PyCharm vs Atom. Read our side by side review

When you are starting to learn to program, or even if you are an experienced developer, you will need an integrated development environment, also called IDE, to write your code. Today, choosing the best IDE is not that simple because of the multiple choices available. People are often confused about which IDE would be best for them. Two IDEs, PyCharm and Atom, often stand out compared to other options, especially when using Python. In this article, I will discuss these 2 IDEs and their key differences, which will help you choose the best suitable IDE for your work. So, let’s get started!

What is PyCharm?

PyCharm is the most popular IDE used to work on Python projects. This IDE includes excellent features such as remarkable code completion and inspection with advanced debugger and support for web programming and various other frameworks. PyCharm has been created by JetBrains, which focuses on creating an integrated development environment for different programming languages, including Python, JavaScript, and PHP.

JetBrains has developed this IDE which is a cross-platform IDE for Python. It supports Python versions 2.x and 3.x, and it is also compatible with multiple operating systems like Windows, Linux, and macOS. It comes with exhaustive tools and features list to help programmers work on various software applications in Python quickly and efficiently. You also have options to customize the PyCharm user interface according to your specific needs and preferences. In addition, you can add multiple plugins to PyCharm IDE to add more functionalities for meeting the complex project requirements. This IDE is also used by large enterprises such as Pinterest, Twitter, HP, Symantec, and Groupon.

Below are the core features that make PyCharm a preferable IDE for development:

• Intelligent code editor for smoother code completion
• Easy Code navigation
• Presence of visual debugger to set breakpoints and debug the code
• Refactoring to rename one or more files at a time
• Support for popular Python Web frameworks
• Assistance for Python scientific libraries
• Support for various database tools
• Assistance for many Web technologies
• A customizable and cross-platform IDE
• Support for a version control system with Git Visualization in the editor to check the details of all the commits

What is Atom?

Atom is a free and open-source IDE developed by GitHub. It is referred as “A Hackable Text and Source Code Editor for Linux”. Atom enables users to install third-party themes and packages to customize the features and looks of the editor as per your preference. Therefore, it is the best IDE for a beginner to start with.

One of the amazing factors of Atom is that you can use R and Python for data science projects in a consistent way. It provides syntax highlighting for both and many other languages like C, C++, C#, HTML, Java, JavaScript, Scala, COBOL, CSS, CoffeeScript, Go, JSON, Perl, PHP, Ruby, etc.

Below are the core features of Atom IDE:

• Provides Cross-platform editing with the capability to work across OS X, Windows, or Linux operating systems
• Come with a built-in package manager to search and install new packages or create your own package
• Supports smart autocompletion to help you write your code faster
• Contains file system browser to easily browse and open a single file, a whole project, or multiple projects in a single window
• You can access multiple panes in Atom’s interface to compare and edit code across files
• Provides you the option to choose from thousands of open source packages that add new features and functionality to Atom
• It comes with a customizable interface, and you can also tweak the look and feel of your UI with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript

Now let me tell you about the differences between PyCharm and Atom IDEs.

PyCharm vs Atom: Key Differences

Goal

PyCharm IDE was built for working on Python projects. So, if you are looking to work on large-scale Python projects, this IDE would be more suitable for you. In comparison, Atom IDE is popular for multiple programming languages and not just Python. This IDE can be used to build both the back end and front end of an application using a combination of programming languages.

Price

PyCharm provides a community edition for developers to use the IDE for free. it also has a professional edition with some unique and advanced features, but it comes at a significant cost (around 200$ per year). Whereas Atom ide is open source and completely free to use, it is more suitable for beginners.

Installation

Installing Atom IDE is very straightforward and fast. Atom is lightweight, and it is very easy to install, and does not take much time to configure the initial setup. And it runs very smoothly at the very first time. Whereas when we talk about PyCharm IDE, it is heavily loaded with developer tools that professionals mostly use, so it takes some time to install it entirely, and configuring it is complex. I have observed that it takes some time to start in the beginning. It is not lightning fast at Atom.

Simplicity

When we consider simplicity as a parameter, Atom is the winner between the two. By simplicity, I mean if you are a beginner, how simple it is for you to go through the user interface of the IDE and find out what you want to do. Atom has a very minimal design, making it much easier for any beginner to go through the interface and find what they are looking for.

When it comes to PyCharm, it can get very overwhelming for beginners because it is loaded with plenty of options. As a beginner, I would not know which button is for what feature.

Load on System

By load on system, I mean how much the editor of the IDE is affecting the capacity and performance of the system which has the IDE installed. Atom being the lightweight does not affect your system much, but PyCharm is loaded with features and developer tools, so it will affect the machine you are using. If you do not have a very good configuration system, Atom is preferable. Still, if you have a decent configuration like an i5 processor with 8 GB RAM, you can use PyCharm without any worry.

Unique Selling Point (USP)

Atom is open source, and it also provides a feature where you can create your own plugins that you think are necessary for the application development and install them on Atom.

PyCharm provides environment auto configuration, which means it will already configure the environment for you according to your project. If you are doing a project for web development, it will provide the environment for the web development, and if you are working on the software building, it will provide necessary tools for that it also provides collaborative development or also known as pair programming, where you can share your code with someone in the real-time and you both can use the codes on the same time.

Which IDE should you choose, Atom or PyCharm?

Atom is free, open-source, and modular architecture, and on the other hand, PyCharm has high-end features such as smart auto-completion, intelligent code analysis, and powerful refactoring. Thus, in comparison with Atom vs PyCharm, Atom is more suitable for beginners because of its simplicity, and PyCharm is more ideal for experienced developers working on large-scale Python projects.

Below is a summarized table that shows the key differences between PyCharm and Atom.

Final Thoughts

So that was all the differences between the two most popular IDEs PyCharm and Atom. Both the IDEs are very useful for beginners Starting to code or even experienced software developers.  Both have a lot of cool features and functionalities to offer. So, choose your IDE and get started with coding today!