&gt; However, the plugins lag behind the standalone IDEs on features.<p>I haven&#x27;t noticed that. If I want the latest features, I can often find an EAP with them.<p>The biggest issue with using IntelliJ IDEA instead of one of the IDEs is you&#x27;re forced to see Java-ish project conventions in a few places, and some of the functions are accessed a bit differently or need to be configured on every project.<p>I happen to use it also when a project is partly written in Java, e.g. a JRuby app.