JetBrains discontinues Fleet IDE

JetBrains is discontinuing its Fleet IDE, stating that it could not justify maintaining two general-purpose IDEs. The JetBrains flagship IDE is IntelliJ, and Fleet did not succeed as a standalone product, the company said.

JetBrains revealed on December 8 that beginning December 22, Fleet will no longer be available for download. There will be no further updates and distribution of the IDE will end. Developers can continue using Fleet, but some features relying on server-side services, including AI Assistant, may stop working over time. Elaborating on the decision, JetBrains said rebuilding the full capabilities of IntelliJ-based IDEs inside Fleet did not produce sufficient value. Maintaining two overlapping product lines created confusion and diluted focus, said the company.

Intended to provide a lighter, architecture, a modern UI model, and flexibility, Fleet was a worthwhile experiment from both technical and design perspectives, JetBrains said. Many Fleet components now power JetBrains IDEs and several UX and UI concepts developed for Fleet were adopted throughout the JetBrains product line. But JetBrains found it could neither replace IntelliJ with Fleet nor define a differentiated niche for the Fleet IDE.

First previewed in November 2021, Fleet initially was positioned as a lightweight, multi-language IDE, then later as a an editor with smart coding assistance. JetBrains considered whether Fleet could become a second flagship IDE family alongside IntelliJ-based tools. But user feedback suggested a stronger case was needed for switching to Fleet if users already were working with IntelliJ IDEA, Rider, WebStorm, PyCharm, or other JetBrains IDEs. Initially, JetBrains explored Fleet as an AI-first editor. But after building new workflows and conducting large-scale user research, it seemed another AI editor would not stand out—particularly in a market filled with AI-first Visual Studio Code forks. The company determined the best path forward was to strengthen the AI workflows developed for Fleet in other JetBrains IDEs. This new environment will ship as a new product with a new name, but the product identity and target market may evolve, JetBrains said.