Is NetBeans open source?

Yes. NetBeans is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at apache/netbeans and is written mainly in Java.

Yes. NetBeans is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

Can I self-host NetBeans?

Yes. NetBeans can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.

What is NetBeans an alternative to?

NetBeans is an open-source alternative to Visual Studio, IntelliJ IDEA, WebStorm and CLion. Other open-source alternatives to Visual Studio include Visual Studio Code, code-server and VSCodium.

Is NetBeans actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to NetBeans was on 13 October 2026, and the latest release is 31, published on 5 August 2026. The project has 3.1k stars on GitHub.

NetBeans: open-source alternative to Visual Studio

About NetBeans

Apache NetBeans is a development environment, tooling platform and application framework. It provides editors, wizards, and templates to help create applications in Java, PHP and many other languages. It can be installed on all operating systems that support Java, including Windows, Linux, Mac OSX and BSD.

Key features

Highlights source code syntactically and semantically
Lets you easily refactor code
Provides editors, wizards, and templates for Java, PHP, HTML5, CSS, JavaScript and more
Cross-platform on Windows, Linux, Mac OSX and BSD

Built with: Java tools
Tags: ide; java; php; javascript; html5; css

NetBeans: questions and answers

What is NetBeans?: NetBeans is a development environment, tooling platform and application framework that supports multiple languages.
Is NetBeans open source?: Yes. NetBeans is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at apache/netbeans and is written mainly in Java.
Is NetBeans free?: Yes. NetBeans is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
Can I self-host NetBeans?: Yes. NetBeans can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
What is NetBeans an alternative to?: NetBeans is an open-source alternative to Visual Studio, IntelliJ IDEA, WebStorm and CLion. Other open-source alternatives to Visual Studio include Visual Studio Code, code-server and VSCodium.
Is NetBeans actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to NetBeans was on 13 October 2026, and the latest release is 31, published on 5 August 2026. The project has 3.1k stars on GitHub.