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    Microsoft Visual Studio Alternatives

    Microsoft Visual Studio is described as 'integrated development environment (IDE) from Microsoft. It is used to develop computer programs for Microsoft Windows, as well as web sites, web applications and web services' and is a leading IDE in the Development category. There are more than 100 alternatives to Microsoft Visual Studio for a variety of platforms, including Windows, Linux, Mac, BSD and Online / Web-based. Most alternatives are IDEs and Code Editors. The best alternative is Eclipse, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like Microsoft Visual Studio are MonoDevelop (Free, Open Source), Apache NetBeans (Free, Open Source), Code::Blocks (Free, Open Source) and VSCodium (Free, Open Source).

    This page was last updated Apr 21, 2021
    1. Eclipse is an extensible development platform with runtimes and application frameworks for building, deploying and managing software across the entire software lifecycle.
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      Eclipse vs Microsoft Visual Studio opinions
      Almost everyone thinks Eclipse is a great alternative to Microsoft Visual Studio.
      Eclipse supports multiple languages, looks good too
      Positive comment • about 3 years ago

      9
      One is for Java and the other is for C#
      Negative comment • over 5 years ago

      -37
    2. MonoDevelop enables developers to write desktop and web applications on Linux, Windows and Mac OS X. It also makes it easy to port .NET applications created with Visual Studio to Linux and Mac OS X maintaining a single code base for all platforms.

      Discontinued

      As of October 2021, the GitHub repository README has been updated to say "This project has not been built nor maintained since January 2020 and has been archived".

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      MonoDevelop vs Microsoft Visual Studio opinions
      Most users think MonoDevelop is a great alternative to Microsoft Visual Studio.
      It is specifically for C# like Visual Studio is mostly used for
      Top positive comment  about 5 years ago

      5
      I've used MonoDevelop extensively for C# work in Linux. It can work with Visual Studio projects, and much of the shortcut key mappings match Visual Studio. Support for WinForms is available, but there is no viable GUI layout tool/functionality available. A pity that there's no XAML/WPF support under Linux....
      Top positive comment  over 4 years ago

      5
      Has to be built from source before it'll run on Windows.
      Top negative comment  about 2 years ago

      8
      It provides not only the most similar interface but also the most similar tools
      Positive comment • over 1 year ago

      -2
      Monodevelop, even though only for .NET languages (as far as i know) is probably the closest to Visual studio I have tried. Also, GTK# is awesome!
      Positive comment • over 1 year ago

      2
      .NET functionality, good code recommendations
      Positive comment • over 2 years ago

      0
    4. Development Environment, Tooling Platform and Application Framework.

      Discontinued

      Python plugin for NetBeans (nbPython) has been discontinued since v8.1

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      Apache NetBeans vs Microsoft Visual Studio opinions
      Most users think Apache NetBeans is a great alternative to Microsoft Visual Studio.
      bigbear NetBeans is an IDE, but it doesn't work for .NET languages so it's hard to call it a viable alternative.
      Negative comment • about 3 years ago

      5
      brandomettout Free and Open Source Software. Changing leadership from Oracle to Apache Foundation.
      Positive comment • over 4 years ago

      1
      It's for MS-Windows, MacOSX and Linux too! You can make projects independent of the OS.
      Positive comment • almost 5 years ago

      -2
    5. Code::Blocks is a free C++ IDE built to meet the most demanding needs of its users. It is designed to be very extensible and fully configurable. An IDE with all the features a developer need, having a consistent look, feel and operation across platforms.
      Code::Blocks vs Microsoft Visual Studio opinions
      Most users think Code::Blocks is a great alternative to Microsoft Visual Studio.
      Code::Blocks has 0.1% of the functionality of VS. It looks ugly as well.
      Negative comment • over 1 year ago

      -1
      DayOS It is faster than VS and the plugins make it a little better, but it doesn't look as good visually.
      Positive comment • about 1 year ago

      -1
    6. This repository contains a build file to generate FLOSS release binaries of Microsoft's Code - OSS (vscode) project, the open source core of the proprietary Visual Studio Code.
      VSCodium vs Microsoft Visual Studio opinions
      pros, cons and recent comments
      its the same but without the useless features that cause more harm than good
      Positive comment • about 1 year ago

      1
    8. Qt Creator is a cross-platform C++, JavaScript and QML integrated development environment which is part of the SDK for the Qt Framework.
      Qt Creator vs Microsoft Visual Studio opinions
      Almost everyone thinks Qt Creator is a great alternative to Microsoft Visual Studio.
      Found everything in Qt Creator for Linux that is in VS for Windows.
      Top positive comment  about 5 years ago

      2
      For C++ development, QT Creator is a lot less bloated. It is fast and has all the necessary features. There is just too much unnecessary crap in VisualStudio making it slow as hell when running on a slightly older machine and also takes up gigs of disk space.
      Top positive comment  over 5 years ago

      3
      It has A lot of really use full tools and you can install many extensions and even support for other programming languages then python,c++ etc
      Positive comment • almost 2 years ago

      1
      ichimitch Does not support C# as they believe "it is not widely used enough" pfft
      Negative comment • almost 3 years ago

      -5
      At first, intelligent search ib QtCreator is much better than the Microsoft's IntelliSens. Hot keys combinations are more simple and more intuitive. It looks for me more simple and intuitively clear at all.
      Positive comment • about 5 years ago

      3
    9. #develop (short for SharpDevelop) is a free IDE for C#, VB.NET and Boo projects on Microsoft's .NET platform. It is open-source, and you can download both sourcecode and executables.

      Discontinued

      Unfortunately SharpDevelop has been discontinued. It is still a viable alternative for VS for versions until 2016, but it doesn't support C# 7.0 as VS 2017 does. See details: http://www.icsharpcode.net/OpenSource/SD/WhatsNew.aspx

      SharpDevelop vs Microsoft Visual Studio opinions
      Almost everyone thinks SharpDevelop is a great alternative to Microsoft Visual Studio.
      It's very similar to it and size is very low! { Visual Studio - up to 3 GB / sharp Develop - Only Up to 15 MB in size }
      Top positive comment  over 5 years ago

      5
      lordunknown It's small, lightweight, specialized on .NET development (but C++ is available too), supports designing both WinForms and WPF and has NuGet support. Perfect IDE for lightweight C# developing (if you don't need to handle a team of 10000 employees working on 5 big projects)
      Top positive comment  over 4 years ago

      3
      Only to a certain extent. Lacking many features and is no longer updated.
      Positive comment • about 3 years ago

      0
      free and lightweight for commercial use
      Positive comment • over 4 years ago

      0
      N0 messy azure , no complex licensing
      Positive comment • over 4 years ago

      0
      Very similar IDE for C# and VB.NET.
      Positive comment • almost 5 years ago

      0
    10. Python and Django IDE with refactorings, code completion, on-the-fly code analysis and other features, including version control integration, deployment, integration with issue trackers, and remote debugging.
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      Some users think PyCharm is a great alternative to Microsoft Visual Studio, some don't.
    11. IntelliJ IDEA is an integrated development environment (IDE) written in Java for developing computer software. It is developed by JetBrains, and is available as an Apache 2 Licensed community edition, and in a proprietary commercial edition.
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      IntelliJ IDEA vs Microsoft Visual Studio opinions
      This alternative is disputed. IntelliJ IDEA is still a legitimate alternative to Microsoft Visual Studio, but it might have issues that some users think are important.
      This is only designed for Java not .net.
      Negative comment • about 4 years ago

      10
    12. Lazarus is a cross-platform IDE for the Free Pascal compiler. It tries to offer a Delphi-like programming experience through its own 'Lazarus Component Library' and supporting many platforms like Windows, OSX, Linux, BSD, Android, iOS and more.
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      Lazarus vs Microsoft Visual Studio opinions
      Most users think Lazarus is a great alternative to Microsoft Visual Studio.
      Open Source done entirely in an independent language very like TurboPascal (Delphi).
      Positive comment • about 5 years ago

      4
      Because of license agreement, you can create unlimited codes by using Lazarus but VS has limits in license agreement
      Positive comment • over 1 year ago

      1
      I like Lazarus and Free Pascal
      Positive comment • about 4 years ago

      0
    Showing 10 of 103 alternatives