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I would like to have objective answers about this question :

Why should I use Android Studio, encounter issues and complex tasks for, for example, importing libraries which are developed for Eclipse, having less support about bug I may encounter, ... rather than continuing using Eclipse ?

What are the real advantages of Android Studio vs Eclipse ?

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    It's also very slow (Android Studio). The only thing I could think of is that it could eventually become better than Eclipse. For now, I would stick with Eclipse. I also couldn't figure out how (if I even could) drag widgets onto my graphical layout. I gave up. Everything seems to be very slow. – Michael Yaworski Dec 08 '13 at 01:06
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    This is not a good question for SO. You're more likely to get answers that don't deal with real facts, rather they'll mostly be opinions. They're both IDE's, but consider the fact that Android Studio is still in beta. – hichris123 Dec 08 '13 at 01:07
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    The question is really about features, slowness ... of Eclipse and Android Studio. Not about opinions. –  Dec 08 '13 at 01:08
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    @hichris123 This could be a great question. Until people start answering with nonsense and solely opinions, I think it should stay up. I'm interested. Opinions aren't bad if they're supported by facts. – Michael Yaworski Dec 08 '13 at 01:09
  • Sure, you can list their features, but **non-feature comparisons such as slowness are subjective**. – hichris123 Dec 08 '13 at 01:17
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    A similar question was posted on g+ https://plus.google.com/111848292841679223059/posts/1AAF5w3SWjC . François Blavoet wrote a good answer to this question. – owe Dec 09 '13 at 09:13
  • The primary advantage is the android gradle build system that it is based on which gives you powerful, easily customizable builds from the command line. Another big advantage with that is the introduction of product flavors that allow you to easily have variations on your product (e.g. Lite vs. Pro versions). So the real difference is between the gradle build system and the arcane, obscure one that is part of ADT. There are reasons not to use it involving 3rd party libraries and tools that may not be supported. –  Jan 17 '14 at 16:31
  • If the Eclipse ADT v23 update bug("This Android SDK requires Android Developer Toolkit version 23.0.0 or above") pissed you off enough, you may consider Android Studio. I believe this was the point. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/24437564/update-eclipse-with-android-development-tools-v-23 – wizurd Nov 09 '14 at 20:22
  • Exactly a year later, [Google releases Android Studio 1.0, the first stable version of its IDE](http://venturebeat.com/2014/12/08/google-releases-android-studio-1-0-the-first-stable-version-of-its-ide) – nawfal Dec 25 '14 at 17:37
  • A note added in Android developer website to migrate to Android Studio to get latest IDE updates http://developer.android.com/tools/help/adt.html Note: If you have been using Eclipse with ADT, be aware that Android Studio is now the official IDE for Android, so you should migrate to Android Studio to receive all the latest IDE updates. For help moving projects, see Migrating to Android Studio. – binary Jan 16 '15 at 00:30
  • A good comparison. https://droidqd.wordpress.com/2015/02/06/eclipse-vs-android-studio-for-android-application-development/ – QAMAR Mar 06 '15 at 08:39

8 Answers8

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The last update is now more than a year old, so here goes another update (25th of October 2016):

TL;DR

  • Eclipse ADT has been deprecated and should no longer be used.
  • Android Studio is a stable product and is updated much more frequently than IntelliJ
  • I chose to use Android Studio over IntelliJ about a year ago and haven't looked back.
  • When in doubt, use Android Studio.

IntelliJ over Android Studio

The only reason I can see for using IntelliJ over Android Studio is if you're using the Ultimate edition. It has a lot more plugins that you can use with the IDE. If you're using the Ultimate edition already and don't want to use two IDE's simultaneously, there is no reason to switch over to Android Studio (except bleeding-edge features).

Android Studio does ship with the C/C++ Plugin now, but AFAIK, there is still no support for HTML/CSS/JS (which is helpful with all these hybrid frameworks these days).

For the sake of keeping this answer short, I have opted to remove all previous (and outdated) statements, instead of just striking them. Feel free to browse the edit-history if you're interested!

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Lukas Knuth
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    I haven't used Android Studio in anger, but it seems like the gradle build takes about a minute where the Eclipse build takes a few seconds. "Faster and lighter" doesn't seem right. Am I missing something? – Johannes Brodwall Mar 07 '14 at 10:46
  • @JohannesBrodwall a formulation problem. That was supposed to be about IntelliJ. – Lukas Knuth Mar 07 '14 at 11:14
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    I installed the last version of Android Studio, it consumes the CPU and RAM much much more than eclipse ((I have i7 laptop with 10G RAM )), in addition some works become hard work, I was able to build "hello world in 2 minutes in eclipse, but not be able to do so in android studio, even simple task is not clear, for example you can find a lot of questions about "how to delete project from android studio", my opinion about android studio is: not ready to use it till now, it is promising product but it stuck in tiny errors, eclipse is still gives more flexible than android studio. – Eng. Samer T Feb 03 '15 at 12:25
  • The latest stable version of android studio is easy to install & good to use, and it is the official Android IDE. You can use inbuilt maven as build tool, VCS (version control system) is nice and you can easily clone, import projects from git/svn & other server repositories. It is easy to shift/migrate from eclipse; we need to understand what is Project and Module in AndroidStudio(i.e. IntelliJ). You can continue with our favorite build like maven, svn. You can build multiple apks for testing from a single project unlike eclipse approach. Visual layout editor is far better than eclipse. – Sree Rama Apr 16 '15 at 07:29
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    Now, AS is stable, but also buggy and terrible. – Sever Jun 05 '15 at 16:38
  • Android Studio is still buggy, and the associated build process (i.e. Gradle) is slow and cumbersome. If you are a professional developer earning money using Eclipse & Ant, I recommend you stay with the tools that work properly. – Richard Le Mesurier Jun 15 '15 at 15:28
  • please just give me a word, 'Android Studio' Or 'Eclipse' ? – Shafizadeh Aug 04 '15 at 08:34
  • @Sajad Eclipse is deprecated now. IntelliJ or Android Studio isn't so simple. Read the above and check whats more important to you: newest stuff but possibly unstable (AS) or stable but new stuff takes some time to get in (IJ). – Lukas Knuth Aug 04 '15 at 09:00
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Eclipse + ADT sometimes feels like an unfinished product anyways. If you like trying new things or you are not a fan of Eclipse I would suggest going for Android Studio, if you are right now happy with Eclipse, just stay with it until Android Studio is mature enough to move on.

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    I'm not happy with Eclipse and am starting a new project. I think I'll give Android Studio a whirl. – Geeks On Hugs Jan 18 '14 at 16:53
  • @AnthonyTanas Yeah, give Android Studio a whirl. I found Gradle and Maven much easier to integrate there than in Eclipse. Some of the bugs Eclipse has, Android Studio doesn't have. – Rohodude Jan 18 '14 at 21:36
  • @AnthonyTanas have you tried AS yet? We're starting a new project and currently use Eclipse but hate it, would love to hear your experiences so far. – user1130176 Feb 01 '14 at 16:12
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    @user1130176 I've switched back to Eclipse pretty quick however I gave up pretty quick. I couldn't figure out how to add a library in. I'm used to just putting it into the libs folder and then referencing it but apparently it didn't work that way and as I'm dealing with some other learning curves with new libraries I thought now's not a good time for an optional learning curve. I was liking it before I ran into that but honestly didn't get tons of experience with it. – Geeks On Hugs Feb 10 '14 at 01:25
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Great question, the answer is much longer than what I can reasonably post in an SO answer.

If you are new to Android you should absolutely be using Android Studio. By using Eclipse you are going to be learning an outdated IDE (for Android specifically) which Google has strongly indicated they are not going to be supporting in the future. It is much better to learn the skill you are going to be using 2 years from now.

Also: Android Studio has come a long way and been updated multiple times. It was definitely more shaky in the past but I have now used it for two separate Android app projects without issue.

I have also written two comprehensive articles on this topic for anyone who wants the complete in-depth details. If you are still on the fence about which to use then you can read either:

If you just want a general overview of the differences:

http://www.airpair.com/android/android-studio-vs-eclipse

For Migrating from Eclipse:

http://rexstjohn.com/exporting-android-project-eclipse-android-studio-0-4-0/

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    Can you quote source for "Google has strongly indicated they are not going to be supporting in the future"? See http://tools.android.com/roadmap and https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=57668 "To make it work in Eclipse we will have to change the Gradle plugin for Eclipse, the same way we are modifying the Gradle support in IntelliJ" – Paul Verest Apr 15 '14 at 09:27
  • http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16617638/will-eclipse-adt-be-deprecated – Paul Verest Apr 15 '14 at 10:15
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Additional Pro:

Android Studio is ready for Android projects that use Gradle as their building system. Gradle is becoming the standard for building and testing your Android application. Check the Gradle Plugin User Guide in Android's website .

By the time of writing this answer, the ADT plugin for Eclipse does not support a Gradle layout style. Some hacking has to be done if you want to use Eclipse+Android+Gradle and an Android project with a Gradle directory layout what is quite inconvenient. See Integration of Eclipse with Gradle in an Android project.

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Israel Varea
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Why should I use Android Studio, encounter issues and complex tasks for, for example, importing libraries which are developed for Eclipse, having less support about bug I may encounter, ... rather than continuing using Eclipse ?

You should not if you don't want to. You can try this new software or wait for the same on Eclipse platform. See http://tools.android.com/roadmap

Android Studio

  • Gradle Build system deep integration
  • ADT Feature parity

Eclipse plug-ins

  • Visual layout editor
  • Resource manager
  • Theme editor
  • Better refactoring support

That is while Android Studio is pushing with gradle, it is not yet on ADT Feature parity.

What are the real advantages of Android Studio vs Eclipse ?

It is based on other platform: IntelliJ. Eclipse, IntelliJ, NetBeans and other platforms all have their users, features, bugs and plans for development. So if you starting using Android Studio you should learn from IntelliJ users, that should tell you about those features and how to avoid bugs.

In the end it is just another software to do the same.

Read Is it possible to use the Gradle build system for Android with Eclipse? that have much more links about Android with gradle in Eclipse.

Try Nodeclipse/Enide Gradle for Eclipse (marketplace) if you want to experiment or fully use as additional build system right now.

Some screenshots for Gradle for Eclipse by Nodeclipse/Enide effort. Like Android Studio it is under development.

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As an old eclipse user, after reading "Android Studio vs Eclipse" comments, I stayed with Eclipse. However, I stucked with Gradle build and finally I decided to switch to Android Studio, et voila: it's such an easy environment! I built my project with Gradle in a minute and I didn't spend any extra minute although I am completely stranger to this product.

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As a seasoned Visual Studio + ReSharper user who has not been writing Android apps for long, I'm finding Android Studio far more intuitive than Eclipse. Many of the keyboard shortcuts I am used to simply work in just the same way. I was concerned that the learning curve would be steeper as there are so many more Eclipse-friendly tutorials and examples out there just now but so far I've been able to translate everything pretty easily into the Android Studio world, whenever necessary.

Had I come from a Java / Eclipse background I'm sure I would feel differently about it.

It also seems to me (at time of writing some months after other answers that mention bugs) that Android Studio is very stable and feature complete, although I'm not exactly what I'd call a Power User (yet).

Which ever platform you currently use, an hour or so spent playing with the other will probably tell you more than any number of SO answers or blog posts.

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Few advantages are:

  1. Its exclusively made for Android Platform, its not plugin.
  2. It will get platform updates quicker.
  3. Eclipse plugin development intensity will decreased slowly if not stop in coming days.
  4. Its looking really good in black theme.
  5. Emulator are looking niche.
Mrityunjay
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