Best Python IDEs and Code Editors You Should Know
By: Claire D. Costa
Tags: Pycharm, Coding, Programming, Python, Data Science

Best Python IDEs and Code Editors in 2020

Choosing the right tools for a job is critical. Similarly, when starting a new project, as a programmer, you have a lot of options when it comes to selecting the perfect Code Editor or IDE. There are loads of IDEs and Code Editors out there for Python, and in this section, we’ll discuss some of the best ones available with their benefits and weaknesses.

● PyCharm

Image Source — PyCharm

Category: IDE

IDE First Release Date: 2010

2010 Platform Compatibility: Windows, macOS, Linux

Windows, macOS, Linux Who It’s For: Intermediate to advanced Python users

Intermediate to advanced Python users Supporting Languages: Python, Javascript, CoffeeScript, etc.

Python, Javascript, CoffeeScript, etc. Price: Freemium (free limited feature community version, paid full featured professional version)

Freemium (free limited feature community version, paid full featured professional version) Download: PyCharm Download Link

PyCharm Download Link Popular Companies using Pycharm Python IDE -

Twitter, HP, Thoughtworks, GROUPON, and Telephonic.

Developed by JetBrains, PyCharm is a cross-platform IDE that offers a variety of features such as version control, graphical debugger, integrated unit tester, and pairs well for web development and Data Science tasks. With PyCharm’s API, developers can create their custom plugins for adding new features to the IDE. Other features include:

● Code completion

● Live updates to code changes

● Python refactoring

● Support for full-stack web development

● Support for scientific tool such as matplotlib, numpy, and scipy

● Support for Git, Mercurial and more

● Comes with paid and community editions

Advantages of PyCharm —

● Can boost productivity and code quality

● Highly active community for support

Disadvantages of PyCharm —

● Can be slow to load

● Requires changing default settings for existing projects for best compatibility

● The initial installation might be difficult

Screenshot for References-

Image Source — PyCharm

● Spyder

Image Source — Spyder

Category: IDE

IDE First Release Year: 2009

2009 Platform Compatibility: Windows, macOS, Linux

Windows, macOS, Linux Who It’s For: Python data scientists

Python data scientists Price: Free

Free Download: Spyder Download Link

Spyder is awith support for packages like NumPy, SciPy, Matplotlib, and Pandas. Targeted towards scientists, engineers, and data analysts, Spyder offers advanced data exploration, analysis, and visualization tools. Features of this cross-platform IDE include:

● Code completion

● Syntax highlighting

● Code benchmarking via Profiler

● Multi-project handling

● Find in Files feature

● History log

● Internal console for introspection

● Third-party plugins support

Advantages —

● Includes support for numerous scientific tools

● Comes with an amazing community support

● Interactive console

● Lightweight

Disadvantages —

● Comes with execution dependencies

● Can be a bit challenging at first for newcomers

Screenshot for References-

Image Source — Spyder

● Eclipse + Pydev

Category: IDE

IDE First Release Year: 2001 — for Eclipse , 2003 — for Pydev

2001 — , 2003 — Platform Compatibility: Windows, macOS, Linux

Windows, macOS, Linux Who It’s For: Intermediate to advanced Python users

Intermediate to advanced Python users Supporting Languages: Python, (Eclipse supports Java and many other programming languages)

Python, (Eclipse supports Java and many other programming languages) Price: Free

Free Download: PyDev Download Link

PyDev Download Link Popular Companies using PyDev and Eclipse Python IDE —

Hike, Edify, Accenture, Wongnai, and Webedia.

Eclipse is one of the top IDEs available, supporting a broad range of programming languages for application development, including Python. Primarily created for developing Java applications, support for other programming languages is introduced via plugins. The plugin used for Python development is Pydev and offers additional benefits over Eclipse IDE, such as:

● Django, Pylint, and unittest integration

● Interactive console

● Remote debugger

● Go to definition

● Type hinting

● Auto code completion with auto import

Advantages —

● Easy to use

● Programmer friendly features

● Free

Disadvantages —

● Complex user interface makes it challenging to work with

● If you’re a beginner then using Eclipse will be difficult

Screenshot for References-

Image Source — Pydev

● IDLE

Image Source — Python

Category: IDE

IDE First Release Year : 1998

: 1998 Platform Compatibility: Windows, macOS, Linux

Windows, macOS, Linux Who It’s For: Beginning Python users

Beginning Python users Price: Free

Free Download: IDLE Download Link

IDLE Download Link Popular Companies using IDLE Python IDE —

Google, Wikipedia, CERN, Yahoo, and NASA.

Short for Integrated Development and Learning Environment, IDLE has been bundled with Python as its default IDE for more than 15 years. IDLE is a cross-platform IDE and offers a basic set of features to keep it unburdened. The features offered, include:

● Shell window with colorized code, input, output and error messages

● Support for multi-window text editor

● Code auto-completion

● Code formatting

● Search within files

● Debugger with breakpoints

● Supports smart indentation

Advantages —

● Perfect for beginners and educational institutions

Disadvantages —

● Lacks features offered by more advanced IDEs, such as project management capabilities

● Wing

Image Source — Wing

Category - IDE

- IDE First Release Year— September 7, 2000

September 7, 2000 Platform - Windows, Linux and Mac

- Windows, Linux and Mac Who It’s For: Intermediate to advanced Python users

Intermediate to advanced Python users Price: $179 per user for a year of commercial use, $245 per user for a permanent commercial use license

$179 per user for a year of commercial use, $245 per user for a permanent commercial use license Download: Wing Download Link

Wing Download Link Popular Companies using Wing Python IDE-

Facebook, Google, Intel, Apple, and NASA

The feature-rich IDE for Python, Wing, was developed to make development faster with the introduction of intelligent features such as smart editor and simple code navigation. Wing comes in 101, Personal, and Pro variants with Pro being the most feature-rich and the only paid one. Other notable features by Wing include:

● Code completion, error detection, and quality analysis

● Smart refactoring capabilities

● Interactive debugger

● Unit tester integration

● Customizable interface

● Support for remote development

● Support for frameworks such as Django, Flask, and more

Advantages —

● Works well with version control systems such as Git

● Strong debugging capabilities

Disadvantages —

● Lacks a compelling user interface

● Cloud9 IDE

Image Source — AmazonCloud9

Category : IDE

: IDE First Release Year — 2010

2010 Platform : Linux/MacOS/Windows

: Linux/MacOS/Windows Popular Companies using Cloud9 Python IDE —

Linkedin, Salesforce, Mailchimp, Mozilla, Edify, and Soundcloud.

Part of Amazon’s Web Services, Cloud9 IDE gives you access to a cloud-based IDE, requiring just a browser. All the code is executed on Amazon’s infrastructure, translating to a seamless and lightweight development experience. Features include:

● Requires minimal project configuration

● Powerful code editor

● Code highlight, formatting and completion capabilities

● Built-in terminal

● Strong debugger

● Real-time pair programming capabilities

● Instantaneous project setup, covering most programming languages and libraries

● Unobstructed access to several AWS services via terminal

Advantages —

● Enables painless development of serverless applications

● Remarkably robust and globally accessible infrastructure

Disadvantages —

● Depends entirely on internet access

● Sublime Text 3

Image Source — Sublime

Category: Code Editor

Code Editor First Release Year: 2008

2008 Platform Compatibility: Windows, macOS, Linux

Windows, macOS, Linux Who It’s For: Beginner, Professional

Beginner, Professional Supporting Languages: Python and C#

Python and C# Price: Freemium

Freemium Download: Sublime text 3 Download Link

Sublime text 3 Download Link Popular Companies using Sublime Text Python IDE-

Starbucks, Myntra, Trivago, Stack, and Zapier.

Sublime Text is one of the most commonly used cross-platform Code Editors and supports several programming languages, including Python. Sublime offers various features such as plenty of themes for visual customization, a clean and distraction-free user interface, and supports package manager for extending the core functionality via plugins. Other features include:

● Up-to-date plugins via Package Manager

● File auto-save

● Macros

● Syntax highlight and code auto-completion

● Simultaneous code editing

● Goto anything, definition and symbol

Advantages —

● Uncluttered user interface

● Split editing

● Fast and high-performance editor

Disadvantages —

● Annoying popup to buy sublime license

● Confusingly large number of shortcuts

● Complicated package manager

● Visual Studio Code

Image Source — Visual Studio Code

Category: IDE

IDE First Release Year: 2015

2015 Platform Compatibility: Windows, macOS, Linux

Windows, macOS, Linux Who It’s For : Professional

: Professional Supporting Languages: All the major programming languages (Python, C++, C#, CSS, Dockerfile, Go, HTML, Java, JavaScript, JSON, Less, Markdown, PHP, PowerShell, Python, SCSS, T-SQL, TypeScript.)

All the major programming languages (Python, C++, C#, CSS, Dockerfile, Go, HTML, Java, JavaScript, JSON, Less, Markdown, PHP, PowerShell, Python, SCSS, T-SQL, TypeScript.) Price: Free

Free Download: Visual Studio Code Download Link

Visual Studio Code Download Link Popular Companies using Visual Source Code (Python IDE —

The Delta Group, TwentyEight, Inc., Focus Ponte Global, Creative Mettle, and National Audubon Society, Inc.

Developed by Microsoft, Visual Studio Code is an acclaimed cross-platform code editor that is highly customizable and allows development in several programming languages, including Python. It offers a wide variety of features to programmers, such as smart debugging, customizability, plugin support for extending core features. Key highlights include:

● Built-in support for Git and version control

● Code refactoring

● Integrated terminal

● IntelliSense for smarter code highlight and completion

● Intuitive code debugging capabilities

● Seamless deployment to Azure

Advantages —

● Regularly updated with active community support

● Free

Disadvantages —

● Vast collection of plugins can make finding the right one challenging

● Lackluster handling of large files

● Longer launch time

Screenshot for References-

Image Source — Visual Studio Code

● Atom

Image Source — Atom

Category: Code Editor

Code Editor First Release Year: 2014

2014 Platform Compatibility: Windows, macOS, Linux

Windows, macOS, Linux Who It’s For: Beginner, Professional

Beginner, Professional Supporting Languages: Python, HTML, Java and 34 other languages.

Python, HTML, Java and 34 other languages. Price: Free

Free Download: Atom Download Link

Atom Download Link Popular Companies using Atom (Python IDE) —

Accenture, Hubspot, Figma, Lyft, and Typeform.

Developed by Github, the top dog in source-code hosting and software version controlling, Atom is a lightweight and cross-platform Code Editor for Python and many other programming languages. Atom provides a lot of features in the form of packages, that enhances its core features. It’s built on HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and Node.js, with the underlying framework being Electron. Features offered include:

● Support for third-party packages via built-in Package Manager

● Supports developer collaboration

● Over 8000 feature and user experience-extending packages

● Support for multi-pane file access

● Smart code completion

● Customizability options

Advantages —

● Lightweight code editor

● Community-driven development and support

Disadvantages —

● Recent updates have increased RAM usage

● Some tweaking required in settings before use

● Jupyter

Image source — Jupyter

Category: IDE

IDE First Release Year- February 2015

February 2015 Browser Compatibility: Chrome, Firefox, Safari

Chrome, Firefox, Safari Price: Free

Free Download: Jupyter Download Link

Jupyter Download Link Popular Companies of Using Jupyter Python IDE-

Google, Bloomberg, Microsoft, IBM, and Soundcloud.

Also known as Project Jupyter, it is an open-source and cross-platform IDE that many data scientists and analysts prefer over other tools. Perfect for working on technologies such as AI, ML, DL, along with several programming languages, Python included. Jupyter Notebooks offer seamless creation and sharing of code, text, and equations for various purposes, including analysis, visualization, and development. Features offered include:

● Code formatting and highlight

● Easy sharing via email, Dropbox

● Produces interactive output

● Plays well with Big Data

● Can be run from local and cloud machines

Advantages —

● Requires minimal setup

● Perfect for quick data analysis

Disadvantages —

● Inexperienced users may find Jupyter complicated

Screenshot for References-