Hey everyone, I'm thinking about whether I should switch to PyCharm Pro now that they have integrated Jupyter Notebook support and introduced Junie, their new coding assistant. I wasn't planning to leave the free version of VSCode, but this Jupyter support has me reconsidering. I'm also curious about Junie's capabilities. Can it compete with Cursor, or is it just overhyped? I've heard some people say it can be a bit slow, but the results can be impressive. How does it stack up against GitHub Copilot? What do you all think the benefits are of using PyCharm Pro compared to just sticking with VSCode and a Copilot or Cursor subscription?
5 Answers
As someone who's been using JetBrains products for a long time, I’ve found Junie to be effective on large codebases, but it can be slow. The output quality is impressive, but you may find that the completion times increase with the size of your projects. Plus, PyCharm has fantastic tools for refactoring and debugging that I've always relied on. If you're on the fence, definitely try the free trial!
It’s interesting to see how team dynamics affect tool choices. I’m just a team lead, and while I don’t dictate these choices, I often wonder how much influence we should have on using particular editors. It seems to depend a lot on personal and team preferences.
Agreed! As a lead, your guidance can help shape the team’s workflow, but it shouldn't feel forced.
If you haven't really used PyCharm much, I'd recommend trying the Community Edition first to get a feel for it. Once you're comfortable, you can test out the Pro version with a one-month free trial to see how well it integrates with your team's workflow. It could really change the way you code!
I've tried the Community version, but I'm still unsure. Maybe I need to give the Pro a shot!
VSCode also supports Jupyter Notebooks, and personally, I switched from the community edition of PyCharm to VSCode because I didn't want to pay for editing Jupyter Notebooks. Plus, I love using GitHub Copilot within VSCode, which makes it super efficient for my projects. Honestly, I don't see why anyone would pay for PyCharm in 2025 with so many good free alternatives out there!
Exactly! I just don’t understand the value of paying when you can do almost everything with VSCode for free.
Just a heads up about Junie — it can eat up your AI subscription credits pretty quickly, so don't rely on it too heavily! But if you find it's using too many credits, consider dumping the logs and reporting it if you notice issues. My quotas have been pretty generous, and I've managed heavy usage without hitting limits.
That’s good advice! I didn’t realize the credits could run out so fast.
I appreciate your perspective! I’m definitely considering that free trial to see how it fits my workflow.