JetBrains
Depends
Confidence: Medium
Professional developers on Java, Kotlin, or .NET get unmatched IDE depth and should buy.
New check
Comparison
JetBrains vs Cursor
JetBrains and Cursor both land on Depends.
Cursor
Depends
Confidence: High
Buy if you are a professional developer or engineering team shipping code daily and can absorb usage-based costs.
| Compare | JetBrains | Cursor |
|---|---|---|
| Verdict | Depends | Depends |
| Best for | JVM/Kotlin teams | Professional developers shipping daily |
| Who it's not for | Hobbyists . free editors like VS Code do the job | Casual coders who will hit Pro limits and hate overages |
| Privacy | Multiple real CVEs, including a critical known-exploited TeamCity RCE and a 2026 incident with compromised AWS IAM users.⁶ | Active CVE stream 2025-2026 including remote code execution; patch fast and lock down agent permissions. |
| Support quality | No direct support evidence found | Refund fights and 1.6/5 Trustpilot |
| Public sentiment | Sentiment is split: long-time users praise the depth but complain about bloat, price hikes, and AI credit costs.¹ | Developers broadly praise Cursor's agent productivity and autocomplete, but many turned critical after 2025 pricing changes and quality dips.15 |
| Biggest gotcha | AI Pro uses credit consumption; users report costs ballooning with Junie⁵ | Usage pricing is opaque; power users report $200+/month vs the $20 plan |
Pick JetBrains when
- JVM/Kotlin teams
- .NET developers (Rider)
- Polyglot shops wanting one bundle
- Large legacy codebases
When JetBrains is not a fit
- Hobbyists . free editors like VS Code do the job
- Security-sensitive orgs uneasy after TeamCity RCEs
- AI-heavy teams who hate metered credit pricing
- Anyone wanting one cheap tool . bundles add up
Pick Cursor when
- Professional developers shipping daily
- Engineering teams adopting AI coding at scale
- Front-end and product teams prototyping fast
- Enterprises wanting centralized AI dev controls
When Cursor is not a fit
- Casual coders who will hit Pro limits and hate overages
- Security-sensitive orgs with no capacity to vet agents and patch CVEs
- Anyone needing predictable flat monthly bills
- Non-technical founders expecting finished apps from pure prompts
Sources
- Is JetBrains still a good company?reddit.comreview
- JetBrains Reviews . Glassdoorglassdoor.comreview
- Trustpilot reviews of jetbrains.comtrustpilot.comreview
- JetBrains defends removal of negative reviewsnews.ycombinator.comnews
- AI pricing & credit consumption concernsintellij-support.jetbrains.comreview
- CVE-2026-63077 TeamCity RCE analysisrapid7.comsecurity
security
- Cadence security incident, August 2026blog.jetbrains.comsecurity
- JetBrains store and Toolbox plansjetbrains.comofficial
- JetBrains Annual Highlights 2023jetbrains.comofficial
- Our Customers: 88 of Fortune Global 100jetbrains.comofficial
- Bootstrapping a $400M revenue IDEalexandre.substack.comnews
- JetBrains price increase announcementreddit.comreview
review
- Cursor Reviews 2026 . G2g2.comreview
- Cursor Reviews . Trustpilottrustpilot.comreview