What IDE for Spring Framework web application?

Question

in our company we are switching to Java. We want to develop Web Applications using the Spring Framework. We had 4 days of training where the trainer showed us Java using the Springsource Tool Suite which is based on Eclipse. However i have used previously NetBeans for developing PHP applications.

What do i lose using NetBeans 7.0 compared to using Springsource Tool Suite 2.7.0? Is it really worth developing Spring Framework Web Applications using the dedicated Springsource Tool Suite with having in mind that we are novice in Java?

UPDATE To provide more information: we want to use the following technologies: - Spring Framework 3 - JPA (Hibernate) - Apache Wicket - Maven

Answer 1

STS has built in Spring refactoring facility - one among a variety of reasons why STS is the preferred choice for spring development. So for example, you were changing the bean names, the STS will automatically update the bean definition XML files.

I personally prefer eclipse over Intellij Idea; since eclipse is more lightweight than IDEA. Since STS is built on top of eclipse, that makes STS my preference too.

All the spring tutorials and examples by springsource are in STS.

STS is free whereas IDEA is not. I haven't used Netbeans though.