How to Install IntelliJ IDEA on Ubuntu 21.04
IntelliJ IDEA is an intelligent, context-aware IDE for working with Java and other JVM languages like Kotlin, Scala, and Groovy on all sorts of applications. It is developed by JetBrains and is available as an Apache 2 Licensed community edition, and in a proprietary commercial edition. Both can be used for commercial development.
IntelliJ IDEA’s Features:
- IntelliJ IDEA is a cross-platform IDE that provides consistent experience on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
- It supported many languages: Java, Kotlin, Scala, Groovy, …
- It has many plugins that can help you improve productivity.
- It provided intelligent code completion
- You can run, debug, test your code on IntelliJ IDEA
- And many others Features
In this post, I will help you to install IntelliJ IDEA on Ubuntu. It has many ways, but this post will introduce some easiest guide. Let go.
Option 1: Install IntelliJ IDEA from the Software Center Ubuntu
If you are using Ubuntu, I think Software Center Ubuntu should be your first choice. Because it contains many packages (also IntelliJ IDEA), and you can install them very easily.
- You need to open Software Center from your Ubuntu to install JetBrains’s product
- You just have to search IntelliJ IDEA and it will show the possible results.
- Choose the version you want to install on your Ubuntu 21.04 and click the Install button.
Option 2: Install IntelliJ IDEA in Linux using Snap packages
Snaps are containerised software packages that are simple to create and install. They auto-update and are safe to run. And because they bundle their dependencies, they work on all major Linux systems without modification.
- Make sure that you have installed Snap on your Linux distribution.
If you don’t know how to install it, follow: Installing snap on Linux - Choose a version of IntelliJ IDEA to install on Linux.
IntelliJ IDEA's version Installation Steps Free Version sudo snap install intellij-idea-ultimate --classic Ultimate Version sudo snap install intellij-idea-ultimate --classic Educational Version sudo snap install intellij-idea-ultimate --classic
Option 3: Install using the Toolbox App
The JetBrains Toolbox App is the recommended tool to install JetBrains products. You can use it to manage and install different products, including Early Access Program (EAP) and Nightly releases, update and roll back when you need, and easily remove any tool. The Toolbox App maintains a list of all your projects to quickly open any project in the right IDE and version.
To install IntelliJ IDEA using the Toolbox App, please follow:
- Download the
*.tar.gz
from the Toolbox App - Extract the downloaded file to
/opt
to execute JetBrains Toolbox Appsudo tar -xzf jetbrains-toolbox-*****.tar.gz -C /opt
- Execute this command from
/opt/jetbrains-toolbox-***
directory to run App./jetbrains-toolbox

After running the Toolbox App, it will automatically add the Toolbox App icon to the main menu. Next, choose any IntelliJ IDEA’s version to install on your Ubuntu.
Option 4: Install IntelliJ IDEA on Ubuntu using PPA
Personal Package Archives (PPAs) are software repositories designed for Ubuntu users and are easier to install than other third-party repositories. PPAs are often used to distribute pre-release software so that it can be tested.
- You have to open your Terminal Emulator
- Add the official
mmk2410’s ppa
to your Ubuntu:sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mmk2410/intellij-idea-community sudo apt update
- You can install IntelliJ IDEA on your Ubuntu now
sudo apt install intellij-idea-community
Note: only the Community version is available via this PPA, so if you want to install other versions, please consider other ways in this post to install.
To uninstall IntelliJ installed from the above PPA, use these Linux’s commands:
sudo apt remove intellij-idea-community
sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:mmk2410/intellij-idea-community
Option 5: Install IntelliJ IDEA from Source using Ubuntu
Although, install IntelliJ IDEA on Ubuntu from the source is a little difficult, but you can download the latest version of one, which means there will have more features.
So to install, you should follow:
- Go to Jetbrain's Download Center
Choose Linux, and download the version you want to install - Extract the downloaded files to
/opt
directory by running this command:sudo tar -xzf ideaIU.tar.gz -C /opt
- Execute the
idea.sh
script from the extracted directory to run IntelliJ IDEA.
Conclusion
I hope this post helped you to install IntelliJ IDEA on Ubuntu and other Linux distributions. If you need to ask any questions, feel free to contact me :)