# Free alternatives to IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate

> IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate (IntelliJ IDEA (Organizations tab)) costs $719 a year. Free alternatives: VSCodium and Zed. Data checked 2026-10-17.

- Page: https://stoprenting.dev/apps/jetbrains/
- Category: Developer Tools (https://stoprenting.dev/categories/developer-tools/)
- Vendor: JetBrains
- Plan: IntelliJ IDEA (Organizations tab)
- Price: $59.92/month, $719/year
- Billing: per user per year
- Price quote from the vendor's page: "IntelliJ IDEA per user, per year $719.00"
- Price source: https://www.jetbrains.com/idea/buy/ (checked 2026-10-17)

## Alternatives

### VSCodium

- Website: https://vscodium.com
- Repository: https://github.com/VSCodium/vscodium (33,670 stars, last push 2026-10-14)
- License: MIT
- Open source: yes, OSI-approved license
- Type: desktop app
- Linux: AUR: vscodium; Flathub: com.vscodium.codium
- Self-hostable: no
- Install: `yay -S vscodium`, `flatpak install flathub com.vscodium.codium`
- More: https://stoprenting.dev/alternatives/vscodium/
- Checked: 2026-10-17

### Zed

- Website: https://zed.dev
- Repository: https://github.com/zed-industries/zed (91,828 stars, last push 2026-10-16)
- License: GPL-3.0 (+Apache-2.0 parts)
- Open source: yes, OSI-approved license
- Type: desktop app
- Linux: Arch extra: zed; Flathub: dev.zed.Zed
- Self-hostable: no
- Install: `sudo pacman -S zed`, `flatpak install flathub dev.zed.Zed`
- More: https://stoprenting.dev/alternatives/zed/
- Checked: 2026-10-17

## FAQ

### Is there a free alternative to IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate?

Yes. The 2 free alternatives are VSCodium (open source, MIT) and Zed (open source, GPL-3.0).

### How much does IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate cost?

IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate's IntelliJ IDEA (Organizations tab) plan costs $59.92 a month, which is $719 a year (per user per year). Source: the official pricing page at jetbrains.com, checked Oct 17, 2026.

### Which IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate alternatives run on Linux?

VSCodium (AUR: vscodium; Flathub: com.vscodium.codium) and Zed (Arch extra: zed; Flathub: dev.zed.Zed).

### Can you self-host a IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate alternative?

VSCodium and Zed are desktop apps that run on your own machine, so there's nothing to host.

### Are these IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate alternatives open source?

Yes. All 2 use OSI-approved open-source licenses: VSCodium (MIT) and Zed (GPL-3.0).

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Source: Stop Renting (https://stoprenting.dev). Methodology: https://stoprenting.dev/methodology/