I don't know, I don't use intelliJ and I don't want to pay for webstorm. Somebody else probably knows.
Anyway I like how low-memory-on-the-disk and low RAM usage VScode is, so I probably wouldn't enjoy intelliJ and webstorm for those reasons. I felt like even sublime was too bulky for me. Maybe they're good for other people and that's fine, but vscode just ticks all the right boxes.
Well, then it's kind of a far stretch to claim vscode debugging is better than ANY other solution if you haven't tried them all. Not even the most popular once like webstorm.
Out of curiosity, what is the reason, you don't want to pay?
Is it your financial restriction or that there is something philosophical about sticking with free stuff whenever possible?
Once you figure that if anything makes your days better by spending $10 or so a month, not choosing the best tool for the job sounds simply dumb.
I have a friend who sticks with plain vim uncustomized because he doesn't want to deviate from the default in fear of not being able to seamlessly use other environment sounds utterly stupid wasting productivity for 99% of the time being on his own machine.
I'm all about paying for things that add value - I haven't been convinced webstorm will add value.
I am very fortunate in my means right now, but I come from a poor family, and spending money is emotionally trying for me. I gain pleasure from pushing my monthly expenses down as tight as I can. It seems melodramatic but paying for webstorm might just stress me out - I'd constantly feel a need to justify it, like when I tried subbing to World of Warcraft - I'd catch myself calculating fun per dollar. Euck.
Anyway I'm a simple front end dev so I don't think it's necessary for now. As I branch out into Python perhaps Webstorm's tools will add tremendous value, I have seen some cool stuff but I just don't need it for now.
I find them to be very complimentary. I switch between VSCode (for writing, code editing) and PHPStorm (refactoring, debugging). Beyond webdev, VSCode offers excellent Markdown support. With auto-previews, custom styles, and many great extensions, it's worth installing just for the Markdown support alone. https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/languages/markdown
