108

I'm starting to develop for Android. Which IDE should I use - Android Studio or Eclipse sdk? I would like to know which one is better.

Chin
  • 19,717
  • 37
  • 107
  • 164
Joshua Welz
  • 1,155
  • 2
  • 7
  • 4
  • 9
    `better` is what makes you comfortable with coding. It can be vary with different developers. – Vigbyor Jul 25 '13 at 04:39
  • 16
    @Backtrack - That's what brought me here. :-) – bhootjb Oct 08 '13 at 13:17
  • 2
    I'd go for the Eclipse version because I'm a vim user and vim can run inside of Eclipse using the eclim plugin. It allows vim to interact with eclipse, and vice versa. For example, you get the full code completion and navigation features of eclipse right in vim. – trusktr Jan 16 '14 at 21:10
  • 4
    I know this question is closed, but a year later there is a clear answer: Android Studio. I have been forced to use Eclipse in the past (for Java and Android development) and its UI is *awful* compared to almost every other IDE (AS, Netbeans,...). Sure, you can do anything with Eclipse - if you don't mind looking through nonintuitive menus or searching across Internet where they hid some functionality (like searching files for a string). Android Studio on the other hand... it just works as expected. In 2013 Eclipse might have had a chance, but not anymore. Just use Android Studio. :) – johndodo Sep 01 '14 at 18:01
  • 3
    Is this not awesome thing that a closed question has 52 up flags?. This is called genuine question. but ya , its off-Topic – Adnan Ahmad Khan Mar 11 '15 at 12:54
  • 1
    Eclipse is effectively depreciated now, since the Android Developers Home Page clearly states that they will prioritize the AS for all IDE updates. – Prahlad Yeri May 27 '15 at 05:33
  • 1
    Android Studio is the best.For installing Android Studio,you can follow the step by step procedure,[here](http://www.androidperitia.com/install_androidstudio/) – App Crazy Mar 09 '16 at 14:47
  • 1
    i moved on to AS from eclipse because of eclipse lacking of MultiDex in eclipse, otherwise i wouldnt have done that – Shirish Herwade Mar 11 '16 at 05:39
  • 1
    @trusktr: You can use [IdeaVim for IntelliJ](https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/164?pr=idea) in Android Studio. – Sumit Jul 15 '16 at 18:56

5 Answers5

42

Working with Eclipse can be difficult at times, probably when debugging and designing layouts Eclipse sometimes get stuck and we have to restart Eclipse from time to time. Also you get problems with emulators.

Android studio was released very recently and this IDE is not yet heavily used by developers. Therefore, it may contain certain bugs.

This describes the difference between android android studio and eclipse project structure: Android Studio Project Structure (v.s. Eclipse Project Structure)

This teaches you how to use the android studio: http://www.infinum.co/the-capsized-eight/articles/android-studio-vs-eclipse-1-0

DarkCygnus
  • 7,420
  • 4
  • 36
  • 59
TharakaNirmana
  • 10,237
  • 8
  • 50
  • 69
  • 3
    If you are going to use Gradle - then Android Studio is your choice - because support for Gradle within Eclipse is not that great. (And you may be kind-of forced to use Gradle say when you have to deal with MultiDex.) – Jasper Oct 01 '15 at 04:38
  • 2
    I am replying to my own answer after 2.5 years. At that time I was using eclipse. About a year ago I switched to studio. Now I feel that Android studio is better because the problems that developers experienced such as missing R file, problems when importing and integrating as libraries are not there with studio. Also love the real time preview in xml builder. However studio takes a longer time to build, and miss the short cut keys of eclipse. – TharakaNirmana Sep 14 '16 at 08:32
12

The use of IDE is your personal preference. But personally if I had to choose, Eclipse is a widely known, trusted and certainly offers more features then Android Studio. Android Studio is a little new right now. May be it's upcoming versions keep up to Eclipse level soon.

Keyur Golani
  • 573
  • 8
  • 26
7

Both are equally good. With Android Studio you have ADT tools integrated, and with eclipse you need to integrate them manually. With Android Studio, it feels like a tool designed from the outset with Android development in mind. Go ahead, they have same features.

Harsh
  • 599
  • 3
  • 20
  • 20
    Not totally true, ADT is available bundled with Eclipse: see ADT bundle here: http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html – Luca Vitucci Aug 18 '13 at 20:15
6

From the Android Studio download page:

Caution: Android Studio is currently available as an early access preview. Several features are either incomplete or not yet implemented and you may encounter bugs. If you are not comfortable using an unfinished product, you may want to instead download (or continue to use) the ADT Bundle (Eclipse with the ADT Plugin).

Steven
  • 177
  • 13
4

My first choice is Android Studio. its has great feature to develop android application.

Eclipse is not that hard to learn also.If you're going to be learning Android development from the start, I can recommend Hello, Android, which I just finished. It shows you exactly how to use all the features of Eclipse that are useful for developing Android apps. There's also a brief section on getting set up to develop from the command line and from other IDEs.

S. Rasel
  • 2,841
  • 1
  • 16
  • 12
  • 1
    As a long time Eclipse user, being forced to use Android Studio is rude at best. Android Studio has no concept of continuous build and when it does build, there is no way to see where the errors are. Many things eclipse did easily are either obscure or missing from AS. I find it much more difficult to use, and no I never used eclipse to help build ui's, always did it from source so those graphical editing tools are a waste of time. Why did you force AS on us Google? – pstorli Feb 14 '17 at 18:32