


That means this one is best left to the professionals. The one drawback of CLion is that it’s pricey.

With these features and the other standard IDE features present in CLion, developers will be able to easily build, debug, and compile apps. These extra features include assuring the quality of your code, automated refactoring, and integration with the CMake build system. It specializes in just these two languages, allowing it to implement useful features that other IDE don’t for C and C++. CLionįor those building apps in C and C++, CLion makes for one of the best IDE apps on Mac. This is your go-to, and it’s a solid IDE. If you want to build apps for Apple devices, then this is the exception to Visual Studio Code. This includes most of the major app-building languages as well as Apple’s native languages, Swift and AppleScript. So it only supports languages that can be compiled into apps for various Apple devices. It’s for developing apps for Apple products, not apps at large. Xcode is a bit more limited than Visual Studio since it has a more singular purpose. Though it’s not installed by default, you can download it for free from Apple through the Terminal or from Apple’s website. Next on our list of the best IDE apps, we of course have to mention Xcode. It’s truly one of the best IDE apps, on Mac and elsewhere. This is the go-to IDE app, so if you just want the fast answer, grab this one. I’ve been using it to follow along with Harvard’s CS50x course (check it out if you’re new to programming!) and have loved it so far. From a built-in terminal and compiler to an elegant and un-intimidating interface, VS Code is a pleasure to use. So you shouldn’t have an issue writing in your programming language of choice. Currently maintained and designed by Microsoft, VS Code truly offers a best-in-class experience. I’ve also included some of the best code editor apps at the end since IDEs and editors are terms that might be used interchangeably.Īlright, let’s get into it! The best IDE apps for Mac Visual Studio Codeįirst up is a classic IDE app, Visual Studio Code. That said, I’ve still done my best to create a list of the IDE apps for Mac that I truly believe are the best. It primarily comes down to your needs and your programming language of choice. In curating this post, I realized that there aren’t too many differences between most IDE apps. There are tons of options to choose from, but also a lot of redundancy. And in this post, we’re going to cover the best IDE apps for Mac. You can think of it as Photoshop for writing code. IDEs are apps that bring features like writing code, syntax highlighting, app previews, debugging, compiling, and virtual machines into a single app. Whether you’re new to programming or an experienced developer, you’re probably going to be spending a lot of time in an IDE, an Integrated Development Environment.
