CLion turns 10 this year, and we’re planning to make it a year to remember. We kicked things off in 2025.1 with improvements to the CLion Nova language engine, along with updates for debugging, embedded development, and project formats. And now, we have one more change to announce – we’re making CLion free for non-commercial use!
The IDE is now free for non-commercial use, following a similar model implemented for WebStorm, Rider, and RustRover. This change aims to make CLion more accessible to students, hobbyists, and open-source contributors, allowing them to learn and explore without the burden of licensing fees.
Non-commercial use includes personal projects, learning, and content creation, while commercial use still requires the standard licensing.
Previously, CLion's Docker toolchain only allowed you to work with containers locally. In this release, we've added support for a remote Docker toolchain, allowing you to work with remote containers via an SSH connection.
To configure your remote Docker toolchain:
For this release, we've simplified the configuration of Qt renderers by removing the need to download them. They're now bundled and enabled by default. This allows you to debug a Qt application and instantly view variables in a human-readable form.
If you don't need Qt renderers, you can disable them in Settings | Build, Execution, Deployment | Debugger | Data Views | C/C++ | Renderers.
To learn more about other updates in the 2025.1 release, read our blog post.