Buying IntelliJ License

[Joe San]

Guys,

Did anyone actually buy it already? I just checked from the jetbrains website and they say that apart from the original license fee of 209 Euros, there will be a vat which adds up to about 30 to 40 Euros. I would like to know if that could be waived off somehow. Any suggestions?

[David Newton]

What's your actual question? Of course people have bought it.

[Joe San]

Yes, the actual question is how much would the VAT be? and is there a way to get that waived off?

[David Newton]

Maybe send them an email and ask?

[Joe San]

I could do that, but just wanted to know from others here who have already made a purchase.

[Ulf Dittmer]

The VAT depends on the country you're in. It is not optional, since JetBrains must pay it to the taxman.

[Joe San]

OK. I would enquire with the jetbrains team about this.

[Joe San]

Got the invoice today. The total cost including VAT stands at 243 Euros roughly.

[Marco Ehrentreich]

I recently wanted to buy the personal license (in Germany) and it was below ~250 EUR including VAT. But I decided that it's still too expensive if I want to use the IDE exclusively for private experiments. I personally don't understand why Jetbrains doesn't distinguish between people who are going to earn money with the software they produce and people who just want to use it for fun. Maybe there would be even some people who can convince their company to use IDEA if they would get a chance to try it out in their free time for less money.

Now I'm happy again with the new NetBeans 6.8 because the advantages of IDEA (which it definitely has) are not worth 250 bucks for private-only usage

Marco

[Joe San]

Is there anyone out here who owns a personal version of IntelliJ?

[Joe San]

And especially who paid it from their own pocket?

[Marco Ehrentreich]

I'd like to know that, too!

And maybe I should have noted that I already tested the community version some weeks ago and basically I was very happy with it, but I think it's pretty useless if you can't use it for much more than plain Java projects. Or to be more accurate, I don't understand the reason why they published this version at all. It would be OK if they left out some things which you need mostly for professional software development in a team but the community version is actually very poor regarding its features.

Marco

[David Newton]

Not really--the free edition supports a lot of functonality. And one of its purposes is to get you to spend money on the full product if, after evaluating it, you like it more than what you're already using for free. The free edition contains *more* than enough functionality to help you decide if you want to pay for it.

I don't get it: if you don't want to pay for it, use one of the free ones, which in many ways have caught up in functionality to IntelliJ. Otherwise I don't see any compelling reason to complain that a company makes and sells a product.

Heck, I just dropped $100 for Clojure, a *free* product. Support people that create the tools you want to use, people--don't just be a leech.

[Gregg Bolinger]

+1 David. I don't think IntelliJ's market is the guy in the basement learning how to program for fun. IDEA is a professional product for professionals. As David said, if you prefer a free IDE then use one. No reason to complain.

[Marco Ehrentreich]

Hi David,

please don't get me wrong here. If I'd be sure not to pay any money for an IDE I want to use for my private projects, I wouldn't even have answered to this post!

I'm absolutely a fan of IntelliJ IDEA and I'm pretty sure there are good reasons that they would like to have money for their product. I just wanted to discuss if IDEA is worth the price and why they don't have any additional licensing for private persons.

As I already wrote IDEA has some features and functionality which are superior compared to other IDEs. And I'd be happy to invest some money to buy a license. My complaint was just because the licensing of Jetbrains doesn't make a difference between private usage for a person who makes money out of the produced software and a person who just wants to use IDEA for private projects without selling them. A lot of advanced features are just not included in the community edition. On the other hand I don't see why I should pay the same amount of money if I just want to use IDEA for private projects. Maybe 250 EUR is not that much money for some people, but for me it's enough not to use IDEA even though I'm already convinced of it's quality and features (because of the trial version).

I hope that makes my point clearer! As I already wrote, I absolutely understand that they want some money. And I wrote because I'm not willing to pay that much money for private usage, I'm using NetBeas and that's OK for me. Maybe I'll switch to IntelliJ IDEA if I'm ready to spend more money on this hobby, but I'd love to see a more fine grained licensing here.

Marco

[Gregg Bolinger]

IntelliJ offers a free license to open source developers. There are some requirements that need be met. You can find this on their web site. In all, IntelliJ offers 5 different types of licenses. If you want them to provide a 6th, JavaRanch probably isn't the place they are looking for feedback. I'd recommend emailing the JetBrains folks and letting them know directly.

[Marco Ehrentreich]

Same answer for Gregg. I hope I could make it clearer with my last post!

There's nothing wrong with earning money with such a great IDE! I just think it's unfortunately too expensive for me and therefore I've used and I'm going to use free IDE in the near future.

Nothing wrong with IDEA. It's just sad, that there's no cheaper option!

Marco

[Marco Ehrentreich]

Thanks for your information. I already knew that they support opensource software projects for free and I think that's great. Unfortunately this license doesn't apply to private projects.

There are actually a lot of IDEA fans here?!? Believe me, I like IDEA very much and I'm really sure it's worth the money. I just would like to see a cheaper license for private usage but I guess private users are just not the right audience for Jetbrains.

Marco

[Gregg Bolinger]

Marco Ehrentreich wrote:T...but I guess private users are just not the right audience for Jetbrains.

Marco

Or maybe they just don't realize there is an untapped market because they don't read JavaRanch. ;) Honestly, email them. JetBrains is good people.

[Marco Ehrentreich]

Do your really think they would realize one little ranger with not enough money? :-) Surely I could write them though... Indeed I already took the time to answer the questions you get during evaluation period of IDEA. And basically I wrote them that IDEA is an excellent IDE but I just think it's a little bit too expensive for private users who just want to have such a great IDE in their spare time and maybe convince their company to use this IDE.

But if you think they would at least read my mail I'm going to take the time to write them ;-)

Marco

[Joe San]

Marco, if you do write to them then please do not forget to write down here at the ranch what the reply was.

[David Newton]

Remember that IntelliJ is free for open-source contributors: the barrier to entry is pretty low for a full version.

[Joe San]

David Newton wrote:Remember that IntelliJ is free for open-source contributors: the barrier to entry is pretty low for a full version.

What do you mean by "the barrier to entry is pretty low for a full version"?? If I simply have a OpenSource project, I qualify for a license??

[David Newton]

It turns out IntelliJ/JetBrains has a website, with a page that addresses this:

http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/buy/buy.jsp#openSource_

[Marco Ehrentreich]

I already read the licensing conditions for opensource projects. It's really nice that they provide their IDE for free for those developers and projects. Unfortunately I'm not involved in any opensource projects and I think accordingly to the description it's no enough to start a pseudo project And to be fair, I absolutely understand JetBrains here.

Maybe I'm going to take the time and write a mail at the weekend. I'd just be interested if the people at JetBrains think the price for a personal license is OK if you need it only for private usage. Maybe they really don't know that there would be some people who want to use such a professional IDE without earning money with their private software projects?!? Anyway, if I get feedback I'll let you know!

Marco