Top 12 Must‑Have IntelliJ IDEA Plugins for Java Developers (2024)

Plugin Installation

Open the Settings file and select the Plugins option. You can access it via Ctrl+Alt+S or through File → Settings.

There are three ways to install plugins: from the JetBrains marketplace, third‑party repositories, or a locally downloaded plugin package. See previous articles about Settings for details.

Various Plugins

1. activate-power-mode and Power mode II

Ported from the Atom plugin activate-power-mode to IDEA. The screen shakes while coding; Power mode II adds colorful effects.

2. Background Image Plus

This plugin lets you set a custom background image for the IDEA editor.

After installation, restart IDEA, then go to View → Set Background Image , choose a local picture, and click OK.

3. Grep Console

Customizes log colors so the IDEA console can display logs in different colors for each level.

You can also search logs with regular‑expression support.

4. Free MyBatis Plugin

Allows editing mybatis.xml files as if they were Java code. After installation, a green arrow appears next to the code; clicking it jumps to the corresponding XML file.

5. MyBatis Log Plugin

Displays the exact SQL statements executed by MyBatis directly in the console, allowing you to copy and run them without manual conversion.

6. String Manipulation

A powerful tool for converting string cases (camelCase, snake_case, kebab-case, etc.) and other text transformations. Use Alt+M to invoke.

Switch between various naming styles such as camelCase, snake_case, kebab-case, SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE, dot.case, Words Capitalized, PascalCase, etc.

Upper‑case selected text, reverse styles, and more.

7. Alibaba Java Coding Guidelines

Checks code against Alibaba's Java coding standards. The rules are based on the "Alibaba Java Development Manual".

8. Lombok

Lombok reduces boilerplate by generating getters, setters, constructors, and other methods at compile time using annotations such as @Getter, @Setter, @Data, etc.

After installing the plugin, add the Lombok dependency to your project (Maven example):

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.projectlombok</groupId>
    <artifactId>lombok</artifactId>
</dependency>

9. Key Promoter

Shows a popup with the keyboard shortcut for any action you invoke with the mouse, helping you learn IDEA shortcuts faster.

10. GsonFormat

Generates Java POJOs from JSON data instantly. Create an empty class, paste JSON, and press Alt+Insert (or Alt+S ) to generate the fields.

11. RestfulToolkit

Helps locate Spring MVC controller methods by searching for the URL mapping. It also can generate default test data and invoke tests directly.

12. JRebel

Enables hot‑deployment: changes to Java code take effect without restarting the application, skipping the usual rebuild and redeploy cycle.

Recommended Plugins (Brief List)

Gitee – Code hosting plugin (https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/8383-gitee)

Alibaba Java Coding Guidelines – Code style checker (https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/10046-alibaba-java-coding-guidelines)

IDE Features Trainer – Interactive learning (https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/8554?pr=idea)

Key Promoter – Shortcut hints (https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/4455?pr=idea)

Grep Console – Console color customization (https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/7125-grep-console)

String Manipulation – Case conversion tool (https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/2162?pr=idea)

CheckStyle‑IDEA – Code style checking (https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/1065?pr=idea)

FindBugs‑IDEA – Bug detection (https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/3847?pr=idea)

MetricsReloaded – Complexity analysis (https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/93?pr=idea)

Statistic – Code statistics (https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/4509?pr=idea)

JRebel Plugin – Hot deployment (https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/?id=4441)

CodeGlance – Code minimap (https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/7275?pr=idea)

GsonFormat – JSON to POJO (https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/7654?pr=idea)

Markdown Navigator – Markdown authoring (https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/7896?pr=idea)

Eclipse Code Formatter – Eclipse formatting style (https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/6546?pr=idea)

Jindent‑Source Code Formatter – Custom templates (http://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/2170?pr=idea)

Translation – Translation assistance (https://github.com/YiiGuxing/TranslationPlugin)

Maven Helper – Maven support (https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/7179-maven-helper)

Properties to YAML Converter – Convert properties to YAML (https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/8000-properties-to-yaml-converter)

Git Flow Integration – Git Flow UI (https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/7315-git-flow-integration)

Rainbow Brackets – Bracket coloring (https://github.com/izhangzhihao/intellij-rainbow-brackets)

MybatisX – Free MyBatis assistance (https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/10119-mybatisx)

Lombok Plugin – Lombok support (https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/6317-lombok-plugin)

.ignore – Generate .gitignore files (https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/7495--ignore)

mongo4idea – MongoDB client (https://github.com/dboissier/mongo4idea)

iedis – Redis client (https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/9228-iedis)

GenerateAllSetter – Quickly generate setters (https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/9360-generateallsetter)