Over the past few years, VSCode has eaten the developer world. Lightweight, fast, deeply customizable—it feels like the ideal coding companion. On the other side sits IntelliJ: powerful, heavy, feature-packed, and—for some—overkill.
But let’s cut through the hype. If you’re building anything more complex than a quick script, IntelliJ isn’t just "heavier"—it’s smarter. It understands your code, your project, and your dependencies in a way that VSCode simply doesn’t.
Here’s a brutally honest breakdown of where VSCode is behind, backed with real examples—and how some of those gaps can be patched, including with tools like Depramanager.
1. Project Awareness: A Real IDE vs a Fancy Text Editor
IntelliJ knows what your project is. Whether it’s a Java Maven multi-module app, a Python virtual environment, or a full-stack Node.js + Docker + PostgreSQL repo, IntelliJ parses it top-down. It indexes your files, understands your build system, configures environments, and tracks project-wide issues.
VSCode? It sees folders. Just folders.
You might:
- Manually configure Python interpreters
- Hope your
settings.json doesn’t get out of sync
- Wrestle with 4–5 extensions just to handle testing, linting, formatting, and debugging
Example:
- Open a Python project in IntelliJ? You get immediate virtualenv detection, test runner config, linting, and code inspections.
- In VSCode? You manually point to your
.venv, tweak launch configs, and guess why pylint isn't catching anything.
2. Dependency Management: Missing, Misconfigured, or Just Invisible
IntelliJ shows you:
- Real-time dependency graphs
- Conflicts between transitive and direct dependencies
- Recommendations to remove unused packages
- One-click updates
- Vulnerability scanning (Ultimate edition)
VSCode gives you… the raw package.json, and maybe a terminal.
Need to find out if you’re using an outdated version of express, or if that left-pad package is still floating around doing nothing? You’ll need to:
- Install some extensions (maybe)
- Run CLI tools (probably)
- Google half the errors when they break
It’s 2025, and managing dependencies in VSCode still feels like reading a package.json in Notepad.
3. Testing: Painfully Manual vs Seamless Integration
IntelliJ: You write tests. It discovers them. You click the green triangle. It shows test results with stack traces, variable values, and test history—all inline.
VSCode: Hope your language extension supports test discovery. Hope it integrates with your debugger. Hope it even knows what a "test" looks like. Otherwise, it’s back to terminal + npm test.
4. Code Intelligence and Refactoring
IntelliJ gives you:
- Rename that works across files and modules
- Safe refactoring with usage previews
- Automatic method extraction
- Inline documentation with type resolution
- Semantic code search (e.g., “find all functions using X param pattern”)
VSCode? You can rename a variable. Most of the time.
Even with LSP-based extensions like Pyright or TS Server, you don’t get full project-wide understanding. IntelliJ is using a custom compiler per language to truly understand your project, not just parse symbols.
5. Debugging and Tooling Integration
IntelliJ has built-in:
- Interactive debuggers
- Coverage reports
- Profiler
- Local history (like git—but local and auto-saved)
- Integration with Maven, Gradle, Docker, Kubernetes, Git, and more
VSCode can do some of this—but only with extensions, manual configuration, and in many cases, with a fraction of the stability. You’re building the tooling chain yourself—and it often breaks with updates.
So Why Do We Still Use VSCode?
Because it’s:
- Fast
- Lightweight
- Highly customizable
- Open-source
- Has great community support
- Easier to onboard juniors with
- Doesn't need a beefy machine
But if you're working in real-world, multi-dependency, multi-environment projects—VSCode leaves a lot of heavy lifting to you. Especially when it comes to dependency and configuration intelligence.
Bridging the Gap: Introducing Depramanager
Bringing real dependency management to VSCode—without needing IntelliJ.
Depramanager is a free, open-source VSCode extension that adds actual dependency intelligence to your workflow.
Features:
Dependency Graphs
See what’s installed, declared, missing, or unused—at a glance.
Sync & Install
Automatically sync missing dependencies to your package.json, pyproject.toml, etc., or install manually from the editor.
Update Checker
Flags outdated packages and lets you update them with a click.
Security Scanning
Checks for known vulnerabilities across popular ecosystems.
Inline Highlights
Shows outdated or broken dependencies right inside the code editor.
Language-Aware Suggestions
Recommends VSCode extensions relevant to your project’s stack.
GitHub
Marketplace
Open vsix
Depramanager doesn’t try to make VSCode IntelliJ. It just fixes one of its most painful weaknesses.
Final Thoughts
VSCode is a beautiful tool. But let’s be honest—it’s not a full IDE. It can’t compete with IntelliJ on deep insight, project understanding, or smart refactoring out of the box.
But with the right tooling and extensions, you can bring some of that power to your daily workflow.
Use VSCode for what it does best. Use Depramanager to patch its biggest blind spot. And when you really need that fully-integrated IDE experience—don’t feel guilty booting up IntelliJ.