JetBrains Still Remains the Winner of the AI Coding Race
‘VS Code bad, Cursor good’ has been a hot topic among developers. The conversation has gained even more prominence as VS Code, Microsoft’s own IDE, now dominated coding with AI as GitHub Copilot and Anysphere’s Cursor. On the other hand, JetBrains, a 24-year-old company that developed its own IDE, is often left out in such discussions. Notably, it’s not that developers really need to talk about it as much. Why? Because it is still one of the most successful IDEs ever built. According to reports from Sacra obtained by developer Kenneth Auchenberg, JetBrains’ recurring revenue was $593 million in November 2024, the highest amongst all AI copilots and code editors. For comparison, in the same month, GitHub Copilot generated $400 million and Cursor generated $65 million, while the revenue from VS Code cannot be directly attributed as it is part of Microsoft’s ecosystem. It’s not like JetBrains is not into AI. Last month, the team introduced Mellum, a proprietary LLM designed specifically for code completion on its platform. The announcement which went a little unnoticed, received love from the developer community. Mellum is integrated into JetBrains AI Assistant, a smart coding companion available across the company’s independent development editors. What makes JetBrains so special? According to JetBrains, Mellum significantly reduces the time required to generate code suggestions, cutting it by up to a third in initial tests. Early feedback shows an industry-leading acceptance rate of 40%, with developers frequently applying the AI’s suggestions. Competing in the AI coding assistant space, JetBrains aims to differentiate through Mellum’s seamless IDE integration, similar to how GitHub Copilot was integrated to VS Code last month. “Mellum’s power isn’t just in its speed and accuracy; it also benefits from deep integration with JetBrains IDEs,” said Valerie Kazmina, product marketing manager at JetBrains. “This synergy between the client-side IDE and server-side AI logic allows Mellum to deliver contextually aware code suggestions that are tailored to each project’s needs.” The interesting thing about JetBrains is that even though the price is too high compared to VS Code, which is free, it is offered for free for school and university students, making it appealing for a larger audience. This also helps the students to get used to that ecosystem before getting their hands on VS Code or any other tool. Not all feedback is critical. A developer defending JetBrains’ versatility, said, “Best IDEs in town hands down – for web development, data eng, mobile development, backend – you name it.” “Once you use a JetBrains IDE, there’s no going back.” One question remains: will developers still feel the same next year? What Does the Future Hold? Selling an IDE was not believed to be an ideal business given that VS Code is essentially a free commodity. But it turns out that everyone is doing it by forking VS Code and getting into Y Combinator. Unlike all, JetBrains did it 24 years ago without forking anyone else and has more than 3 million customers and the company employs 2,200 employees. All of this while raising no capital whatsoever. Even though VS Code came years later, it could not make a big dent on JetBrains’ business. Just like VS Code is known for its simplicity, JetBrains old-fashioned operation with IntelliJ makes developers still love how it works. But despite earning accolades for its polished design and unparalleled static analysis capabilities, some users feel JetBrains has been slow to adapt to the AI coding revolution. Critics argue that while JetBrains’ core IDE features remain unmatched, its AI integration could use a facelift. “I’m fed up with how JetBrains handles AI support. You can try workarounds, but when has the bar gone so low for JB,” said a developer on X. This sentiment resonates with others who believe JetBrains risks losing ground to nimble startups like OpenAI-backed Cursor or VS Code with GitHub Copilot, which undoubtedly are on every developer’s “tab” button. But not all is lost. A month back, a discussion on Reddit under Jetbrains subreddit, started by taking a direct hit at Cursor, saying that it is just a hype machine that thrives on spamming competition, and is unable to stand on its own merits. “We all know no product is perfect, including JetBrains. but the need to orchestrate that kind of display speaks volumes of how little you think of your possible future customers,” said the Redditor. This, though not so subtle, clearly highlights how JetBrains is positioned in the market — no hype, only products. Despite criticisms, JetBrains continues to impress with its no-compromise approach to quality and innovation. Though people are coming back to VS Code after trying their hands on Cursor and all of its alternatives, JetBrains remains unshaken with its revenue. With the recent general availability of OpenAI’s Canvas with coding abilities, editing, and suggestions within the UI, it seems like AI-based IDEs are the future. This is only expected to start giving more competition to the likes of Cursor, VS Code, and JetBrains alike.
JetBrains’ recurring revenue was reportedly $593 million in November 2024 – the highest amongst all AI copilots and code editors.
JetBrains, a 24-year-old company that developed its own IDE, is often left out in the discussions of AI coding tools.
["AI in Coding", "JetBrains"]
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["AI", "ML", "OpenAI", "Aim", "copilots", "R", "Go", "Git", "GitHub", "API"]
Mohit writes about AI in simple, explainable, and often funny words. He's especially passionate about chatting with those building AI for Bharat, with the occasional detour into AGI.