Regarding what to choose - I don’t claim to have the truth, but if you’re learning, use what you like. On small projects it doesn’t matter; there are no tasks there for which something from the paid software arsenal would play a decisive role.
There are two more questions that go alongside the question of what to choose.
Why pay for PyCharm if VSCode is free? If a junior’s base salary is $1000, and PyCharm costs $6.5, which is cheaper than most other subscriptions but saves time, won’t the savings in money be greater?
Another point is that usually this amount is compensated by the company or they provide a license. One of the two was present in all companies where I worked.
Another point: if you believe that you shouldn’t pay for software, then where do you want to work and write code for money if code should be free? 😂
How does PyCharm surpass VSCode? This is the second question that goes alongside. No offense, but such a question doesn’t come from developers with real experience. Because PyCharm out of the box provides:
- Downloading drivers for any database out of the box and interface for connecting to them
- Interfaces for podman and docker, also out of the box. And actually this isn’t even the main thing I like PyCharm for
- Interface for working with git and history - those who understand, understand
- Refactoring tools, such as automatic transfers of related code
- Search that allows finding not only by text but also by object relationship based on usage analysis
- Automatic imports
- And most importantly, interfaces for debugging and testing, the thoughtfulness of which can only be understood in comparison. I’m not even talking about things like class inheritance tree and automatic port forwarding
And it’s not a matter of choice - you don’t have to choose one. No one forbids using both, depending on which is better in your opinion. Just as you don’t have to choose between iOS, Linux, and Windows - you can take two of them, or all three, and switch between them depending on the task.
In general, as a conclusion, my position is that you need to be a professional, not a fan, and hammer nails with a hammer, not with your favorite microscope.