How to download CLion for Free

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Whether you are starting C Programming now and want to try a new IDE, or you are shifting from an IDE like CodeBlocks, you might want to give CLion a shot. And yes, Even though CLion gives a 30 day trial for normal users, if you are a Student or a Teacher, I’ll tell you exactly how to download CLion Full Version for Free for 1 year.

If you have done some C programming, you’ve probably used CodeBlocks as a starter. But then you realize you need a more powerful tool. That’s when CLion shows its colours.

Registering for an Educational License at JetBrains

Visit the link https://www.jetbrains.com/community/education/#students to register for a license.
Click Apply now

You can apply for a license using several methods, but we’ll go on with the email method because that’s really easy.

Select UNIVERSITY EMAIL ADDRESS for the Apply with: field.
Click Apply now
Fill the form with your appropriate details.

Remember to use the email address given to you by your university in the Email address: field

Now happily click on APPLY FOR FREE PRODUCTS

If you have successfully completed those steps, you should receive an email to your email address given to you by the university. The email will have the subject JetBrains Educational Pack confirmation

Click on follow this link

Your license in now activated. But there’s one more step before you can enjoy a whole year of CLion.

Creating a JetBrains Account

On the JetBrains website, in the Sign Up section, enter an email (preferably your frequently using email like Gmail)
Check your mail (Gmail) for a message with subject Complete your account registration
Click on Confirm your account

Then you are taken to another page at JetBrains website, where you have enter some information.

Fill in the form with appropriate details
Enter a username and a password that you remember (We’ll be using these to activate our CLion installation)
Once you are done, click Submit

Now all that out of the way, let’s download CLion.

Downloading CLion

Visit https://www.jetbrains.com/clion/download/#section=windows and download CLion .exe (for windows)
While that downloads (roughly 140MB), grab a cup of tea. You deserve it for doing all those licensing stuff.

Installing CLion

Install CLion like you would install any other windows program (double click downloaded .exe)
All the default settings should do just fine.

Activating CLion installation

Run the CLion installation
Accept the user agreement
You can either turn on or off the data sharing (You can help CLion developers by turning it on)
Skip remaining and Set defaults would be just fine
In the activation page, select JB Account (Stands for JetBrains Account – which we created earlier with your Gmail)
Enter that earlier entered username (or email) and password
Click Activate

Why CLion instead of CodeBlocks?

Code completion
Greate colour coding
Easily set breakpoints
Show unused code snippets in grey
And much more which are mentioned at https://www.jetbrains.com/clion/features/

Conclusion

That’s it! That’s how to download and install CLion full version for free. Now you’ve got a CLion installation that would be free for 1 whole year. Congratulations! Start writing C (or C++) for that matter.

JetBrains give away not only CLion, but a whole other range of their products under this license. Check them out at https://www.jetbrains.com/community/education/#students