JetBrains Makes WebStorm and Rider Free for Non‑Commercial Use – Activation Guide and Details

JetBrains, the well‑known creator of a wide range of development IDEs, recently announced that its WebStorm and Rider products are now free for non‑commercial use.

WebStorm is a powerful JavaScript/TypeScript IDE widely used in front‑end and mobile development, while Rider is a popular .NET and game development IDE.

The official website now displays a “Free for non‑commercial use” label for both products, reflecting the new licensing policy.

Non‑commercial use is defined to include learning, self‑education, open‑source project development, content creation, and hobbyist development.

To obtain the free license, users must download a version that supports the non‑commercial license (Rider ≥ 2024.2.7, WebStorm ≥ 2024.2.4), install the IDE, select the “Non‑Commercial Use” option in the license dialog, sign in with a JetBrains account, and accept the subscription agreement.

Two important notes accompany the free license: first, the IDE may send telemetry data to JetBrains (such as framework usage, file templates, and feature interactions) but will not include personal data; second, while most features remain identical to the paid version, some functionalities—like the Code With Me feature—are limited to the Community edition.

Overall, the policy reduces the cost barrier for developers, encouraging more people to learn programming, contribute to open‑source projects, and advance technology.

The announcement also sparks speculation about whether other JetBrains IDEs such as IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, and CLion will follow suit.