JetBrains, the make of some of the most popular development IDEs, announced it is making Rider available for free for non-commercial use.

JetBrains has a long history of creating development tools for a variety of languages. The company also invented the Kotlin programming language, which is replacing Java as the preferred language for creating Android applications.

The company has been making some of its newest IDEs available for free, beginning with RustRover and Aqua earlier this year. The company says it is expanding that to include Rider and WebStorm. Rider is used for .NET development, while WebStore is used for JavaScript and TypeScript.

Earlier this year, we implemented a new licensing model for our recently introduced IDEs, RustRover and Aqua, making them free for non-commercial use. We’re now extending this model to WebStorm and Rider. If you’re using these IDEs for non-commercial purposes, such as learning, open-source project development, content creation, or hobby development, you can now do so for free.

For commercial projects, nothing will change – our existing licensing remains in place. Other JetBrains IDEs are not affected by this update, either. We’ll evaluate the outcomes of this free non-commercial licensing initiative to see if it can be expanded.

JetBrains says it wants to make its tools more approachable and investigated a number of different approaches. Given the monolithic nature of the company’s IDEs, creating an entirely separate community edition was ruled out as an option, as it would have created a subpar experience. Instead, the company chose to offer the IDEs for free for non-commercial use, picking WebStorm and Rider for their specific appeal.

According to various surveys like Stack Overflow, 68% of developers code outside of work as a hobby, and nearly 40% for professional growth or self-paced learning. This share is even higher for game and web development. For example, game developers often begin their careers by creating games as a hobby, using free game engines. This inspired our choice to apply the new licensing model to WebStorm and Rider.

The company does include some restrictions, but they are fairly reasonable for a free product.

As defined in the Toolbox Subscription Agreement for Non-Commercial Use, commercial products are products distributed or made available for a fee or used as part of your business activity. However, there are certain categories excluded explicitly from this definition. Common examples of non-commercial cases include learning and self-education, any form of content creation, open-source code, and hobby development.

It’s important to note that, if you’re using a non-commercial license, you cannot opt out of the collection of anonymous usage statistics. We use this information to improve our products. The data we collect is exclusively that of anonymous feature usages of our IDEs. It is focused on what actions are performed and what types of functionality of the IDE are used. We do not collect any other data. This is similar to our Early Access Program (EAP) and is in compliance with our Privacy Policy.

JetBrains’ latest move is a good one for developers and the company, and will likely help broaden the company’s audience.