Free Microsoft Visual Studio Alternatives

    The best free alternative to Microsoft Visual Studio is Eclipse, which is both free and Open Source. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 100 alternatives to Microsoft Visual Studio and loads of them is free so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting free alternatives to Microsoft Visual Studio are MonoDevelop (Free, Open Source), Apache NetBeans (Free, Open Source), Code::Blocks (Free, Open Source) and Qt Creator (Free, Open Source).

    The list of alternatives was last updated Jun 11, 2021
    Microsoft Visual Studio info, screenshots & reviewsAlternatives to Microsoft Visual Studio
    • 105 alternatives
    •  76 showing

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Mac
    • BSD
    • Online
    • Android
    • iPhone
    • iPad
    • Self-Hosted
    • Software as a Service (SaaS)
    • .NET Framework
    • Chrome OS
    • Android Tablet
    • Windows Mobile
    • PortableApps.com
    • Xamarin Studio
    • Electron / Atom Shell
    • Visual Studio Code
    • IntelliJ IDEA
    • KDE

    Features

    • IDE
    • C++
    • Rad
    • Java
    • Code completion
    • Syntax Highlighting
    • Python
    • Compiler
    • Debugger
    • Embedded debugger
    • Autocompletion
    • Portable
    • Software developer
    • Ruby
    • Refactoring
    • Built-in Terminal
    • Automatic Indentation
    • Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
    • GUI Designer
    • Java IDE

    License

    × Clear
    • Free
    • Open Source
    • Paid
    All Filters

    • Eclipse

      Eclipse is an extensible development platform with runtimes and application frameworks for building, deploying and managing software across the entire software lifecycle. View 151 alternatives to Eclipse
      Almost everyone thinks Eclipse is a great alternative to Microsoft Visual Studio.
      • Free • Open Source
      • Mac
      • Windows
      • Linux
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      Eclipse vs Microsoft Visual Studio
      pros, cons and recent comments
      Eclipse supports multiple languages, looks good too
      Positive comment • over 2 years ago

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

      -37

    • MonoDevelop

      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. View 30 alternatives to MonoDevelop
      Most users think MonoDevelop is a great alternative to Microsoft Visual Studio.
      No screenshots yet
      • Free • Open Source
      • Mac
      • Windows
      • Linux
      • .NET Framework
      • Xamarin Studio
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      MonoDevelop vs Microsoft Visual Studio
      pros, cons and recent comments
      It is specifically for C# like Visual Studio is mostly used for
      Top positive comment  over 4 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 3 years ago

      5
      Has to be built from source before it'll run on Windows.
      Top negative comment  over 1 year ago

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

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

      0

    • Apache NetBeans

      Development Environment, Tooling Platform and Application Framework. View 98 alternatives to Apache NetBeans
      Most users think Apache NetBeans is a great alternative to Microsoft Visual Studio.
      • Free • Open Source
      • Mac
      • Windows
      • Linux
      • BSD
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      Apache NetBeans vs Microsoft Visual Studio
      pros, cons and recent comments
      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 • over 2 years ago

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

      1
      It's for MS-Windows, MacOSX and Linux too! You can make projects independent of the OS.
      Positive comment • over 4 years ago

      -2

    • Code::Blocks

      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. View 59 alternatives to Code::Blocks
      Most users think Code::Blocks is a great alternative to Microsoft Visual Studio.
      • Free • Open Source
      • Windows
      • Linux
      • BSD
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      Code::Blocks vs Microsoft Visual Studio
      pros, cons and recent comments
      Code::Blocks has 0.1% of the functionality of VS. It looks ugly as well.
      Negative comment • 9 months 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 • 7 months ago

      -1

    • Qt Creator

      Qt Creator is a cross-platform C++, JavaScript and QML integrated development environment which is part of the SDK for the Qt Framework. View 131 alternatives to Qt Creator
      Almost everyone thinks Qt Creator is a great alternative to Microsoft Visual Studio.
      • Free • Open Source
      • Mac
      • Windows
      • Linux
      • BSD
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      Qt Creator vs Microsoft Visual Studio
      pros, cons and recent comments
      Found everything in Qt Creator for Linux that is in VS for Windows.
      Top positive comment  over 4 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  almost 5 years ago

      3
      ichimitch Does not support C# as they believe "it is not widely used enough" pfft
      Top negative comment  about 2 years ago

      -5
      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 • over 1 year ago

      1
      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 • over 4 years ago

      3

    • SharpDevelop

      #develop (short for SharpDevelop) is a free IDE for C#, VB.NET and Boo projects on Microsoft's .NET platform. View 28 alternatives to SharpDevelop
      Almost everyone thinks SharpDevelop is a great alternative to Microsoft Visual Studio.

      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

      • Free • Open Source
      • Windows
      • .NET Framework
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      SharpDevelop vs Microsoft Visual Studio
      pros, cons and recent comments
      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 4 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  almost 4 years ago

      3
      Only to a certain extent. Lacking many features and is no longer updated.
      Positive comment • over 2 years ago

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

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

      0
      Very similar IDE for C# and VB.NET.
      Positive comment • over 4 years ago

      0

    • VSCodium

      Binary releases of Visual Studio Code without Microsoft branding, telemetry and licensing. View 163 alternatives to VSCodium
      • Free • Open Source
      • Mac
      • Windows
      • Linux
      • Electron / Atom Shell
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      VSCodium vs Microsoft Visual Studio
      pros, cons and recent comments
      its the same but without the useless features that cause more harm than good
      Positive comment • 7 months ago

      0

    • PyCharm

      Cross-platform Python and Django IDE with on-the-fly code analysis and code quality tools, graphical debugger, VCS integration and more. View 67 alternatives to PyCharm
      Some users think PyCharm is a great alternative to Microsoft Visual Studio, some don't.
      • Freemium • Open Source
      • Mac
      • Windows
      • Linux
      • BSD
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    • IntelliJ IDEA

      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. View 48 alternatives to IntelliJ IDEA
      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.
      • Freemium • Proprietary
      • Mac
      • Windows
      • Linux
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      IntelliJ IDEA vs Microsoft Visual Studio
      pros, cons and recent comments
      This is only designed for Java not .net.
      Negative comment • over 3 years ago

      9

    • Lazarus

      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. View 27 alternatives to Lazarus
      Most users think Lazarus is a great alternative to Microsoft Visual Studio.
      • Free • Open Source
      • Mac
      • Windows
      • Linux
      • BSD
      • OpenSolaris
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      Lazarus vs Microsoft Visual Studio
      pros, cons and recent comments
      Open Source done entirely in an independent language very like TurboPascal (Delphi).
      Positive comment • over 4 years ago

      4
      Because of license agreement, you can create unlimited codes by using Lazarus but VS has limits in license agreement
      Positive comment • 11 months ago

      1
      I like Lazarus and Free Pascal
      Positive comment • over 3 years ago

      0
    Showing 10 of 76 alternatives