Visual Studio
Unleash your potential with the world's most popular IDE for the professional developer
- Also known as
- visual-studio
What is Visual Studio?
Comprehensive integrated development environment for .NET and C++ development with AI-powered assistance, integrated debugging, testing, and CI/CD integration. Available as Visual Studio IDE for Windows and macOS, plus Visual Studio Code for cross-platform web development.
Visual Studio pricing
Plans, per-tier features and add-ons, dated and linked to live pricing. Pricing changes often; always verify at source before you rely on it.
Free Community edition; subscriptions from $45/user/mo to $499.92/user/mo
Community
FreeBest comprehensive IDE for .NET and C++ developers on Windows
- Full IDE capabilities for .NET and C++ development
Professional standard
- Visual Studio Professional
- Azure DevOps (Basic plan)
- $50 Azure credit per month
- Basic dev/test software
- Training and support
Enterprise standard
- Visual Studio Enterprise
- Azure DevOps (Basic + Test plan)
- $150 Azure credit per month
- Premium dev/test software
- Extended training and support
- Power BI Pro
Professional monthly
- Visual Studio Professional
- Azure DevOps (Basic plan)
Enterprise monthly
- Visual Studio Enterprise
- Azure DevOps (Basic + Test plan)
What Visual Studio does
The capabilities that matter for ides & code editors, normalised so it lines up with every alternative. “-” means we haven't confirmed it, not that it's missing.
- Type
- Full IDE
- Language scope
- Polyglot
- Deployment
- Desktop
- OS support
- Windows, macOS, Linux
- Base platform
- Original
- Extensibility
- Extension marketplace
- LSP / DAP support
- -
- Remote / dev-containers
- -
- Integrated debugger / profiler
- ✓
- Code intelligence depth
- IDE-grade
- Built-in git integration
- ✓
- Built-in AI
- Native
- Openness
- -
- Pricing model
- -
Platform & deployment
Independently observed- macOS
- Linux
- Windows
- Self-hosted
Integrations (2)
Independently observed- GitHub
- Azure
Visual Studio alternatives
Other ides & code editors we track, ranked by the same independent score.
- TheiaThe AI-Native Theia IDE – modern, open IDE for cloud and desktoplow · 14%
- Vimthe ubiquitous text editorlow · 5%
- VSCodiumOpen Source Binaries of VS Codelow · 7%
- Visual Studio CodeThe open source AI code editorlow · 33%
- ZedYour last next editorlow · 33%
- GitHub CodespacesInstant dev environmentslow · 21%
The Vioscale score: one lens on the evidence
Not user reviews and not a paid placement: a confidence-weighted blend of the independent signals below (adoption, activity, security posture, and more), which you can sort and re-weight yourself. Vendors can correct their listing but can never move their rank, and stars are weighted low as a vanity metric. It is one way to read the evidence for Visual Studio, not the verdict.
| Signal | Score | Weight | Contribution | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing Transparency | 100 | 16.00 | 1600.0 | ✓ |
| Capabilities | 46 | 32.00 | 1466.1 | ✓ |
| Reliability | 50 | 12.00 | 600.0 | ✓ |
| Price Level | 50 | 10.00 | 500.0 | ✓ |
| Integrations | 14 | 18.00 | 247.0 | ✓ |
| Security Posture | 0 | 12.00 | 0.0 | - |
Computed . Re-weight it by intent, or see the full method.
All data & sourcesshow ↓
Every value we hold, with its source, retrieval date, and confidence. This is the evidence behind the score: don't trust it, verify it.
Features
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Capabilities | {"type":"full_ide","builtin_ai":"native","deployment":"desktop","os_support":"Windows, macOS, Linux","base_platform":"original","extensibility":"marketplace","language_scope":"polyglot","git_integration":true,"code_intelligence":"ide_grade","integrated_debugger":true} | mediumsource · 2026-08-03 · 60% |
Integrations
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Count | 2 | mediumsource · 2026-08-03 · 60% |
Pricing
Reliability
| Attribute | Value | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Status page | Yes | mediumsource · 2026-08-03 · 60% |