The Total Economic Impact™ Of JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA

Improved Code Quality

Evidence and data. All of the interviewees noted that improved code quality is the largest benefit of IntelliJ IDEA. Code quality includes several software development tasks completed in the IDE, including code review, remediation, debugging, and code refactoring. There are multiple contributing aspects:

• Code standardization is an important capability of IntelliJ IDEA. Fewer errors in production reduce the additional work required to fix them later. The senior software engineer at a financial services organization explained, “Many alternatives to IntelliJ IDEA do not have code standardization, which would result in issues and challenges to address in production.”

• Several interviewees shared that JetBrains’ tool reduces additional remediation work, as it understands dependencies, even in large codebases. The CTO at an e-commerce organization noted that, “IntelliJ IDEA is best for large, distributed codebases, even across enterprise architecture, as it understands links to other parts of the business.”

• The lead principal engineer at a software company said, “IntelliJ IDEA is highly optimized, highly tuned, and very intuitive to use for our predominant tech stack.”

• The director of software engineering at a telecommunications organization explained: “With respect to reliability, [IntelliJ IDEA] helps you avoid making or implementing wrong code […], so that will reduce the amount of errors or bugs you will be pushing to production. That error rate was also around 10% less when using IntelliJ IDEA even before AI came.”

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• The 2,000 developers using IntelliJ IDEA at the composite spend an average of 40% of their time in the IDE; they spend three-quarters of this time (or 30% of their time overall) on code quality. Please note the points on p.19 to explain why developers spend more time in IntelliJ IDEA than average.

• The average fully burdened annual salary for a software developer using IntelliJ IDEA is $148,500.

• The reduction in time spent on code review, testing, security, and debugging is 15% in Year 1, 17.5% in Year 2, and 20% in Year 3, reflecting steady improvements in code quality as developers adopt IntelliJ IDEA features and reduce errors earlier in the development process.

• A 50% productivity capture rate is applied, as the time freed up for developers does not fully translate into additional productive output; for example, some of the time savings may not be fully redirected toward additional development output.

Risks. The scale of this benefit may vary from organization to organization based on:

• The amount of time spent in the IDE.

• The average fully burdened salary for a software developer.

• The proportion of time spent on code review.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 15%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $16.4 million.

Increased Developer Efficiency For Code Creation

Evidence and data. All the interviewees highlighted the significant impact that IntelliJ IDEA has on the ability of developers to write code more efficiently. There are several aspects to this:

• Code completion — the ability of the IntelliJ IDEA IDE to understand what the developer is doing and to automatically make relevant suggestions — is a key feature. As the lead principal engineer at a software company explained, “The autocomplete functionality makes you code faster; it senses what you want to do.”

• Several interviewees highlighted IntelliJ IDEA’s capability to manage large, complex codebases, which in turn avoids the need for code. The CTO at an e-commerce organization pointed out, “IntelliJ IDEA is best for microservices type environments and modernizing monolithic code because it understands links between microservices and so avoids additional code that other tools would come up with or require.”

• Interviewees also noted that IntelliJ IDEA integrates well with a large variety of tools, databases, plug-ins, and workflows, facilitating efficient code creation. The head of engineering infrastructure at a software organization explained: “It’s very convenient to work with. … You have all the required paints, you have many tools, connections to databases, connections to [other developer tools] today, let’s say, plus it’s adding more and more tools about AI.” The Language Server Protocol was mentioned as an example of a plug-in that helps developers with code completion, documentation, and formatting, in addition to JetBrains’ custom language support.

• Many interviewees also emphasized IntelliJ IDEA’s open approach in terms of AI. They noted that developers can choose different AI tools and language models to use within the IDE, which further improves developers’ coding efficiency. Not only does this mean that the developer can use AI tools within the IDE, rather than moving constantly from one environment to another, but they can also choose the best tool depending on the use case. The CTO at an e-commerce organization said: “We have seen a 10% to 40% measured productivity lift per week (measured in PRs per developer per week). Developers can produce more code [by using LLMs within IntelliJ IDEA].” (Please note that the productivity impact of these additional AI tools has not been included in the quantitative analysis.)

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• The 2,000 developers using IntelliJ IDEA at the composite spend an average of 40% of their time in the IDE; they spend a quarter of this time (or 10% of their time overall) on code creation. The overall time they spend in the IntelliJ IDEA IDE is higher than for other IDEs for a number of reasons: For example, the broad availability of plug-ins (including many bundled with the Ultimate subscription, such as those for debugging, testing, profiling, and working with databases and HTTP requests) mean developers complete more of these tasks in the IDE; the nature of Java and backend work and its use in code modernization means developers can handle more tasks related to software design and architecture; and developers can use it for security-related work, given IntelliJ IDEA’s capabilities for identifying and fixing software vulnerabilities.

• The composite experiences productivity improvements of 15% in Year, which increases to 20% in Year 2 and 20% in Year 3 as the software development team better understands the capabilities of the IDE, better integrates with its complementary tools and technologies, and further optimizes its workflows.

• The average fully burdened annual salary for a developer using IntelliJ IDEA is $148,500.

• A 50% productivity capture rate is applied, as time freed up for developers does not necessarily go back into productive use; for instance, it may enable reduced out-of-hour working times.

Risks. The scale of this benefit may vary from organization to organization based on:

• The amount of time spent in the IDE.

• The average fully burdened annual salary for a developer.

• The proportion of time spent coding or the coding efficiency previously achieved.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 15%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $5.7 million.

Faster Onboarding For New Developers And New Projects

Evidence and data. Several of the interviewees explained that they can onboard new developers joining the team more quickly following their IntelliJ IDEA investment, while existing developers can move more easily to different projects when required.

• The head of engineering, infrastructure at a software organization explained, “IntelliJ IDEA has a strong virtual environment management that reduces the need for building preapproved environments and avoids custom scripting.”

• The CTO at an e-commerce organization said: “Onboarding software developers is faster through consistent coding style and naming conventions. IntelliJ IDEA AI guidance also reduces the onboarding time for new developers.”

• The lead principal engineer at a software company noted, “What took weeks beforehand can be accomplished in a number of seconds due to IntelliJ IDEA’s remote connection.”

• The senior software engineer at a financial services organization said, “IntelliJ IDEA’s shared configurations and standardized setups allow new developers to resolve environment issues quickly and therefore reduces peer support time.”

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• The turnover rate for developers using IntelliJ IDEA is 20%, so the composite needs to onboard 400 new developers each year.

• Onboarding with IntelliJ IDEA enables new developers to be productive one week sooner than prior to the investment.

• Half of all developers using IntelliJ IDEA must move to another project every year; with IntelliJ IDEA, they can onboard to new projects two days faster than prior to the investment.

Risks. The scale of this benefit may vary from organization to organization based on:

• The rate of developer turnover.

• The onboarding time prior to the investment.

• The rate at which developers need to change projects.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $5.1 million.

The Impact Of Improved Developer Satisfaction On Tenure

Evidence and data. Interviewees consistently highlighted that using IntelliJ IDEA improved developer satisfaction and retention by increasing productivity, reducing friction, and delivering strong language support tailored to specific use cases. They explained that developers appreciate the highly configurable IDE, as they can optimize its look and feel for their personal preferences. Interviewees also noted that using IntelliJ IDEA as the primary IDE contributed to attracting young software development talent. These capabilities, along with integrated tooling and AI features, helped their engineers minimize issues and feel more effective and recognized, contributing to higher happiness and longer tenure.

• The global head of engineering at a financial services organization said: “The richness of the tools is what makes it very, very sticky for experienced hires. [They] want to be more productive, and that makes retention easier.”

• The lead principal engineer at a software company explained, “Having very good language support and a good IDE that’s highly tailored to your use case does have a big effect on happiness.”

• The CTO at an e-commerce organization noted that, “Having an integrated proper IDE [IntelliJ IDEA] that supports the entire interfacing and interaction side plus the AI side is something that engineers like quite a bit.”

• The director of software engineering at a telecommunications organization said, “You are improving your efficiency […] reducing the issues, and you’re able to do more things faster […] so that will give you higher reward recognitions.”

• The software architect at an IT services organization explained: “IntelliJ [IDEA] was, or still is, very attractive because it’s the market leader for Java IDE. […] It works fine for us, and it’s attractive for Java developers.”

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• The turnover rate for developers using IntelliJ IDEA is 20%, so the composite needs to onboard 400 new developers each year.

• The composite reduces developer turnover by 5% by using IntelliJ IDEA, so it avoids having to recruit 20 developers per year.

• The average cost of replacing a developer is 50% of the fully burdened annual salary for a software developer; at the composite, the fully burdened annual salary is $148,500.

Risks. The scale of this benefit may vary from organization to organization based on:

• Reduction in turnover. This may be lower than expected if external factors, such as competitive job markets, outweigh improvements in the developer experience.

• Organizational factors unrelated to tooling, such as management practices or workload. These may continue to drive attrition despite improvements in the developer environment.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 15%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $3.1 million.

Unquantified Benefits

Interviewees mentioned the following additional benefits that their organizations experienced but were not able to quantify:

• Faster software iteration. Most of the interviewees highlighted that more efficient software development enables them to iterate faster and release upgrades sooner. In the case of software organizations, this is a fundamental competitive advantage, as they can innovate faster and deliver better products to market sooner. In other industries, it can result in better systems for customer usage, such as better telecoms networks or an improved online banking experience; this can impact business growth and the customer experience. The senior quality assurance manager at a banking organization said: “There’s a reduced operational and reputational risk through faster fixes. This in turn reduces financial losses or potentially avoids reputational damage.”

• Greater security and privacy. Some of the interviewees highlighted that IntelliJ IDEA provides a more secure environment for the development of software that manages sensitive data. The director of software engineering at a telecommunications organization explained, “IntelliJ IDEA can be fully deployed behind the firewall, including AI models, which enables work on sensitive telecom, billing, and network systems without having to expose data externally.” They also noted, “It highlights noncompliant code, with reference to, for example, GDPR and FCC, and requests extra checks.” The head of advanced strategy data ML models at a financial services organization said, “It provides a compliance-aligned vendor posture with documentation maturity; this leads to easier internal approval to open network connectivity and adopting capabilities without data leakage concerns.”

• Accelerated software modernization. Many of the interviewees noted that as a result of their investment in IntelliJ IDEA, they have been able to complete their software modernization projects faster. For many organizations, the cost of supporting legacy code and related infrastructure is high; being able to move to a more modern and efficient architecture enables them to reduce these IT maintenance costs.

Flexibility

The value of flexibility is unique to each customer. There are multiple scenarios in which a customer might implement IntelliJ IDEA and later realize additional uses and business opportunities, including:

• An open approach to AI. All the interviewees mentioned that one of the core benefits of IntelliJ IDEA is its open approach to AI. Developers can choose which AI tools they want to use within the IDE; they can use not only JetBrains’ AI Assistant and Junie but also many of the other leading AI tools, both language models and agents. At a time when AI is changing rapidly in terms of capabilities and cost, it is important for software development teams to be able to evaluate different tools and keep up with developments. Interviewees also noted that different AI tools suit different use cases, so it is important for developers to have access to different tools to optimize their work. For more details, see IntelliJ IDEA: An Open Approach To AI at the end of the Executive Summary.

• Scalability. Some of the interviewees highlighted the ease of adding and changing IntelliJ IDEA seats as needed. The director of software engineering at a telecommunications organization said, “There is also flexibility in terms of new developers accessing the IDE: It is automatically done — there are extra seats, so we can scale up and down easily without requiring multiple approval steps.”

• Integration with other systems. Interviewees told us that IntelliJ IDEA is a rich and mature IDE that integrates with multiple systems and capabilities through plug-ins, workflow integrations, and other capabilities like the database tool window, which facilitates connectivity to a range of databases. JetBrains Marketplace is also a type of app store for the IDE that makes many JetBrains and third-party plug-ins easily available.

Flexibility would also be quantified when evaluated as part of a specific project (described in more detail in Total Economic Impact Approach). In this case, openness to AI, scalability, and integration with other systems can fall into increased developer productivity and efficiency due to the time is saved in being able to access AI from within the IDE, rapid scaling, and easy and fast integration with other systems.