When you're writing Arduino code for your ESP32, you're likely use the Arduino IDE. And while it is a great tool for beginning users, it lacks some more advanced features that are really nice to have.

PlatformIO is an alternative to the Arduino IDE that includes additional features such as:

• A built-in dependency management system (they now have over 7000 libraries!)
• Support for 33 different types of microcontrollers (Arduino boards, ESP32, ESP8266, Atmel, Nordic, STM32 ...)
• Support for multiple frameworks such as Arduino and esp-idf.

One important thing to note: PlatformIO is not an IDE! Instead, it's a plugin that you have to install in your IDE of choice. They support Visual Studio Code, Atom, Cloud9, Eclipse, Emacs, NetBeans, Sublime Text, and they even support Vim!

Useful links

• PlatformIO Homepage: https://platformio.org