Top 30 Best IDEs and Compilers for C/C++

If you’re interested in learning to program in C/C++ you’ll find this list of C/C++ Compilers handy. Here I have list of Top 30 Best IDEs and Compilers for C / C++. Most of these compilers do C++ and C. Just rename the files to have .c for C Programs and .cpp for C++ programs extensions. Below is the list of some best and free C/C++ compilers and IDEs for Computer Programmers.

List of 10 best and free C/C++ compilers and IDEs for Programmers

1)      Eclipse: Eclipse IDE refers to an open source utility that offers some advanced functionality for C/C++ programmers. First of all, it has some impressive features such as syntax highlighting, debugger and auto code completion. No doubt, Eclipse IDE is supported on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. In addition, Eclipse IDE also makes coding simpler for new programmers. Of course, you will need Java Run time environment to compile your C/C++ Programs on your PC.
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2)      NetBeans: NetBeans is another advance open source IDE with features such as semantic highlighting, automatic formatting braces matching, unit testing, code assistance and much more.
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3)      Code::Blocks: Code::blocks refers to an open source, cross platform and extensible IDE for c++. The best feature of this C++ IDE is that as per on your need, it can be extended with the help of available plugins.
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4)      Digital Mars: Digital Mars is another free C/C++ compiler having command line and GUI versions. And, Digital Mars features a fast compile and link time. To download Digital Mars C/C++ compiler check the link below.
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5)      C Free: C free is a superb alternative for traditional turbo c compiler. It is a small C IDE with some brilliant features. However, C free is not a free IDE, still it can be used for 30 days for free.
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6)      Sky IDE: Sky IDE is a multi-compiler, multi-view, multi- project and multi-profile free C++ IDE. Of course, Sky IDE also supports various other languages such as Java, PHP and JavaScript. In addition, Sky IDE also has powerful text manipulation, Syntax coloring, auto complete, line tracker functions.
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7)      Dev C++ : Dev C++ makes use of MinGW port of GCC as its compiler. Dev C++ also supports C language, and its feature includes the GCC based compiler, auto code completion, syntax highlighting, project manager and print support.
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8)      CodeLite: Like Code::Blocks C++ IDE, Codelite is also an open source, cross platform IDE for C/C++ Programming languages. Codelite can work on different Operating systems such as Windows, Linux and Mac OS.
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9)      MinGW: MinGW compilers provide a group of programming tools suitable for native windows applications. MinGW comprises a port of GCC (GNU) such as C, C++, ADA and Fortran Compilers. It’s an open source compiler.
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10)  Ultimate++ : U++ is a cross platform RAD IDE that focuses on c++ programmers productivity. It features a set of libraries such as GUI and SQL. U++ works with GCC, Visual C++ and MinGW.
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List of 10 Free and Best IDEs and Compilers for C / C++

11)  Microsoft Visual Studio Express for Windows Desktop: Not everyone likes Microsoft, but there’s no denying that they do provide very good code with an excellent IDE. It needs.NET and Windows 7 or later though you can compile for win 32, (no MFC) with the C++ part as well as VB.NET/C#. It requires free registration.
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12)  Open Watcom: Getting a bit long in the tooth and the IDE isn’t great but runs on Windows 2000 (probably 98) as well as newer Windows.
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13)  GCC: The classic open source C compiler for Linux and many other operating systems (and Windows under Cygwin or Ming), a project that has been around forever. Excellent open-source quality software. It doesn’t come with an IDE (which are usually platform dependent), but there are loads out there, eg, Mono-Develop on Linux.
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14)  Digital Mars C/C++ Compiler: Their IDE costs ($42.55) but the Basic C/C++ Win 32 compiler is free.
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15)  Xcode: This is for Apple Macs and is their version of GCC but purely for Apple’s own Mac OS Operating System. It has excellent documentation and SDKs for Mac and iPhone. If you have a Mac, this is what you use.
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16)  Tiny C – Compiler: TinyCC (aka TCC) is a small, fast C compiler that is meant to be self-relying: you do not need an external assembler or linker because TCC does that for you. With the aid of another library, it can be used as a back-end code generator. TCC compiles so fast that even for big projects Make-files may not be necessary.
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17)  Portable C Compiler: Developed from one of the earliest C Compilers, and at the start of the 80s most c compilers were based on it. Portability was designed into it from the start in contrast to Dennis Ritchie’s C compiler which was very hardware dependent. It’s now being developed to be C99 compatible.
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18)  Failsafe C: A Japanese project from the Research Team for Software Security at the Research Center for Information Security (RCIS), National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), JAPAN, this version of C for Linux supports over 500 functions (not C99 or Widechar). It provides complete protection against memory block over-boundary accesses making it as safe as Java and C#.
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19)  Pelles C: This is a free development kit for Windows and Windows Mobile containing an optimizing C compiler, a macro assembler, a linker, a resource compiler, a message compiler, a make utility and installs builders for both Windows and Windows Mobile. It also has an IDE with project management, debugger, source code editor and resource editors for dialogues, menus, string tables, accelerator tables, bitmaps, icons, cursors, animated cursors, animation videos (AVI’s without sound), versions and XP manifests.
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20)  CC65: It is an open source cross development package for 65(C)02 systems, including a powerful macro assembler, a C compiler, linker, librarian and several other tools. It includes support for the GEOS operating system for the Commodore (C64, C128, C16, C116 and Plus/4, P500, 600/700) family of computers, the Apple, the Atari 8bit machines, the Oric Atmos, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), the Supervision Game Console and the Atari Lynx Console.
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21)  LCC: This is a retargetable compiler for Standard C. It generates code for the ALPHA, SPARC, MIPS R3000, and Intel x86 and its successors. It’s been compiling production programs since 1988 and used by hundreds of C programmers. Addison-Wesley published a book about it, documenting how it works back in 1995 that you can still buy.
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22)  SDCC: This is also re-targetable, and optimising ANSI – C compiler targeting the Intel 8051, Maxim 80DS390, Zilog Z80 and the Motorola 68HC08 based MCUs. It can add inline assembler code anywhere in a function, as well reporting on the complexity of a function to help decide what should be re-written in assembler and comes with the source level debugger SDCDB.
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23)  Borland C++ 5.5: Borland is only an 8.5 MB download. It includes the compiler bcc32, 32-bit linker (tlink32), Borland Resource Compiler / Binder (brc32, brcc32), C++ Win32 Preprocessor (cpp32) and a few other utilities for importing definitions from libraries, and about DLLs, exes plus a .hlp file.
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24)  nesC: nesC is an extension to the C programming language designed to embody the structuring concepts and execution model of TinyOS. TinyOS is an event-driven operating system designed for sensor network nodes that have very limited resources (e.g., 8K bytes of program memory, 512 bytes of RAM).
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25)  CC386: It is a free Win-32 C compiler, which supports C99 (or will do soon). CC386 has been put together by David Lindauer over eight years and includes the source code for the compiler and tools. It also includes an IDE which provides compilation, editing and debugging. A very impressive achievement for one individual.
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26)  SubC: Subc is a fast, simple public domain compiler for a clean subset of the C programming language on Linux, FreeBSD and Windows platforms. It can compile itself and is the subject of a book “PRACTICAL COMPILER CONSTRUCTION” explaining the anatomy of a C Compiler.
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These were few best IDEs and Compilers for C/C++ that I could collect. Among all these, I use Dev C++ for my daily tasks in C and C++. Let me know which one do you use. And leave a comment below if you find some broken links.