Best IDEs and Tools for Kotlin Development in 2025

Best IDEs and Tools for Kotlin Development: A Complete Guide

Kotlin is a modern, concise, and safe programming language that is rapidly gaining popularity. It is officially supported by Google for Android development, actively used in backend development (Ktor, Spring Boot), and also in Kotlin Multiplatform for cross-platform projects. However, development success largely depends on choosing the right tools. In this article, we will review the best IDEs and utilities that will make your work with Kotlin as productive as possible.

1. IntelliJ IDEA — The Reference Environment for Kotlin

The developers of Kotlin from JetBrains created not only the language itself but also the best environment for working with it — IntelliJ IDEA. This is the number one IDE for professional Kotlin development.

Why choose IntelliJ IDEA?

• Deep Integration: Full support for syntax, refactoring, code completion, and code navigation.
• Smart Suggestions: The IDE itself offers to convert Java code to Kotlin, suggests optimal constructs (for example, replacing if with when).
• Built-in Tools: Work with Gradle, Maven, Git, debugger, and profiler "out of the box".
• Free Community Edition: Great for learning and small projects.

An example of how IntelliJ IDEA helps write clean code. Instead of a long Java equivalent, Kotlin with IDE hints looks like this:

// Kotlin: data class with auto-generation of methodsdata class User(val name: String, val age: Int)

fun main() {    val user = User("Alexey", 30)    // IDE automatically suggests destructuring    val (name, age) = user    println("Name: $name, Age: $age")}

Verdict: If you are serious about Kotlin, IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate (paid) or Community (free) is your primary choice.

2. Android Studio — The Standard for Mobile Development

For creating Android applications in Kotlin, the best choice is Android Studio. This is the official IDE from Google, built on the base of IntelliJ IDEA.

Key Features:

• Specialized Tools: Visual Layout Editor, Android emulator, battery and memory profiler.
• Jetpack Compose Support: A modern toolkit for creating UI in Kotlin. The IDE provides a live preview of components.
• Optimized for Android: All settings and project templates are already adapted for the mobile platform.

Example code for Android using Jetpack Compose:

import androidx.compose.material3.*import androidx.compose.runtime.*

@Composablefun Greeting(name: String) {    // Android Studio shows a preview of this component    Text(text = "Hello, $name!")}

Verdict: Essential for Android developers. Includes everything needed for Kotlin + Android SDK.

3. Alternatives: VS Code and Other Editors

It is not always possible to use heavy IDEs. For quick edits or working on weak hardware, Visual Studio Code is an excellent choice.

Setting up VS Code for Kotlin:

• Install the "Kotlin Language" extension by mathiasfrohlich.
• Add "Kotlin IDE" for improved highlighting and navigation.
• For building projects, you will need to install Gradle separately.

Example of a simple script that can be run in VS Code via the terminal:

// simple_app.ktfun main() {