

- Industry: Computer Software
- Company size: Self Employed
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
NetBeans is a Great IDE!
Overall, I have had a fairly positive experience with Apache Netbeans. I use this software daily, and it has been very helpful and useful for my studies. My course requires Netbeans and includes tutorials for Netbeans, so that's how I really learned how to use it and be comfortable using it. I think that it definitely could be updated in terms of appearance, but overall it is a really great IDE.
Pros
What I like most about Netbeans is that it has a lot of features, such as automatically creating JAR and WAR files, which I've really needed for class. It is also really easy to use SQL and databases, JDBC databases, and webforms/Servlets. It is really endless what you can use NetBeans for. Also, it shows errors and clues to fix the errors within a user's code.
Cons
What I don't love about this software is that it looks like a really dated IDE. I wish that it looked a little more modern. It also took me a little while before I became comfortable to use it and learned how the features work. I would recommend reading about how to use Netbeans as you are starting out.
- Industry: Computer & Network Security
- Company size: 201–500 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Great place to build desktop & web applications
As someone who codes in Java, I must say that Apache NetBeans made my life much easier. It is hard to find a software similar to this which is open source and contain all the features this has. Therefore, this is the best software out there which can be used to create stand-alone or web applications.
Pros
Apache NetBeans is the place where I build and run all my desktop and web applications. NetBeans has auto-completion feature which I like the most. It saves time and reduces errors. When I talk about errors I must say that NetBeans shows compilation errors during the execution in a manner that I can easily understand where I made mistakes. NetBeans comes with a lot short cut keys which saves my time and speeds up the coding process.
Cons
There is no minus point about Apache NetBeans. The only problem I have is that it takes some time to respond when I debug.

- Industry: Higher Education
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Most reliable IDE, been using it for years
Pros
I have using this since my High School, College and University days. It is an awesome IDE which mainly runs Java but I use it actively for C++, C and sometimes even for interpreted languages like Php. It has a great interface which is easy to work with and is very stable. One of the perks of using this is that its and open source software so you do not really need to pay anything for using it.
Cons
It does tend to be a little slow and heavy to start up especially if you are running an older PC running a processor like Intel i3. But yes even on those machines once it starts up, you will notice no problems. Apart from that its an aweosme tool and there are absolutely no complaints.
- Industry: Information Technology & Services
- Company size: 1,001–5,000 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Review Source
Review on NetBeans.
As a basic Java developer, we work on a concept called Servlets in Java. In that servlets concept, we make use of apache tomcat tool. In the case of eclipse, we need to download some packages, deploy it in our eclipse IDE which adds on some extra work. But in Netbeans, tomcat support is readily avalible. If I want to create a web service, I need to make use of Glassfish Server. In Netbeans, Glassfish support is available without the need for external packages. I have tried to make use of Swing GUI where we can drag the components in a GUI Builder and the source code is designed automatically according to the components placed in GUI builder. Another important feature is auto-completion of code and a built-in SQL Editor. My overall experience working with Netbeans is so satisfying as it provides such good in-built features.
Pros
1) It is a free and open source IDE.
2) Inbuilt Integration of server applications like Tomcat and Glassfish.
3) Can run on operating systems like Windows, Mac, Linux.
4) We can import the project source code from global repositories like GitHub.
5) We can write the code in Multiple languages like Java, PHP, C, C++, JavaScript, HTML5.
6) Some other features like auto-completion of code, code optimization, search and replacement of code.
7) The Netbeans support is very good as they provide solutions for our queries within a short span of time with optimized solutions.
8) We can customize our own themes to make our GUI more interactive.
Cons
I did not find any flaws with this software.

- Industry: Information Technology & Services
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Easy to use if compared to other Java editors
I would recommend this great application for all Java developers.
Pros
I've tested a lot of versions of IDE for Java such as Eclipse, JEdit, IntelliJ IDEA, NetBeans, etc. and NetBeans is the easiest application in terms of installation, usage, check-in, and check-out from source controls such as SVN. It is very easy to add new libraries and switch among different Java platforms. The IntelliSense in NetBeans is great for code assistance. And NetBeans is a free application for download.
Cons
NetBeans may require a lot of resources if you have many projects concurrently open. NetBeans Low on Memory is a very well known error.