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NetBeans vs Windsurf comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 25, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

NetBeans
Ranking in IDE
8th
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Windsurf
Ranking in IDE
1st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.3
Number of Reviews
39
Ranking in other categories
AI Code Assistants (1st), AI Software Development (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the IDE category, the mindshare of NetBeans is 4.8%, up from 3.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Windsurf is 6.4%, down from 11.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
IDE Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Windsurf6.4%
NetBeans4.8%
Other88.8%
IDE
 

Featured Reviews

DB
Java Developer at a tech vendor with 501-1,000 employees
Some of the valuable features are Java development, RCP ​support and support for various other languages.
* Java development support. (The Java editor is one of the best Java IMHO editors. Java projects support Ant and Maven.) * RCP support * GUI editor for Java windows * RCP support: An easy way to create your own app using NetBeans base. There is a lot of documentation for RCP creation. * Plugins can be easy created. Also there is support for other languages as C/C++, HTLM5, Javascript, Groovy, PHP... There is a lot of plugins that can be easily installed.
DHARMA-TEJA - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Enginner at Sera AI
Feature workflows have become faster and context-aware development is now system-focused
Windsurf has become less of a tool and more of a core part of how I build. I do not think in terms of writing code line by line anymore; I think in terms of features, flows, and systems, and Windsurf helped me translate that into actual implementation across the codebase. It fits especially well when I am doing rapid prototyping, exploring new ideas or architectures, or iterating on existing features quickly. At the same time, one thing I have noticed in my workflow is around model switching. When I switch between models, the GPT generating agent models sometimes the deeper context regarding decision reasoning or intermediate steps does not fully carry over, so I end up re-establishing context manually every time. It is so much painfully manual; that is not a blocker, but since I work on fairly complex multi-step systems, having strong cross-model memory consistency would make it even more powerful. One thing I would really appreciate is stronger cross-model memory and context continuity. Right now, when I switch between models, the surface-level context is there, but the deeper reasoning regarding why certain decisions were made or how a flow evolved does not always carry over fully. Since I work on complex and multi-step agents, I end up re-establishing the context manually. If Windsurf could maintain a kind of shared memory layer across models where intent, decisions, and intermediate steps persist, it would make the whole experience much more seamless. Improving the memory continuity and control would take it from powerful to extremely reliable at scale. Overall, Windsurf is already a strong tool, but there are a few areas where improvements would make a big difference, especially for advanced workflows. The first is cross-model memory and context continuity. The second is better control over agent execution. Right now, when switching between models—for instance, if I am using a tier of models and then I reach a limit, and then I need to switch to a lesser limit model—the high-level context is there, but deeper reasoning is lost. A shared memory layer across models would make the experience much more seamless. Furthermore, while Cascade is powerful, for larger changes, it would help to have more visibility or control, such as previewing the execution plan and guiding steps before it runs. The UI and documentation provided are pretty good, though I think there is room for true visibility and feedback during agent execution. While the amount of time put into the design and documentation is great, figuring out things with the documentation can often be done without any third-party help. Some advanced use cases are not fully explored in the documentation, but the best practices for using agents effectively are very clear, such as how to structure prompts for multi-file changes and how to guide Cascade for better outputs. Real-world advanced examples are already implemented in there; that could be very helpful for us. The main advice I would give to others looking into using Windsurf is to not use it as a traditional code assistant. Windsurf really shines when you treat it as a feature-level or system-level tool, not just something for autocomplete or small snippets. So instead of thinking "write this function," think more toward "build this flow." Learn how to guide it properly. That is the main thing I would advise: learn how to guide it properly, how to prompt it properly, and start with real use cases, not toy examples.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"C++ 11 support (for a long time)"
"Overall, for our company, it has been a good addition, as development times have been shortened using NetBeans."
"Server Support"
"It is easy to deploy, manage servers, and ORMS resources."
"NetBeans Platform can be freely used as a desktop application base, where all the functionality is prepared for me and I make only the business modules."
"It comes out of package fully-loaded with a lot of great features for web development."
"Large scale of projects, templates, and coding support."
"Use it and you will not regret your decision."
"Windsurf has positively impacted my organization by increasing the productivity of my project and software development by 100 percent, allowing us to deploy and push new features into production much faster than before, so what used to take months to accomplish is now done in just days, and we deploy more features in a week than we used to do in two weeks or sometimes a month."
"Windsurf has created a personal impact on my productivity, allowing me to typically meet deadlines in one week instead of two."
"Windsurf has positively impacted my organization by helping us achieve at least ten to twenty percent improvement for each individual working in the data warehouse to use Windsurf instead of looking for help from any other team."
"Since adopting Windsurf, I have been able to downsize my staff and increase my output by 5x."
"Windsurf has actually boosted my productivity significantly, and if I am implementing any user story or maybe working on a bug, ninety percent of my task is completed by Windsurf; I just guide it how to do it, and it completes most of my work."
"Windsurf has helped me a lot by reducing the development time, and by using Windsurf, I have reduced my time by 30% to 40%."
"Overall, Windsurf is a very good tool for engineering productivity and coding sessions."
"Overall, Windsurf is a great tool, fitting the current AI journey that individual organizations are looking to join, and it is really helping employees and developers accelerate their code generation lifecycle."
 

Cons

"It is a very heavy load on the computer, especially when you compare with Sublime Text Limited plugins and themes."
"There are always rooms for improvement for any product. The good thing with NetBeans is that since it is Open Source, you can just go ahead and contribute whatever you want to change yourself."
"The debugging mechanize could be improved compared to IntelliJ, for example."
"One of main areas that the tool can improve is performance."
"The background scanning of projects should be optimized after starting NetBeans."
"There are always rooms for improvement for any product."
"Debugging: Watches, Evaluate Expression, and data inspection are limited."
"Background scanning of sources on demand, disallowed by Options (processor usage, build cannot be deleted by the old version build)."
"Windsurf can be improved by increasing the context awareness. It sometimes loses context across files."
"It is so much painfully manual; that is not a blocker, but since I work on fairly complex multi-step systems, having strong cross-model memory consistency would make it even more powerful."
"Windsurf can improve its analytical solutions and inbuilt features, as I currently have a dependency on external third-party tools that could be introduced into Windsurf itself to reduce that time or dependency."
"In terms of improvement, I believe Windsurf could enhance features for generating PPTs and documentation to be clearer and more understandable, including visuals."
"Windsurf can be improved by integrating newer features and the latest features that tools like Claude Code provide, since I think the core team has been absorbed into Google and many people have been switching over to other IDEs."
"I would like to add that Windsurf is very good and fits well into my workflow, but I would prefer if the cascade agent of Windsurf could be a little better."
"I would appreciate having context usage visibility, such as a bar or indicator showing how much context is used by the chat in a single conversation."
"Windsurf can be improved by using better models, especially state-of-the-art ones."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"NetBeans is free and open source."
"I am sad that CLion is not free. Currently, it has no support for Linux makefiles, only cmake, and this is a big mess."
"It is an open source and free tool, with no changes, and the licensing allows me even to change source code, if I need."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
15%
Insurance Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Educational Organization
6%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Outsourcing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business1
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise2
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business21
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise15
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Windsurf?
In our case, Windsurf's pricing and licensing were reasonable and straightforward to work with, so we did not face any major setup complexity and the process was smooth from a procurement standpoint.
What needs improvement with Windsurf?
The main improvements I would suggest for Windsurf are stronger context handling for bigger projects and a bit more control over the code it generates. This would make it even smoother and faster f...
What is your primary use case for Windsurf?
Our main use case for Windsurf is accelerating the development for all the client projects that we handle, especially when we are building websites, AI agents, and automations. For example, when we...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Weyco Group Inc.
Dell, Anduril, MongoDB, Zillow, Atlassian
Find out what your peers are saying about NetBeans vs. Windsurf and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.